Anybody have a good recipe for pasties? My wife's family is from Upper Michigan and she wants me to make some for her. Thanks.

-- Hank (hsnrs@att.net), April 15, 2002

Answers

Hahahaha....that's surely not what I thought you were talking about!

-- someone (nevermind@somewhere.com), April 15, 2002.

Hank -- at first, from the title of your post, I wondered if this was a suitable subject for a family forum!

My husband's family is British, and cornish pasties are a favorite around here. The recipe is pretty basic -- but this is what I do:

Make up a batch of pastry to your taste (I use the Tenderflake pastry recipe -- don't know if you folks have that stateside). Roll out 1/4 inch thick and cut in roughly 6 inch circles. set aside.

Make a "hash" of boiled potatoes (cut into 1/2 inch chunks), chopped carrot, some frozen peas and either diced, cooked meat of choice, or fried ground beef. Mix all these with a clove of minced garlic and some salt and pepper. Mix up some pan gravy (enough to make the mixture moist, but not liquidy) and stir it all up well.

Place 1/2 cup or so on the middle of each circle of pastry and top with a couple of slices of apple and a shake of cinnamon. Fold over to make a half moon shape and pinch the edges together. Place on the baking pan with the pinched edge along the top and bake in a 400 degree oven until brown.

These are VERY filling!

-- Tracy (trimmer31@hotmail.com), April 15, 2002.

Hey, I grew up in the U.P. and we had pasties every other day with no complaints! There are many variations, but we made them like this:

Take 2 pounds of ground beef and mix it with about 2 pounds of ground pork. Set in a bowl. Evenly dice in equal amounts carrots, onions, and potatoes. Make a combined pile about the size of the ground meat mixture. You now have equal amounts of meat and vegetables. Mix all together and add salt and pepper to taste. If you have it handy, toss in a can of cream of mushroon soup for extra flavor. Roll out pastry crust in tortilla size circles, and put about a cup or so of the mixture on one side. Place a butter pat on the mixture. Fold over crust and wet edges to seal. It helps if you crimp the edges up and poke a few holes on the top. Bake on 350 for about 45 min. Test with a fork to see if vegetables are tender. Eat hot with catsup or freeze in foil for later. Exact amounts are not important, be creative! Some toss in rutabagas, turnips, venison, parsely, beaten eggs, etc.

The crust was made with 7 cups of flour cut with 1 lbs of lard and a pinch of salt. Add water until crumbles form. I know it's fattening, but we Yoopers could burn off the fat by chopping wood for our saunas!

Enjoy, Sarah

-- Sarah (Gladstone@Michigan.com), April 15, 2002.

I'm originally from Michigan, too. We made them with leftover beef roast (diced small), potatoes, carrots, onions, and turnips (all diced small and all of which had been cooked with the roast). Moisten with some leftover gravy (also from the roast). Make a pie crust dough (amount would depend on how much leftovers you had). Roll out, cut in circles (size is up to you), put filling down center of circles of dough and bring sides up to center. Pinch dough together down center of pastie and pinch ends closed. Brush with beaten egg and bake at 350 till golden brown. Eat hot, warm or cold.

-- Gayle in KY (gayleannesmith@yahoo.com), April 15, 2002.

I married a Michigander. Here is the recipe that his Aunt uses:

Crust--using a pastry cutter, cut in 3 sticks softened margerine into 4 cups flour until pea-sized. Next add 1 1/4 cold water and mix until in a ball. Wrap in foil or plastic wrap and chill for several hours until firm.

Filling--8 medium sized potatoes, peeled and diced. 3-4 carrots peeled and shredded, onions, salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes I put in some diced rutabaga. Mix together with 1-2 lbs. hamburger. Sometimes I use venison mixed with pork.

Cut dough into 8 pieces, roll each piece to the size of a dinner plate and put dough on the plate. Take one cup of the filling mixture and place on the middle of the dough. Bring the dough over the mixture and crimp the edges.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Makes 8 large pasties. If you mess up on rolling out the dough, you can redo it without problems. Enjoy!

-- Jean in No. WI (jat@ncis.net), April 15, 2002.

I learned to make pasties in Minnesota...

Gayle from KY recipe is pretty close to what I learned too..but w/o gravy. The meat was braised so was probably more moist and didn't need any more. Meat, carrots, potatoes, onions, and rutabaga. I was taught to CHIP all the ingredients....

Funny...could hardly wait to get to Wales a couple of years ago and see how great the Authentic pasties were compared to what I make and what I was used to...

Big disappointment...

I will take American Pasties anyday over British Cooked ones!!

-- BC (katnip364@aol.com), April 16, 2002.

BC, I bet you were disappointed because you didn't have the original Cornish Pasties.

As I understand it, they were sent to work as lunch for the miners, wrapped in a napkin. The miners could eat them underground, using the napkin to hold them so their dirty hands didnt touch the food.

I've almost always seen the fold-over ones, and I've always heard you pre-cook all ingredients first. I also have the impression that the vegetable mix can vary, but peas, carrots and potatoes are traditional staples. Makes a good balanced meal that way too, whatever else you use.

I'd also heard that the Cornish housewifes would make a mixed pasty - one end main course, the other end sweet, with one end (I think the sweet end) marked with an added pastry shape. Something like apple pie, or a closed jam tart. Never really thought about it, but if you did the fold-to-the-middle style that would make it easy to put a pastry dam between the two.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), April 16, 2002.

logging in Copper Mountains,, sniff sniff,,, I can smell them cooking now,,,,,,,,,,

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), April 16, 2002.

Stan - There is a pastie shop in Cadillac if you are ever through there.

-- Barb (MBRanch@POP.ctctel.com), April 16, 2002.

Back in the days when iron and taconite mining was in full swing in NE Minnesota you could not find one bakery that didn't have trays and trays of fresh baked pasties on display every morning. A church up here in central Minnesota did all of ther fund raising for a new building by selling homemade pasties! The still sell them: Lakes Areas Methodist Pasties



-- Cabin Fever (Cabinfever_MN@yahoo.com), April 16, 2002.

I know that place BArb,, but the way the make them,, just isnt the same as da U.P.

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), April 16, 2002.

Yea, I know Stan but they are better than the ones on the grocery store. One of my daughters went to school At Michigan Tech and we used to pick some up in Munising on our way back home.

-- Barb (MBRanch@POP.ctctel.com), April 17, 2002.

I was born in lower Michigan and left when I was 17, I never heard of a Pastie, (outside of a strip joint) until 15 years ago when I was driving through the U.P. and saw signs at every diner for them. Until now I still didn't know what they were

-- Henderson (redgate@echoweb.net), April 18, 2002.