Summerlea United Church
225 50 Av, Lachine, Québec, H8T2T7, Canada. 514-634-2651
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Making Tourtières 2008
Posted Nov 3, 2008

Once again Summerlea's stalwart pie-makers gathered on Thursday afternoon, Friday and Saturday (starting at 5AM), October 30 and 31 and November 1, 2008 to make tourtières, using pastry made July 4th (see Pastry Making 2008), plus some pastry made in the meanwhile. In addition to the three production days, a number of afternoons and evenings were spent by Marion, Undeg, Mary, Bonnieand Janet making pastry and small pie shells. A new implement to press dough into large pie shells was received the day before tourtière manufacture began, and the quick learning curve allowed it to be used throughout the production process to make the bottoms. Tops were made by rolling pastry the old fashioned way. A crimper is provided with the implement and was used to crimp the pies uniformly. Total tourtière production was 1499 pies, including 804 small pies packaged four per box and 695 full-size pies. Previously 143 apple pies had been produced, for a total 2008 pie production of 1642 pies, in 1039 boxes. Below are some photos of the proceedings.

David Pryce mixing up meat and spices Rev. Howard Clark, Rolf Smart and David Pryce stirring meat.

Janet Smart, Bonnie McLeod, Michèle Bitauld & Helen McDowell rolling pastry.

George Provias supervising, Marg Lynn surprised and setting out small pie shells.

Undeg Edwards weighing pastry to make balls for the pie shell forming machine.

Marion Golden manipulating the pastry press Clean the mold. Place a pasty ball in the pie plate. Cover with Saran wrap.

Press. Et voilà! A pie shell.

Marion, Undeg & Ruth filling small pie shells (made previously), while checking the weight to ensure that all (804!) weigh the same.

Mary Guynan, Peter Maklan, Janet Smart, Lewis Guynan

Windows open & fans to cool the meat

Many hands make light work?

Ruth Heim, Richard Legault, Bonnie McLeod filling & weighing.

Howard Clark topping and catching the photog.

Michèle Bitauld crimping & Peter Maklan boxing.

Janet Smart & Marion Golden topping, Bonnie McLeod weighing.

Brian Maklan & David Pryce mix Thursday's last batch of meat.

The snap shooter missed Friday's activity, but arrived mid-morning Saturday to check out those who had started at 5 AM.

We had another opportunity to see the pie shell former in action, operated by Mary Guynan with Ina Hall preparing the pastry balls.

The Saturday pastry rollers included Helen McDowell, Dale Krujelskis, and Ian & Nancy Mark.

The production lines look similar to Thursday's, but with full-size tourtières, Janet Smart inspecting.

Undeg Edwards and Marion McKinney filling and checking weight.

Marion Golden operated the new crimping machine and Mary Guynan kept her supplied with tourtières to crimp.

Lewis Guynan and Richard Legault moved the boxed tourtières to freezers.

Cleanup. David Pryce likes to leave the stoves cleaner than he found them. Brian Maklan washes tables. Greg Legault helps carry the big stainless steel table back into the kitchen.

Saturday noon taste test. A couple of newly made tourtières are cooked, tested and found good. And the crew is finished and ready to leave, all set to forget the "tortures" for another year.

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