Tourtière with beer (French Canadian meat pie)
- Preparation 1 h
- Refrigeration 15 min
- Cooking 2 h 15 min
- Servings 12
- Freezing Absolutely
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🥧 My traditional tourtiere recipe, pushed further
There is no grandmother’s recipe behind this one, and I am not going to invent one. Classic meat pies are good, they have flavor, but I wanted to take it further. More beer, more spices, more taste. That is the whole story. I have made it many times since and I change nothing.
🍺 The beer goes in the filling, not just in the glass
Everyone else uses broth or water. I use white beer, and the meat simmers in it for a full hour, covered, until the liquid is nearly gone. I wanted a small beer flavor, a little something alcoholic sitting next to the spices, without going dark. A brown ale or a stout would flatten everything. A white beer lets the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves come through.
The rest follows the same idea. Three meats instead of one: beef, pork and veal. Russet potato grated raw, dropped straight into the hot juices for three minutes, because grated potato is the backbone of a lot of meat pies and that is how I do it. And a hit of Dijon mustard in the binder. My signature.
🎄 Two tourtières, side by side
This one really is a meat pie. Fine filling, two crusts, it cuts into clean wedges. My Lac-Saint-Jean meat pie is a different animal: thicker, cubed potato, far more meat.
There is no winner here. At Christmas you serve both, side by side, and people lose their minds over each one. To fill out the table, my turkey pie with leek, bacon and white beer and my tourtine with beef flank and duck confit play in the same league.
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🍺 Why beer replaces the broth
The filling simmers for an hour, covered, in a mix of chicken broth and white beer. That is where everything happens. I wanted a small beer flavor sitting next to the spices, without going dark. A brown ale or a stout would bury the cinnamon and the cloves. A white beer lets them breathe. No white beer in the fridge? A light blonde ale does the job.
🧂 Salt is tasted, not measured
You will not find a salt quantity in my ingredient list, and that is on purpose. You salt, you taste, you salt again, you taste again if it needs it. Put a number on it and it will be too much for one person and not enough for the next. Salt generously the moment the meat hits the pan, then correct one last time while the filling rests, before it goes into the crust. After that, it is too late.
🥔 Raw grated potato, not cubes
Plenty of recipes dice the potato, some mash it. I grate the russet raw and drop it straight into the hot juices for three to five minutes, uncovered. Grated potato is the backbone of a lot of meat pies and it is how I do it. The filling stays creamy without being wet, and you never bite into an undercooked chunk.
⏱️ Why the bottom crust does not go soggy
Some recipes tell you to chill the filling four hours before assembly. I let it rest 15 to 20 minutes off the heat and that is enough. The real work happened one step earlier: the liquid has to be almost completely evaporated after the simmer, and the grated potato drinks whatever is left. A nearly dry filling soaks nothing. A juicy one will.
🥧 The pastry, mine or the store’s
Store-bought shortcrust comes in one-kilogram packs, which lands exactly on the four rounds you need. No shame in reaching for it on December 23rd. If you have time, my shortcrust pastry holds together better and actually tastes of butter. Roll to about 10 inches for 9-inch pans so you have enough to crimp the edges.
📅 Make it ahead
You can absolutely make the filling ahead. Do the whole thing the day before, let it cool, then refrigerate it in a labelled container. On the day, warm it gently so it loosens up, assemble your two pies and bake them. What has to happen at the last minute is the assembly and the baking: a crust is meant to be eaten the day it comes out of the oven. And nothing beats a house that smells like meat pie when guests walk in.
❄️ Freeze it cooked, not raw
This one freezes cooked. Let it cool completely, wrap it tight in plastic wrap and foil, and it keeps up to four months. To reheat, put it straight in a 350°F oven covered with foil until the center is hot through, then pull the foil for the last few minutes to bring the color back to the crust. Cooked and unfrozen, it holds 3 to 5 days in the fridge.
🎄 Two tourtières, side by side
My Lac-Saint-Jean meat pie and this one are not competing. This one is a true meat pie: fine filling, two crusts, wedges. The Lac-Saint-Jean version is thicker, with cubed potato and a lot more meat. At Christmas, put both on the table. People will love them equally.
✅ What to serve with my tourtière with beer?
Ketchup is not up for debate. My homemade fruit ketchup was built for this, and it beats the red bottle ten times over. Next to it, my homemade pickled beets cut through the fat, my Boursin garlic and herb mashed potatoes turn it into a full holiday plate, and my creamy coleslaw with apples and celery bring the crunch a plate of meat pie is missing. If you like things pickled, my pickled turnips do the same work as the beets.
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Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons (60 ml) breadcrumbs
- 3 teaspoons (15 ml) Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) ground cloves
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) dried thyme
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) herbes de Provence
- 2 large onions, finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 lb (500 g) medium ground beef
- 1 lb (500 g) medium ground pork
- 1 lb (500 g) lean ground veal
- Olive oil
- 1 ¾ cup (435 ml) chicken broth
- 1 ¼ cup (310 ml) white beer
- 2 ½ cups (625 ml) russet potato, peeled and grated
- 2.2 lb (1 kg) shortcrust pastry, divided into 4
- 1 beaten egg mixed with 1 tablespoon (15 ml) milk
- Salt and ground pepper
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Preparation
- In a bowl, add breadcrumbs, Dijon mustard, spices then season with salt and pepper. Mix and reserve.
- In a large skillet heated over high heat, add onion, garlic cloves and meat followed by a drizzle of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper generously. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink. Break the meat into small pieces. Drain the fat.
- Add the spice mix, chicken broth, beer and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce to low heat and cover. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. The liquid must be almost all evaporated.
- Add the potatoes, mix and increase over medium heat. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes uncovered, stirring. The liquid should be relatively evaporated but the mixture still creamy. Remove from heat and let stand for 15 to 20 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
- On a well-floured surface, roll out the dough into four 10-inch circles. Butter two 9-inch pie pans and cover the bottom with dough.
- Divide the meat mixture into the pans and cover with remaining dough. Seal the edges and make some incisions in the center to facilitate aeration. Brush with the egg mixture.
- Place in the oven and bake for about 1 hour or until the dough is golden brown on top! Let stand 15 minutes before cutting and serving with plenty of homemade fruit ketchup.
It is a double-crust savory pie filled with seasoned ground meat and warm spices: cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. In Quebec it has been tied to the holidays for generations and it usually shows up at the Christmas Eve table. My version keeps the classic structure but the filling simmers for an hour in white beer, with a trio of beef, pork and veal instead of a single meat cooked in water.
Meat pie is a broad category. Britain, Australia and Nigeria all have their own, and they share almost nothing beyond pastry and meat. A tourtière is a specific French Canadian pie: ground meat, warm baking spices, two crusts, and a strong link to the holidays. The word originally described the baking dish itself, not the filling, and the name simply stuck to what was cooked in it.
Ground pork almost always, often with beef, sometimes veal. Onion, garlic, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. A binder, usually breadcrumbs, potato or both. Then a shortcrust top and bottom. Mine runs all three meats, adds thyme, herbes de Provence and Dijon mustard, and swaps most of the cooking liquid for white beer. Cloves stay at 1 teaspoon (5 ml): any more and they take over the pie.
Three of them, over and over. A filling that is still wet when it goes into the crust, which is what makes a soggy bottom. Too much clove, which turns the whole pie medicinal. And cutting into the pie the second it leaves the oven, before the filling has had 15 minutes to set. Under-salting is a fourth: taste the filling while it rests, because once the crust is on, you cannot fix it.
About 1 hour at 375°F (190°C), or until the crust is deep golden on top. The filling is already cooked going in, so you are baking pastry, not meat. Add the hour of simmering before that, plus 15 minutes of resting after it comes out. That rest is what lets you cut clean wedges instead of a landslide.
Tourtière is, absolutely. It comes out of French Canada and it is served across Quebec every December, with regional versions that argue with each other: the Lac-Saint-Jean one is thick and cubed, the one you find around Montreal is finer and closer to what I make here. Meat pie as a general idea belongs to a lot of countries. The tourtière belongs to this one.
Ketchup, always. My homemade fruit ketchup is the official partner of this dish in Quebec. Add my homemade pickled beets for acidity, my Boursin garlic and herb mashed potatoes if you want a real holiday plate, and my creamy coleslaw with apples and celery for crunch. Feeding a crowd? Put my Lac-Saint-Jean meat pie on the table at the same time.
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