La tourtière de Simonne

Traditional tourtiere from Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean (Ready to bake)

Born in 1914, the same year that Canada entered the First World War, Simonne grew up at the end of the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean settlement period. At the age of 14, she started working as a maid for a doctor and got married at 20 to a farmer’s son, who became a merchant in her village. She had her first son in 1935 and was the mother of 9 children. The house was always busy with family, friends, employees, and trappers passing by to stock up at her husband’s store. The dinner tables were always full during meals. With the arrival of autumn, comes the harvests, the time for butchery and the hunting of different game. This is the perfect time to prepare tourtiere, meat pies, marinades and more, for the holidays coming soon. These were baked in a wood-fired oven which gives them such a unique taste. Simonne has been inspiring her family’s dinner tables for generations, and today she is the inspiration behind the tourtiere that you are about to taste. Cooked according to an ancestral recipe with cubed meat and top-quality potatoes, it is the pride of an entire region.