Meat Pie, more formally known as
Tourtière, is a traditional French Canadian dish served on New Years Day in the Canadian Province of Quebec and in homes in the U.S, especially New England, where French Canadian ancestry prevails. I grew up in such a home.
New Years Day at 21 Hillside Ave is special. It's part holiday (without the actual weight of a Christmas or Thanksgiving), part casual family get together (drop in if you can), part storied tradition of our forefathers (this has been going on since long before I was around), and part football and TV-table feeding frenzy. I love Meat Pie! Just the mention of it starts my mouth to watering. The flakey tan crust, the smell of cloves and turnip filling the air, the kitchen windows wet with condensation as the cold air of the new year hangs still outside the glass. Meat Pie, with it's wonderful warm filling of ground pork and mashed potatoes, or the less popular just pork version, represents New Years for me.
My folks start a couple of days ahead of time to prepare for the feast. There's Meat Pie, of course, at least the pork and potato version (I really like the ground pork only pie, but it's always less popular on the table, so Mom opts, on certain years, to refrain from making those in addition to the "regular", it is a lot of work after all. I haven't gotten word on the pie selection for this year). Let's see, there's cubed carrot salad, and cubed beet salad, there's usually cole slaw and pickles and olives, there's turnip (hot and mashed) and, of course, there's cranberry sauce (the store bought kind, jellied with the can outline still visible as it sits, in all it's can shaped splendor, on the plate. None of that crappy homemade stuff you might find on some fancy less traditional tables). So, that's the Meat Pie experience. It's all laid out on the kitchen table. Grab a paper or plastic plate and fill 'er up. It's wonderful!
A few years ago, my folks were discussing whether or not to put the old tradition to bed. It's a lot of work, making the pies and the salads (all home made, by the way), and the cost of the ingredients, and what with having just gone through a similar family gathering only a week prior.
Christmas at 21 Hillside is always a 25 or so person affair. It's just a few more people than the space was designed for, and probably well over the fire code and weight limits, especially after the meal's been consumed. This year, the gathering was held there on the Saturday following Christmas, since my Sisters are nurses and often one of them ends up working on the actual holiday, requiring a scramble to find an agreeable day for all to meet. I think it was just my Niece and Nephew that were unable to attend, and of course I here on the other side of the Atlantic (is it I or me? Hmm...). I phoned there right in the middle of the Yankee Swap and it sounded like the usual fun lively family gathering that I grew up with. I have a great family.
Anyway, back to the idea of suspending the tradition. Well, I simply would not have it! I asked Mom for the recipes and announced that I (pronounced EYE!) was going to pick up the Meat Pie gauntlet and save the holiday. I was gong to Save the Meat Pie! Well, in the end Mom and Dad came to their senses, I think they had just heard enough whining from certain individuals, who shall remain nameless, about how they didn't like Meat Pie and something about "tasting like dirt" and "couldn't you please make something else?" At least that's how I remember it, I hope I'm recalling it correctly.
So the tradition lives. In a way, I think I, and maybe even Mom, consider New Years Day, at least in a small way to be my holiday, at least that's part of the feel of it for me, I hope you'll allow me this one indulgence. I love traditions, and history, and family, and old photographs of the ancestors, and pictures of me when I was a kid growing up... in a house that serves Meat Pie, every New Years Day, without fail. It's a tradition dammit, maybe I should be doing it here. Maybe I can finally get that recipe from my Mom after all. Then again, there's no place like home, especially when there's Meat Pie in the oven.
From Augsburg Germany, Happy Meat Pie!
~B
We just watched the 2009 broadcast. Enjoy!
