Festival Meat Pie winners reveal what's under the crust

Many Prince Edward Islanders are already getting to work on meat pies for Christmas, and a festival that wrapped up on the weekend is providing some inspiration.

Winners of Festival Meat Pie were announced in South Rustico. Jonathan Dugay had the top pie in the traditional category. Meat pies tie into some important memories for him of growing up in the Evangeline region.

"It's a Christmas tradition," said Dugay.

"Every year at Christmastime we'd make a dozen or so meat pies and put them all in the freezer. And Christmas morning every year you had meat pie."

Christmas memories and meat pies are also closely tied together for Florence Bernard, winner in the non-traditional category.

"It was Christmas and it was more or less the only time, so it was a big treat," said Bernard.

"But nowadays you have meat pie all year round."

Dugay's winning recipe was his traditional family one, but part of the tradition is not really having a recipe.

"I like to say I don't make the same thing twice because I don't really use a recipe," he said.

"It was a biscuit dough pie and the biscuit dough has always been a tradition in our family."

Apart from learning from his family, Dugay also used to bake pies commercially for a shop in West Prince.

His winning pie used a combination of chicken and pork. When he was growing up there was a lot of rabbit in pies, he said. He seasons with a mix of savoury, salt, pepper and thyme.

There is no seasoning in the dough, which is made with lard and a little bit of sugar for some sweetness.

"I find it helps to brown the dough up too, once it's in the oven," he said.