Tourtière Skillet Hash
The filling from a French Canadian meat pie, cooked in one pot and left uncrusted.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 600 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Breakfast
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried ground beef or pork | 4 oz | canned chicken also works if weight is not an issue |
|---|---|---|
| Dried hash brown potatoes | 1 1/2 cups | the shelf-stable carton kind, not frozen |
| Dried diced onion | 1/4 cup | |
| Rolled oats | 1/2 cup | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Salt | 2 tsp | |
| Ground black pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Ground allspice | 3/4 tsp | |
| Ground cinnamon | 1/2 tsp | |
| Bay leaf | 1 |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Add the meat, potatoes, onion, and bay leaf. Pull it off the flame and cover for ten minutes so everything rehydrates.
- Back on low heat. Stir in the oats, salt, pepper, allspice, and cinnamon.
- Simmer fifteen minutes, stirring often. It scorches if you walk away. Add water in small splashes if the bottom goes dry.
- When the potatoes are soft and the liquid is gone, fish out the bay leaf and pour the oil over the top. Stir and eat straight from the pot.
The original is a meat pie under hot water pastry, which is four cups of flour, a stick of butter, and an oven. None of that travels. The filling, though, is already a one-pot dish: meat, potato, onion, oats, and a short spice list simmered until dry. So the pastry is gone and the filling is the whole recipe.
The oats are the part worth keeping. They swell and bind the loose hash into something that holds on a spoon, which is the job the crust used to do. Allspice and cinnamon in a savory meat dish look like a mistake on paper; they are what makes this taste like tourtière and not like generic camp hash. Measure them, do not eyeball them.
Packing
Oats, dried onion, and all the spices go in one bag at home. Meat and potatoes ride in their own bags because they rehydrate at different rates and you want to see what you are pouring. Bay leaf tucked in the spice bag.
Variations
- A packet of instant gravy stirred in at the end thickens it further.
- Crushed crackers on top get you the crust texture without the pastry.
- Leftovers cold the next morning are fine, and better with a tortilla.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/canadian-pork-pie