National Dishes Codexery

Butter tart

A small pastry tart iconic to Canadian cuisine.

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Butter tart

Stephanie Spencer · CC BY-SA 3.0

The butter tart is distinct from butter pie, bread and butter pudding, sugar pie, and pecan pie.[1][2] A small pastry tart that is highly esteemed in Canadian cuisine is known as a butter tart.[1] Butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, and an egg are combined to create the filling, which is then baked inside a pastry shell until the top becomes crunchy and the interior reaches a semi-solid state.[1]

Key facts and history

The earliest published Canadian recipe for a butter tart filling dates to 1900 in Barrie, Ontario.[3] That recipe was submitted by Mrs. Mary Ethel MacLeod to The Women's Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook.[3] The butter tart is a derivative of possible precursors including Border tart, sugar pie, pecan pie, backwoods pie, shoofly pie, and treacle tart.[4][5] Jacobs notes that the butter tart is a staple of early Canadian cooking and reflects long-evolving immigration shaping Canada.[6]

The 6th edition of the Collins English Dictionary states butter tarts remain a characteristic pastry of Canada.[6] The Simcoe County Archives holds the original cookbook and the recipe for butter tart filling.[3] A pie cookbook from 1915 contained another early printed butter tart recipe.[3] Sugar pie, when made in a smaller tart form, is sometimes what the butter tart is called.[4]

What the cited sources add

Jacobs reports that a poster proclaimed the butter tart the most important contribution to Canadian identity, surpassing the beaver, maple leaf, and loon.[6] That article noted that homemade Canadian butter tarts with flaky crust and gooey pecan filling set a Wasaga Beach stand apart from other ice cream stands.[7][8] Canada Post issued a commemorative butter tart stamp in April 2019 as part of the "Sweet Canada" series.[9] Jacobs notes that the many different sizes and versions of butter tarts mirror the diverse cultures that coexist peacefully in the country.[6]

In a 2013 piece about Georgian Bay, Ontario, National Geographic highlighted the butter tart.[7][8] A flood in Quebec during April 2019 caused the Vachon bakery to be evacuated, and this event, as reported by Global News, led to a reduction in butter tart output.[10][11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Butter tart" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "What makes a great butter tart?" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Butter tart" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Butter tarts" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Butter tart" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jacobs, "Structural Elements in Canadian Cuisine", Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures, 2009; "Mrs. Malcolm MacLeod and her recipe for butter tart filling", Simcoe.ca; "The Canadian history of the butter tart (video)", Breakfast TV Video, City TV, January 17, 2018; "What makes a great butter tart?"; Jacobs, "Structural Elements in Canadian Cuisine", Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures, 2009 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Butter tart" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "What makes a great butter tart?"; "On the butter tart trail", Toronto Sun, June 16, 2010; Sampson, "The art of the tart", thestar.com, May 9, 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Butter tart" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Backwoods Pie", Bite House, January 2, 2012 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Jacobs, "Structural Elements in Canadian Cuisine", Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures, 2009. facts only, no text reused. erudit.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Butter tart" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Georgian Bay", Travel, September 30, 2013 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. "Georgian Bay", Travel, September 30, 2013. facts only, no text reused. nationalgeographic.com
  9. Wikipedia, "Butter tart" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Butter Tart", Postage Stamp Guide (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Butter tart" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Laframboise, "Jos Louis pastry bakery slowly resumes production after severe flooding in Quebec - Montreal", Globalnews.ca, June 4, 2019 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Laframboise, "Jos Louis pastry bakery slowly resumes production after severe flooding in Quebec - Montreal", Globalnews.ca, June 4, 2019. facts only, no text reused. globalnews.ca

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Butter tart (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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