Tortiere #2

If you’ve ever spent a winter in Québec, you know tourtière. It’s the meat pie that shows up at every réveillon table, every holiday gathering, every “it’s snowing again” kind of night.

This version keeps things traditional: ground pork simmered with onion, garlic, grated potato, and just enough mace and sage to perfume the kitchen without overwhelming the meat.

The raisins are the surprise. They add little pockets of sweetness that play off the savoury pork in a way that catches people off guard, in the best way.

Everything gets piled into a par-baked pie shell, sealed under a top crust, and baked until the pastry is golden and the filling bubbles through the vents.

Kitchen Tips

• Grate the potato directly into the meat mixture. It breaks down during cooking and thickens the filling naturally, so you don’t need flour or breadcrumbs.
• Cook the filling until the water is fully absorbed. Wet filling makes soggy pastry, and nobody wants that.
• Let the filling cool completely before assembling the pie. Hot filling melts the butter in your pastry dough and ruins the flaky layers.
• Cut generous vents in the top crust. Steam needs to escape or the crust gets soft and pale instead of crisp and golden.