After Midnight mass, we all gathered next door to ring in Christmas Day with Auntie, Harold, Joe and Hilda. Sometimes it was just our immediate family and sometimes we were joined by cousins and neighbours. One thing that remained constant was Auntie’s meat pies. We all looked forward to this treat as this was the only time of the year she made them. Meat pies were therefore one part of the Christmas equation in our family.
Auntie’s meat pie recipe written out by Hilda.
Auntie and Hilda generally spent all day Christmas Eve making the pies. I was never involved in this baking and therefore didn’t pick up any of Auntie’s baking tricks of the trade. After Auntie’s death in 2003 this family tradition of having meat pie Christmas Eve lapsed for a few years. Circa 2008, my Mother expressed interest in possibly reviving the tradition. I recall my Father’s excitement; mainly because I had no idea he missed it so much. My Mother said she also loved the tradition (and the pies) so we decided to give it a go.
We dug up Auntie’s recipe and Mom talked with her nursing co-workers about their plan of attack with respect these pies – as many people make them. We were a little nervous about living up to Auntie’s high standard of cooking, but we decided to give it a shot. We made six or eight pies that first year and we were relieved to discover they were completely edible! One batch under our belts gave us the confidence we needed and we’ve done it every year since. Each year it seems to get easier and more familiar.
We’ve increased our productivity each year and this year produced fifteen pies - our largest number yet! We’ve made the process a little easier by involving the use of a food processor that greatly reduces the manual work involved (cutting all the meat!). In our pies, we use a combination of roast beef, pork and chicken, and we use Bertha MacAulay’s pastry recipe. Here’s a visual to this year’s Rossiter production line of meat pies:
The Pastry Master!
I still find the pastry difficult so Mom generally does this component of the process. Although she would never admit it, she’s a master of most items in the pastry field (her biscuits are second to none!). We also included Grammie in our annual tradition by using her bowl.
I somehow managed to forget to take a photo of the fifteen pies upon completion. But here is a shot of ten shells and four pies ready to go in the oven.
This year, I also decided to channel my inner Auntie by donning an apron, which I believe would have made her smile. You *never* saw Auntie without an apron. She wore one everyday (many of which she made herself) and she always had a clean one on hand in case unexpected company dropped by.
Although I forget to get a photo of the final fifteen, here is a close up of a completed pie to wet your appetite. I have two pies in my freezer here in TO and look forward to nibbling away at them well into the New Year.
And doing this with my Mother means of course we have a lot of laughs along the way. Some of the more memorable Mama Rossiter quotes from this year’s maratheon:
In reviewing the recipe prior to beginning my Mother said out loud “Bake at 400 degrees? That sounds kind of ferocious!”
Finishing the last pie she looked into the empty pastry bowl and said “I didn't think I would ever see it again (an empty bowl).”
After learning that her daughter-in-law Karen uses the left over juice that the meat was cooked in for gravy, Mom meant to say “And all the years I threw it out,” but instead said “And all the years I threw it up.”
I am already looking forward to doing it again next year.
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