Written by: Avah Manu
Edited by: Sunnie Huang
Designed by: Alessa Zaitseva
Published by: Rayna Almas
At the end of December, friends, families, and even strangers come together to celebrate Christmas. As a collective, people will use the celebration as a chance to connect, showing their holiday spirit. From carolling to meeting Santa to building snowmen– this holiday never fails to bring us a joyful time. While opening presents might be most people’s favourite part of Christmas, the occasion has an even more enjoyable event to look forward to: Christmas dinner!
Sitting around a large table full of delectable delights and filling your belly with a giant, juicy turkey is surely better than receiving an XBOX that’ll become next year’s old model. In appreciation of this festivity let us explore Canadian history and review common Christmas recipes
Tourtière:
There are many different interpretations of meat pies across the globe, like Jamaican patties and Mexican empanadas. The Québécois adopted the tourtière. Tourtière is a double-crusted pastry filled with deliciously seasoned sliced beef and pork. Depending on the region, the filling is replaced with chicken or it’s layered with diced veggies and an assortment of meats or fish.
This savoury French Canadian dish originates from Québec and is known to be served during réveillon. Réveillon is a traditional feast particular to Catholic believers and is celebrated during Christmas Eve, after midnight Mass. It is especially important because for devout followers, the tourtière is made only once a year for the special event.
The creation of tourtière dates all the way back to the 1600s, when Quebec was first settled, but the first cookbook La cuisinière canadienne, which is likely the first French cookbook published in Canada for tourtière was written and released in 1840, offering the first rendition of the dish.
Ever since the rising popularity of this dish, people have put their own twists on the original recipe. While the originaltourtière features hand sliced beef (giving the pie a unique texture),now for convenience of time, people use plain old ground beef, resulting in an entirely different texture.
If you head eastward, you’ll see that the people living in the maritimes also have their own version of this French Canadian pie. It is known as Paté à la viande, traditional to the Acadian people.
Maple Pudding Chômeur:
Pudding chômeur is a sweet vanilla cake-pudding topped with a simple sauce made of brown sugar, water and flour. But wait, the title says maple pudding chômeur. Well, pudding chômeur translates to “pudding of the unemployed” in french and like the previous recipe,originates from Québéc. During the Great Depression, pudding chômeur was an easy and affordable dessert to make. Female factory workers, being low on cash, would prepare this dish with stale bread and with the sauce recipe above. However, once the economy started to improve, families replaced it with the thick and gooey sauce we all know and love – maple syrup.
Dozens of restaurants have dedicated themselves to keeping Quebec culture alive through food. La Binerie Mount-Royal is an example of a family owned bakery founded in 1938. Aside from them featuring tourtiere and jambon toupie on their menu, they also sell their own pudding chomeur. Cochon Dingue, Rôtisserie St. Hubert and many other restaurants also sell this special quebecois pudding.
These traditional dishes surpass just food, they’re also able to tie in with different cultural activities such as the art of film. A French film titled Poor Man’s Pudding was named after this sweet dessert. Director Gilles Carle wanted to produce a satirical film on the topic of poverty. He was inspired by his sovereignist friends who believe that Quebec’s independence would solve social problems such as homelessness and unemployment, hence the movie’s name.
To wrap it all up, Christmas in Canada surpasses presents and decorations; it’s a celebration of shared traditions and cherished meals that connect us to our history and communities. Whether it’s enjoying the savory bite of a tourtière after midnight mass or indulging in a rich, gooey serving of pouding chômeur, these classic dishes remind us of the stories, heritage, and love that make this time of year truly special.
Sources:
Tourtière:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/tourtiere
Christmas in Québec: the Réveillon – Great British Chefs
Meat Pie Magic: The History of Tourtière – Canadian Food Focus
Maple Pudding Chomeur:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes
https://www.tasteatlas.com/pouding-chomeur
Notre histoire — BINERIE Mont-Royal (labineriemontroyal.com)
Pudding chômeur – Film de Gilles Carle | Films du Québec (filmsquebec.com)