Excellent meat pies in Bobcaygeon !

[Fenelon]

Folks:

Just a head's-up. There is an English butcher in the little plaza beside the beer store in Bobcaygeon. Their meat pies (tortieres) are excellent. We take in our venison (they also do bear, moose, and even goose) and they make nice 4" diameter meat pies. Nice and simple - just meat, gravy with Guiness, mushrooms, and peas. No heavy spices. The pastry is good too. I believe the cost is $2 per pie when you supply the meat. They will do small batches too - eg. take them in 10 lbs. You a can buy a beef pie and try it first. They also make good venison chubs and sausage. They have venision sausage that you can try first, before committing to get a batch done.

Dave

[Bushmoose]

I'm sure they're good, but if they're made as you describe, they're not tourtiere's. Traditional tourtiere is made with pork and veal only. No gravy, no peas and no mushrooms. I should know as I was raised on the stuff with both sides of the family French Canadien.

[terrym]

Ah hah!!! Finally somebody who knows what "tourtiere" is. My mom's family comes from Chicoutimi and dad's from Quebec city. Drives me nuts when they call meat pie a tourtiere. Not even close. I won't even try to explain to them what cretons are. These guys use Aunt Jemima syrup too.....

[Fenelon]

Terry:
I dare you to go to Bobcaygeon and use the same smug, condescending tone when you correct the Irish butcher, when he calls his lovely meat pies "tortieres". Let me know when you're going, as I'd like to go and watch the entertainment ! Try one of his pies and you'll never eat a vulgar tortiere again!

[Fenelon]

Hah-hah-ha! You two need to Google "tortiere" and look at the Wikapedia definition. I almost pissed myself laughing! It says it's a "meat pie" from Quebec and it can be made with any type of meat. The most traditiional recipes are not pork, veal, or beef, but are in fact wild game. You guys have been eating meat pies (without peas) your whole lives, and thought it was something exotic! Now I'm going to find a French Canadian tortiere recipe that contains peas and mushrooms !

[Fenelon]

Quite interesting reading about the history of the dish, and how many regional variations there are for the recipe. The majority of the oldest traditional recipes are pork only, with a bit of onion, spices, and pastry. There are quite a few that are beef/pork, straight wild game, or a wild game/pork combo. Many with shredded carrot, celery, potatoes, and mushrooms. Definately no gravy, and it annoys me that I couldn't find a single old traditional recipe that called for peas! Sounds like a dry meat pie. With no gravy, what the heck do you roll your mash potatoes in ?

[Fenelon]

Re: creton - I once worked in an Abitibi-Price lumber camp north of Cochrane, and those Frenchies used to eat some pretty wild stuff at breakfast. I remember the one pot-gutted locomo operator who'd sit by the toater and pound at least 6 pieces of toast down, all lathered in a good one inch layer of "the pig grease". You could literally hear his arteries hardening as he pigged it down. He'd wash it all down with two cans of warm Carnation milk. Ten minutes later he'd be belching the crap up, and the stink would fill the truck as we all drove to the cut site. If the creton tub got left out too long in the summer, it would heat up and render the top layer of pig fat down into oil. The French loggers also used to eat a type of hot chocolate pudding with their ham and eggs. I've totally forgotten the name of that stuff.

[terrym]

You have no clue of what you are talking about. First of all a Touriere was originally made out of mixture of moose meat and "Tourtes" which are a small bird they had access to in Spring. None of the meat is ground as in a meat pie. No need to worry about gravy for your mashed potatoes as there are cubed potatoes in a Tourtiere. The meat is also cubed. These things are also quite large and while there is a crust/wrap of pastry they look nothing like a pie. The thing weighs about 20 lbs going into the oven. Typically made in a large "cocotte' style enameled pot and cooked several hours slowly. There are regional differenves one of them being what is called a "Six Pates" which is basically the same meat but additional layers of pie crust within . I don't care what your Irish buddy thinks Half my family are Quebec Irish descendants and the other half from France. Both sides have lived in and around Quebec city and the Saguenay since the mid 1700's and even my Irish side made Tourtierre like the French did. When there was left over pie dough they made sugar pies out of it. Most folks have never tried a true sugar pie either. Their loss.

[terrym]

Re: creton - I once worked in an Abitibi-Price lumber camp north of Cochrane, and those Frenchies used to eat some pretty wild stuff at breakfast. I remember the one pot-gutted locomo operator who'd sit by the toater and pound at least 6 pieces of toast down, all lathered in a good one inch layer of "the pig grease". You could literally hear his arteries hardening as he pigged it down. He'd wash it all down with two cans of warm Carnation milk. Ten minutes later he'd be belching the crap up, and the stink would fill the truck as we all drove to the cut site. If the creton tub got left out too long in the summer, it would heat up and render the top layer of pig fat down into oil. The French loggers also used to eat a type of hot chocolate pudding with their ham and eggs. I've totally forgotten the name of that stuff.

I won't even mention a dessert called Grand Pere au Sirop d'erable. Basically doughboys boiled in pure Maple Syrup. Cave your head in sweet and rich but any true Frenchman would go for seconds. My wife and inlaw's eyes start to bleed halfway though one....rookies.

[Frogger]

Dang .... you guys are making me hungry.