Oh, For the Love of Meat…Pie

Not many people know this, but I am French Canadian. Most people assume I am 100 percent Italian because of my cooking style and preferences. Truth is, I am actually a “mutt.” I’m Italian, Irish, French Canadian and Portuguese.

As part of my culinary adventure, I want to explore and experience ALL of the traditional cuisine of my heritage. Sharing food, in my opinion, is the best way to experience a culture or a person’s heritage and so far I’ve had tunnel vision.

My first attempt was my Great Mémère’s meat pie. I am not a big meat-eater, but my mother, her two brothers and my boyfriend – who is also French Canadian – love it; so I thought I’d give it a try.

You hear “pie” and think it’s going to be this complex baking recipe, but this couldn’t have been any easier. You will need:

1. One box of Pillsbury unroll and fill pie crust. There are two crusts per box.

2. One large white onion

3. 2 tsp. ground All Spice

4. One cup Mashed potatoes. My family always has the Instant Garlic Mashed on hand, so I just used that. But for the natural option, approximately one or two potatoes (depending on the size) makes one cup mashed.

5. One pound ground beef

6. One pound ground pork

7. 2 tbsp cooking oil

8. 1 tsp salt

9. 1/4 tsp black pepper

10. Optional: One egg

Because my oven takes a while to heat up, my first step is to always have it preheat. In this case, to 375 degrees. While the oven was doing its thing, I began finely dicing the onion.

Onions and I don’t get along. I don’t cry when chopping them, I full-out bawl. My vision goes blurry, my eyes turn red…somtimes it’s even so bad that I can’t even be in the same room as an onion is being cut. Needless to say, this step wasn’t fun. In fact, I hated every minute of it.

I also decided to get the mashed potatoes out-of-the-way at this time. Luckily the boxed potatoes provide you with a set of instructions. But if you are using all natural potatoes, chop the potato(es) into cubes and boil until they are tender – or until you can easily stick a fork in them. Once tender, drain and mash with butter and milk.

I placed a large skillet over medium heat and sautéed the onions in the cooking oil until they were tender. An onion will usually let you know when it’s done, as it becomes transparent in color. Once they were cooked through, I placed them in a bowl and set them aside.

I browned both the beef and the pork at the same time. Because the meats weren’t frozen, it only took about twenty minutes for it to brown all the way through. Frozen meats could take double that time, depending on how thawed they are when they go in the skillet. The meat was drained and combined with the cup of potatoes, seasonings and onion.

Appealing, isn’t it?

I will admit I was willing to try this concoction up until I added the all spice. There is something about the smell of the seasoning that I just can’t get past. The best way I can describe the smell is that it is licorice-like and it tastes exactly like how it smells. I’m curious, though, if garlic powder would make for an OK substitute. Then I’d eat it.

I used a 9″ pie plate when putting this together and found that the crust fit nicely without having too much excess around the edges. I filled the pie plate with the meat mixture then covered with the second crust. The edges of the crust had to be fluted together almost as though I was baking an apple pie and I cut four air slits into the top crust.

Ready for the Oven

I beat the egg and brushed it on the top of the pie. This was the last step before sticking it in the oven. It’s optional, but helps give the crust that nice golden color. The pie only bakes for 30-35 minutes and serves between 6 – 8 people.

Look how pretty that is 🙂

I can’t tell you how it came out, since I didn’t have any. But my boyfriend loved it and my mother says it came out exactly like her Mémère’s, so I was pretty proud of myself.

This pie can be eaten with mustard, ketchup or gravy. But if you ask my uncle, the most traditional way to eat it is to lift the top crust and layer the meat with ketchup. If any of you try it, let me know how it turns out.