With Christmas Just Around The Bend, Make Sure to ServeTraditional Meat Pie During the Holidays.

Tourtiere or Meat Pie
 

Growing up in Atlantic Canada, one of my favorite memories of my childhood, was eating Meat Pie or if you are of Acadian heritage, Tourtiere. My mom would make this traditionally at Christmas. Meat pie was served after Christmas Eve Mass, all our family would gather to enjoy his holiday speciality.
When I was little, the pie was called rabbit pie as it had rabbit in it along with deer meat, beef and pork, all cooked up and shredded into fine pieces, then mixed with cooked onions and seasoned with pepper and salt. The meat mixture was then placed in a bisque dough pie crust and covered in a delicious beef gravy, with the top layer of crust placed on top and cooked in an oven of 350 degrees for about 3/4 of an hour or until the bisque crust was cooked. This depends on the size of your pie, my mom always made a large pie in a 11 X14 inch pan, and she would make lots of extra gravy to pour over the pie when it was served. I think other than the visit from Santa, this was my favorite part of Christmas. We would usually enjoy the pie and hear stories of Christmases from years gone by and usually end up by watching Scrooge on TV before being ushered off to bed.
In later years we stopped using rabbit and deer meat and substituted chicken and veal to mix with the other meat. When I was a child my father would go hunting for the deer and rabbit, but as I grew older, I couldn't bear to think of harming a rabbit or deer just to go in a pie.
Now that I have a family of my own, the meat pie is still made and served up on Christmas Eve and enjoyed just as much by my children and grandchildren. Some traditions just have to be continued.

Recipe:

1 Large beef roast  - cook in oven with onion and seasoning
1 large pork roast  - cook in oven with onion and seasoning
1 large chicken  - cook in oven with onion and seasoning.
1 pkg. of ground veal - cook in fry pan with seasoning and onions, make sure to drain any fat before adding to the other meat.
Pepper and salt to taste
2 large onions
Directions:
Cook all of the seasoned meat and onions, usually I cook the onion with the beef and the pork roasts, retaining the juice and the onions from the beef for the gravy.
When your meat is cooked, and you have started to shred the roasts and other meat, prepare your bisque dough, and place the bottom crust into your sprayed pan. When meat has cooled, shred the meat and mix together. Place the meat in the crust and cover with a good amount of the beef gravy. Cover with the top crust, cut slits in the crust and brush a little milk over the crust to give the pie a beautiful brown finish when cooked. Cook in a pre heated oven of 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes until pie crust is done. Serve the cooked pie and have a dish of beef gravy on the table for those who like extra gravy on their pie. And enjoy.
I hope with Christmas just being a couple of months away, you may want to try this dish during the holidays.