Pecan or raisin: Which is the best butter tart in Ontario?

Should Canada’s favourite sweet treat, butter tarts, contain pecans or raisins?

Butter tarts are one of the few pastries with a genuinely Canadian origin, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia. The origins of the dessert are thought to date back to the 1600s with Quebec’s sugar pie. The earliest published recipe is said to be in a Barrie, Ontario cookbook from 1900.

Ontario is home to dozens of varieties of butter tarts. Festivals celebrate the iconic treat, and there is even a butter tart tour in Kawartha Lakes and Northumberland.

While most people agree butter tarts are delicious, the perfect ingredients for the tart have been up for debate. The discussion has gone to social media with a Reddit thread highlighting the pros and cons.

“Team raisin here. The raisins provide an impression of texture. Pecans give too much texture,” one person said.

“Butter tarts are already sweet, don’t need more sweet things added,” another person said.

Another post on Facebook titled, The great butter tart debate- pecans or raisins? also gets mixed responses.

To help settle the debate, INsauga.com asked: What is the best type of butter tart?

Pecan earned the most votes, 1,342 or 46 per cent, as of June 29. But it was a close race.

Another 1,072, about 36 per cent, chose raisin. And 526 people, 18 per cent, chose plain.

Oddly enough, the first-known recipe for a butter tart doesn’t include either raisins or pecans.

The recipe (below), which appeared in The Women’s Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook in 1900, listed currants along with sugar, butter and eggs as a “filling for tarts.”

The cookbook was a fundraiser for the Barrie hospital.

Royal Victoria Cook Book, page 88.

Lead photo: Rob Campbell