Talk:tourtière

Pigeon pie or bread pie?
There is a controversy regarding the etymology of tourtière. The root word tourte can mean both pigeon and bread in old French, so the dish could be named after the fact that it is a loaf, or that it was full of pigeon. The Wikipedia entry for tourtière claims the bread etymology while the passenger pigeon article claims the pigeon-meat explanation. This article should mention both etymologies of tourte and explain the confusion. 98.142.245.142 22:01, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Please note, the controversy is not erudite, it is popular. There are numerous pre-Canadian references to tourte and tourtiere that have nothing to do with pigeons. There is, in fact, very little confusion in reliable etymological sources as to the origin of tourte the food (ie, LL torta). As for tourtiere, again, numerous pre-Canadian sources refer to it as a cooking vessel or serving dish.

A Quebecois tourtiere contains pork or some kind of readily available meat -- much like French tourtes (some of which were called tourtieres) at the time when New France was being settled. If it ever contained pigeon meat (which is not attested), it might possibly have been referred as tourtiere with tongue in cheek since tourtiere as a pot and a food already existed. The most likely explanation is that the pigeon etymology is a folk etymology, or otherwise a false etymology, and that Quebecois tourtiere is merely the regional interpretion of what was also known as tourte or tourtiere in France: a meat pie (or in the case of Limousin, a potato pie).

A citation is forthcoming at which time an edit to the etymology for this entry will be in order. Richigi (talk) 20:02, 1 October 2012 (UTC)

There is a small island off the western tip of Montreal island named L'Ile aux Tourtes, where colonies of "tourtes" (passenger pigeons) would gather and nest. Being highly localized, the Quebecois at the time would hunt them easily and eventually to extinction. They served as ingredients for la tourtiere.