Rural Quebec

Rural Quebec keeps the old French-Canadian table. The réveillon (Christmas Eve feast after Midnight Mass) centers on tourtière — a deep meat pie of minced pork-and-beef seasoned with cinnamon, clove, allspice, and sarriette (summer savory), buttery flaky pastry top and bottom, served with green-tomato chutney or ketchup-aux-fruits. Pâté chinois is Quebec's shepherd's pie: ground beef, canned corn, mashed potato, in three uncompromising layers (the corn is non-negotiable). Pea soup with pork hock simmers for hours. In March, the whole province moves to the cabane à sucre — sugar shacks where maple sap boils down and is poured hot on snow to make tire d'érable (taffy on a stick), where you sit at long tables eating maple-baked beans, ham, and oreilles de crisse (deep-fried pork-jowl crisps). It is a deeply Catholic, agricultural, butter-and-meat cuisine.