Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Tourtière
The Québécois meat pie of the Christmas réveillon: ground pork and beef bound with mashed potato and warm spices, baked in a double crust.
Québécois · medium · serves 8
prep 40 min · cook 60 min
~583 cal · 28g protein · 35g carbs · 36g fat · 2g fiber · 1g sugars · 19g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Tourtière is the meat pie at the heart of a Québécois Christmas, traditionally served after midnight Mass on the réveillon, the long family feast that runs into the early hours. Its history reaches back to New France in the 1600s, and there is a gentle regional rivalry over how it should be made: the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean version is a deep dish of cubed meats and potato, while the everyday Montréal-area tourtière is a shallower pie of finely textured ground pork and beef.
What unites every version is the warm spicing. The combination of cinnamon, cloves, and allspice is the soul of the dish, the thing that makes a tourtière taste like a tourtière rather than a plain meat pie, and it carries the unmistakable scent of the holidays. A little mashed potato folded into the filling does quiet work, soaking up the savoury broth and binding the meat so each slice holds together.
Brown the meat well, the filling until the liquid is absorbed, and cool it before it goes into the pastry so the bottom crust stays flaky. It is served in wedges, often with ketchup, pickled beets, or a fruit chutney to cut the richness.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally nut- and egg-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
1 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground beef
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup mashed potato
1/2 cup beef (or vegetable )
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (for the pastry)
1 cup cold butter (for the pastry)
6 tbsp cold water (for the pastry)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Instructions
1
Make the pastry by cutting the cold butter into the flour and a pinch of salt until crumbly, then bringing it together with just enough cold water to form a dough. Chill while you cook the filling.
2
Cook the onion and garlic in a little fat until soft, then add the pork and beef and brown well, breaking the meat into fine pieces.
✎ Chef’s note
Do not skimp on the cinnamon, cloves, and allspice; that warm trio is exactly what makes it taste Québécois rather than like a generic meat pie.
3
Stir in the mashed potato, stock, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed. Cool the filling completely.
4
Roll out two thirds of the pastry to line a pie plate, fill with the cooled meat, and top with the remaining rolled pastry, sealing the edges and cutting steam vents.
5
Bake at 375F for about 40 to 45 minutes until deep golden brown. Rest at least 15 minutes so the filling sets, then slice and serve with ketchup or pickled beets.
Québec réveillon tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Québec. Québec cooks French-Canadian comfort, poutine, tourtière meat pie, and maple everything. Cold winters and Gallic roots shape a hearty, sugar-shack-loving table.
🗺️
Canada. Poutine's origin is contested between rural Quebec towns rather than settled, with Warwick and Drummondville both claiming it in the late 1950s and the province-wide story never resolved. What is not in question is the construction: fresh cheese curds that squeak, hot gravy poured over to soften but not melt them, and chips underneath.
🌍
North America. North America's table began with Indigenous foodways, the "three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash, plus chiles, tomatoes, and cacao, then layered on colonial, African, and immigrant influences. From Mexico's UNESCO-recognized cuisine to the Cajun and Creole pots of Louisiana and the fiery jerk of the Caribbean, the region turns ancient staples into something new. Barbecue, tacos, gumbo, and mole all carry stories of migration and adaptation.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Canada
PoutineHot fries, squeaky cheese curds, and glossy pepper gravy, rural Québec’s gift to late nights everywhere.
Nanaimo BarsA no-bake three-layer bar: coconut-crumb base, custard-cream middle, chocolate top, named for a BC harbor town.
Cretons sur Pain GrilléA Québécois spiced pork-and-onion spread, cold from the fridge, smeared thick on hot buttered toast with a smear of mustard.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Steamer, Rolling pin.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
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Montreal Smoked Meat SandwichLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Tourtière?
The Québécois meat pie of the Christmas réveillon: ground pork and beef bound with mashed potato and warm spices, baked in a double crust.
Where does Tourtière come from?
Tourtière is a Québécois dish from Québec, Canada.
Can Tourtière be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tourtière recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Tourtière safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Tourtière take to make?
About 100 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 60 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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