Venison Meatpie

[Gerald]

Does anyone have a recipe for ground venison meat pies?. Particularly the spices used.

[Muskyhunter]

Thanks Gerald I will be watching this one.

[Fenelon]

I've been making these simple meat pies for years. They're tasty and go well with mashed potatoes. I've filled the shells also with crock-potted venison Irish stew and they are good, but it's a lot more labour intensive having to make the stew first. Here's how I make the easy one. I don't add too many spices as I prefer tasting the meat. Some people load them up with nutmeg, garlic, and way too much salt. I like to keep them plain.
I buy my pie shells and tops at National Grocer in Lindsay but I imagine places like a Costco would have them. The 5" shells come 100 to a box and come in the aluminum cups. The tops are sold separately in a box of 100 as well (pie dough circles separated by wax paper sheets) For a box of each it comes to about $85. These shells also make great mini apple or blueberry pies. We have hundreds of wild apple trees on our farm. I use up any remaining shells and make apple pies using apples from some of the better trees.

Defrost your ground venison. I do not add anything (eg. pork or fat) to my grind. I do about 25lbs of venison when I make them. Brown the venison in a fry pan, with some salt, pepper, and chopped onion. I put this now into a big stainless stock pot. I add two boxes of Campbell's beef broth. Next I'll add frozen veggies - corn, cubed carrot, and peas are what I like. I've also used fresh green beans and snap peas from our garden as well. You blanch these for 3 mins in boiling water, then immediately cool in ice water in the sink. You can add potato if you want but I'd rather max out the filling with meat and I like to eat them with potatoes on the side. If you do elect to do potatoes, chop them small and parboil them before putting them in the shells. They will go black and not freeze well if you do. I find the frozen veggies are easier and they are cheap to buy when they are on sale.
Do not simmer the pot too long as you'll make your veggies go mushy. I just stir in the frozen veggies and let the mix heat up, then let it low simmer for 10mins. I'll add a little more beef broth if it looks too dry. Then once it's simmering, add either Bisto beef gravy thickener or Robin Hood sifted gravy flour, and stir until you're happy that you have a good gravy texture. The Bisto is salty, so don't over salt your meat prior to adding the Bisto. I taste it now and add a little salt if it's bland. I also add a bit more fresh ground pepper. Now fill your shells. Spoon mix up to the rim, slap a pie shell top on top, then use the back of a fork to crimp the dough around the rim. I poke two fork holes in the roof as a steam vent . We wrap ours in the plastic lined butcher paper. They easily keep 10 months+
You bake them for one hour at 350. Break an egg into a bowl and beat the egg. Paint the tops of the pies before putting in the oven. The egg will give them a nice brown top.

[Gerald]

Thank you Fenelon. That is exactly the type of reply I was looking for. Just have to figure what spices I would like.
Keep them coming.

[Fenelon]

Google tourtier recipes and you'll see your spice options. The classic French version has just about every cupboard spice possible in it. Nutmeg, thyme, sage, oregano, allspice, cloves, cinnamon. Not a fan of it myself. Any one I've tried tasted sweet to me. I'd rather stick to salt and pepper. Buy hamburger and make a few tort recipes. See what you like then make your deer pies.

[oldtimer]

We made one just after Christmas with Fenelons tourtier recipe with 60/40 venison/ pork. Was great, leftovers the next day with some HP sause, even better.

[Gerald]

Thanks again Fenelon. Got the pie shells at National in Lindsay and we put the spices we thought we would like as well as the Bistro and simmered some homemade gravy with . Garlic, mushrooms and frozen vegetables. De-freaking-liscious. Better than the ones we used to have made at the butcher.

[Fenelon]

Yah I have to agree. I paid a fancy deli place to make pies for me one year. They cost a lot and were fancy with stilton cheese and Guiness in them. They were so salty they went into the garbage. Worst part for me was not the $150 wasted, it was the disrespect to the animal that I'd taken. 40 pounds of ground venison wasted. I've made my own ever since.