I had Thanksgiving at my in-laws in New Bedford, Mass., and one of the side dishes was French Meat Pie, a double-crust pie made with ground beef, ground pork, onion, potatoes and seasoning. I liked it, and asked them if this was something they always had at Thanksgiving. They looked bewildered that I came from a place that had no French meat pie at Thanksgiving.
So, did you have French meat pie for Thanksgiving? Do you like it?
It’s called Tourtiere in French. For us, it’s more of a Christmas thing. Never had it at Thanksgiving.
My grandfather was French-Canadian. This tradition came to us through that side of the family.
Mmmm… meat pie. I should make some. We do it with venison sometimes. Yum!
Tourtiere, nomnom! Anglophone family in Quebec, tourtiere was just one of those meals that popped up every three weeks or so in the winter months. We still did the whole turkeyvaganza for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In Australia a savory pie is no special event. Here is the web site of one pie shop chain. You can buy meat pies here at garages, hamburger shops…anywhere really. Supermarkets have frozen pies that you can take home and heat up.
So really compared to* Jester’s * Beef and Mushroom or Thai Chicken or Mexican or Tandoori Chicken or Curry Beef or Lamb and Vegies it is kind of ho hum. There is a pie shop near me that has 43 different pies on their menu. You just turn up and see what they chose to make that day.
I have never been able to understand why pies aren’t an American fast food staple like they are here. They are easy to make, more importantly easy to make **good **with a decent recipe, easy to keep, easy to serve and easy to eat once you get the knack. And they are so cool for family dinners - we used to keep everyone’s favorite pie in the freezer. You heat them in the oven and serve with mashed potato and vegetables. One of the kids liked chicken and vegetable, one liked plain mince and my wife and I liked chunky beef.