Pâté chinois () ('Chinese pie') is a

French Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fre ...

dish similar to the English

shepherd's pie Shepherd's pie, cottage pie, or in its French version hachis Parmentier is a savoury dish of cooked minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked. The meat used may be either previously cooked or freshly minced. The usual meats are beef or la ...

or French ''

hachis Parmentier Shepherd's pie, cottage pie, or in its French version hachis Parmentier is a savoury dish of cooked minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked. The meat used may be either previously cooked or freshly minced. The usual meats are beef or lam ...

''. It is a traditional recipe in both Québécois cuisine and Acadian cuisine.

Ingredients

The dish is made with layered ground beef (sometimes mixed with sautéed diced onions) on the bottom, canned corn (either whole-kernel, creamed, or a mixture) for the middle layer, and mashed potatoes on top. Seasonings may be added to the top. Variations may include reversing the layering of ingredients with potatoes at the bottom, then meat, topped with creamed corn; adding diced bell peppers to the ground beef; and serving the dish with pickled eggs or beets. Once served, ketchup can be added.

Origins

There are no confirmed appearances of ''pâté chinois'' before the 1930s."Origines du pâté chinois"
(consulted 21 February 2021) This has led many to believe it was created in the 1930s, but its origins are widely debated and there are multiple hypotheses. All current theories are rejected by Jean-Pierre Lemasson, author of the book ''Le mystère insondable du pâté chinois''. According to his research, Chinese workers simply ate

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

and

soybeans The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu ...

during the construction of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...

(ruling out the Railway Hypothesis). In addition, he notes that ''pâté chinois'' had only appeared on the tables of Quebecois families in the 1930s, which makes it difficult to believe that it appeared during the

industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

(ruling out the South China Hypothesis). According to this author, the origin of ''pâté chinois'' remains a mystery.

Railway Hypothesis

This hypothesis suggests that ''pâté chinois'' came into existence at the end of the 19th century during the construction of the

. At the time, railway workers, mostly of Asian origin, were said to be fed on the job with only

ground beef Ground beef, minced beef or beef mince is beef that has been finely chopped with a knife, meat grinder (American English), mincer or mincing machine (British English). It is used in many recipes including hamburgers, bolognese sauce, meatloaf, ...

potatoes The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...

and

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

as these ingredients were readily available and inexpensive at the time. While working on the railway, these workers created, by force of circumstance, a unique blend, named ''pâté chinois'' in their honour.

railway workers would have adopted this new dish shortly thereafter.

South China Hypothesis

Another hypothesis suggests that this dish originated from the city of

South China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

. Many French Canadians had emigrated there to find work during the

. The “China pie”, a local specialty, would have become popular among the French Canadians and been translated into ''pâté chinois''.

Pemmican Hypothesis

Some believe that ''pâté chinois'' might have evolved from

pemmican Pemmican (also pemican in older sources) is a mixture of tallow, dried meat, and sometimes dried berries. A calorie-rich food, it can be used as a key component in prepared meals or eaten raw. Historically, it was an important part of indigenou ...

European cuisine took a long time to develop dishes of the 'potato-topped hash' type. It had first to assimilate as ingredients both potato and minced beef. The discovery of America would open up yet more vistas in cookery and push farther the boundaries of culinary geography; for, while Europe concocted its own version of the dish, here in America, we married "pemmican" (corn and meat) with minced meat from the
Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by thei ...
. This combination gave rise to the modern pâté chinois. As such, in the context of traditional oven-baked dishes, pâté chinois should be classified, approved and protected by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs.

-translated from ''Du pâté chinois'' by B. Arcand and S. Bouchard (p. 15).

La Salle's Failed Expedition Hypothesis

In his ''Genesis of Quebec cuisine'', published by Editions Fides, Jean-Marie Francœur goes further. He argues that the famous name ''"pâté chinois"'', the origin of which remains obscure despite the popularity of the dish, could be linked to a missed expedition. In 1669, René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle"Cavelier de La Salle"
(consulted 21 February 2021) settled in

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spa ...

at the foot of the fiery rapids of the Sault Saint-Louis in Ville-Marie (now called

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

). La Salle's dream, even his obsession, was to find the passage west to the "Vermeille Sea" -what he called the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

- to reach

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. Two Native Americans, it seems, had told him about this passage, and he liked to remind anyone who wanted to hear it. He did not want to leave to any other "the honor of finding the way to the South Sea and by extension China". Selling his land in Ville-Marie, he set out at the head of a

flotilla A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' ( fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. Composition A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same clas ...

of 14 men and a few

canoes A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British English, the ter ...

. Contrary to what he had suggested, he did not speak the language of the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...

nor that of the

Algonquins The Algonquin people are an Indigenous people who now live in Eastern Canada. They speak the Algonquin language, which is part of the Algonquian language family. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely related to the Odawa, Potawatomi ...

. He was unable to use a

compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...

and had no knowledge of survival in the forest. The crew members had a difficult time reaching

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

, to say the least. Once there, one of the crew members informed La Salle about a nearby

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...

nation, the

Potawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...

, telling him they had not been evangelized yet. Feeling burned out, La Salle pretended to feel sick and quickly returned to Ville-Marie. There, he claimed to everyone that he explored

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

and discovered the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. At Coste Saint-Sulpice (now called Lachine), people witnessed the return of this crew, equipped to be gone for months, return barely a few weeks after they left. Many wondered if "China" was actually closer to Ville-Marie than they had previously thought. This would make "China" very close to Coste Saint-Sulpice. It was thought that perhaps people got into the habit of referring to Coste Saint-Sulpice as "China", hence resulting in its change of name from Coste Saint-Sulpice to Lachine. Moreover, La Salle's men had eaten corn during their entire expedition, and, according to Francœur, the iconic name ''"pâté chinois"'' may have been an invention of Francois Dollier de Casson, who wanted to make fun of La Salle's failed expedition. Members of the expedition were also ironically nicknamed the "Chinese" as they brought with them "chinese" costumes in case they met oriental dignitaries.

Échine Hypothesis

According to Jean-Marie Francœur, the ''pâté chinois'' has for another suggested origin the ''pâté d'échine de porc'', a pâté made of

pork loin File:British Pork Cuts.svg, 250px, British cuts of pork poly 187 219 187 194 173 196 Trotters poly 372 226 373 207 361 204 359 216 Trotters poly 171 141 166 104 287 117 294 152 Belly poly 167 102 178 27 315 23 274 102 Loin poly 361 201 371 18 ...

and

turnip The turnip or white turnip ('' Brassica rapa'' subsp. ''rapa'') is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, fleshy taproot. The word ''turnip'' is a compound of ''turn'' as in turned/rounded on a lathe and ...

. This dish appeared towards the beginnings of

. At the time, corn and pork loin were common, with

not being available. As such, turnips were taking their place. The name is hypothesised to have changed from ''échine'' to ''Chine'' and then finally to ''pâté chinois'', with the composition of the pâté also changing with time to switch to potatoes and to use other types of meat.

Cultural references

In the Québécois humorous

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

La Petite Vie ''La petite vie'' was first a stage sketch of the comedy duo Ding et Dong, formed by Claude Meunier and Serge Thériault, and later a hit Quebec television sitcom aired by Radio-Canada from 1993 to 1999. In total, 59 episodes were created plus 3 ...

'', pâté chinois is used to show one of the characters' abysmal lack of

common sense ''Common Sense'' is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political arg ...

as she regularly fails to properly prepare it, for example, by laying the three

ingredient An ingredient is a substance that forms part of a mixture (in a general sense). For example, in cooking, recipes specify which ingredients are used to prepare a specific dish. Many commercial product (business), products contain secret ingredie ...

s side by side instead of layering them, or forgetting to mash the potatoes.

References

* ''What's Cooking?''
"Pate Chinois (French Canadian Shepherd's Pie)"
(3 March 2006)

Bibliography

* Jean-Marie Francœur, ''La genèse de la cuisine québécoise'', Fides, 2011. () * Jean Soulard, ''400 ans de gastronomie à Québec'', Éditions Communiplex et J. Soulard, 2008. * Lemasson Jean-Pierre, ''Le mystère insondable du pâté chinois'', Amérik Média editions, October 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pate chinois Cuisine of Quebec Canadian cuisine Tarts Casserole dishes Savoury pies