Butter Tart - History

History

Butter tarts were common in pioneer Canadian cooking, and they remain a characteristic pastry of Canada, considered one of only a few recipes of genuinely Canadian origin (for example, by the 6th edition of the Collins English Dictionary). It is primarily eaten and associated with the English-speaking provinces of Canada. However the origins of the tart, its name, and its recipe are unclear. Some suggested pastries with similar origins to the butter tart include:

• Sugar pie (tarte au sucre): which possibly came with the arrival of the "King's Daughters" "filles du roi" in Quebec during the 1600s, where the imported brides used maple syrup, butter and dried fruit to make a possible precursor to modern examples of the butter tart,
• Pecan pie: which possibly came north from the southern United States with the slaves,
• Backwards pie: which is found in the maritimes and western Canada and made with corn syrup,
• Shoofly pie: which is made with molasses and comes from the Pennsylvania Dutch community,
• Treacle tart: which is an English pastry made with golden syrup or treacle.

The earliest published Canadian recipe is from Barrie, Ontario dating back to 1900 and can be found in The Women’s Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook. Another early publication of a butter tart recipe was found in a 1915 pie cookbook. The food was an integral part of early Canadian cuisine and often viewed as a source of pride.

Similar tarts are made in Scotland, where they are often referred to as Ecclefechan butter tarts from the town of Ecclefechan. In France, they are related to the much more common tarte à la frangipane, that differs from the basic Canadian recipe only by the addition of ground almonds.