Hi All, I would like to surprize my mother with a recipe that she has been looking for. These Pasties are an old Upper Peninsula Of Michigan recipe. She likes them or my dad likes them I don't know which. But, she really would like this recipe. Any one know of it. Thanks, Karole

-- Karole (Biz3boymom@aol.com), February 18, 2000

Answers

I was born in Cornwall, England and my mother makes Cornish Pasties. Maybe it's the same recipe? They're really simple. Make pastry as you would for pies, roll out and cut around a plate. Fill with stewing beef, diced potatoes, minced onion, sometimes she adds a little diced turnip, pepper and salt. Sprinkle with a little water. Fold up over the top and pinch pastry. Bake in 350 degree oven until golden brown. They are very plain but so tasty! She make a bunch and freezes them. We take them out and micro them or warm them in the oven, yum. She lived in a coal mining town in England and the miners would take these down into the mines with them.

-- Christine Allen (cfallen00@hotmail.com), February 18, 2000.

Cornish Pasties are the same as U.P. pasties - the recipe was brought to the UP by the Cornish copper miners up in Copper Country. My grandma's recipe is like the one above, only she uses diced beef and pork, potato, onion, and rutabaga. She says it's the rutabaga that makes it "authentic" - I'll take her word for it, she grew up in Copper Country! I like to add carrot to mine - just for some color. It doesn't really alter the flavor any.

-- Becky M. (beckymom@kjsl.com), February 18, 2000.

Cornish one-handed food to eat down in the mines - wrapped in a clean napkin which was used to hold the pasty while eating - no washing. Filling often tried to give taste and texture variation - lumps of turnip, sweetish parsnip, potato, peas, leek or onion. Sometimes even made one end a "sweet" - filled with jam or fruit, walled off from the rest of the filling with a dyke of pastry, sweet end marked on outside of pasty with mark or extra pastry decoration.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), February 19, 2000.

Cool! I didn't know that! I did know that the miners would warm their pasties up on their shovels over a fire - I guess that's why Grandma ALWAYS made pasties for camping (that, and we always camped in the UP)!

-- Becky M. (beckymom@kjsl.com), February 19, 2000.

Hi there, Thank you so much for all the post, my mom really liked it and I was so amused my a man that wrote to me that I had misspelled Pasties. He thought that I ought to know that I had inadvertently dropped the "r" and to save me embarrassment on this forum, he brought it to my attention. I just laughed and laughed. Well after he saw you all posting things, he wrote me back with "egg on his face" I thought it was funny and am enjoying this forum so much. Thanks to all. Karole

-- karole (Biz3boymom@aol.com), February 19, 2000.

I always come across folks who think it's pronounced PASTE-eez, when it's actually PAST-eez. I then have to clarify that PASTE-eez are the things that strippers glue to their mammary organs.

-- Becky M. (beckymom@kjsl.com), February 19, 2000.

I never knew anything about pasties before. I guess you really do learn something new every day. I love this forum. It's so informative-- and fun!!!!!! Pasties sound delicious. I'll have to try them.

-- Mother-of-four (SUPERGS63@AOL.COM), February 24, 2000.

Mmmmmm-Mmm! They are, and you must! Try them with ketchup first, and if that isn't to your liking, try serving them with gravy. Just the thought of it makes me miss my grandma....

-- Becky M. (beckymom@kjsl.com), February 25, 2000.

Okay, my salivary glands are in over-drive; anyone know the details of these Yooper Pastie recipes? I used to go to a small college in the U.P. and got a taste of 'authentically' made pasties, and thoroughly enjoyed'em! I got the part about the dough-shell-thing, but the filling; is it all pre-cooked? Or, is that stuff raw? If raw, what's the cooking-time at 350 degrees Fahrenheit? Thanks in advance. On another note, the Yoopers were (genuinely) one of the nicest people I've ever encountered, although, many I found to be extremely, naively gullible. This made me want to protect them from us, swarmy city-folk. :-D

-- roodie gabijes (rod488@email.com), January 02, 2001.

Okay, here's a little more elaborate version for those not in favour of just winging it.. For crust; 3 Cups all purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 cup shortening, 7 to 8 Tablespoons cold water -- in large mixing bowl, stir together thoroughly salt and flour. With pastry cutter, cut in shortening til resembles coarse crumbs. Using the cold water, gradually add to dry ingredients, 1 T. at a time, tossing with fork til the mixture holds together. Form into a ball. Cover and chill the dough 1 hour.

Meanwhile, make the filling -- 2 or 3 medium sized potatoes (chopped), 1 pound beef round steak( cut in 1/4 inch cubes), 1 medium turnip (peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes -- 3/4 cup. Some people use white turnips, others swear that you must use yellow ones, aka, Swedes, or Rutabagas), 1/2 cup finely chopped onion, 1 1/2 teasp. salt, 1/4 teasp. pepper. Optional -- brown gravy (again some swear by it, others against it. I prefer it with.). Mix all together and set aside. You can get fancy-shmancy and add garlic powder, or parsley, but it is not Traditional.

Divide dough into 5 equal portions. On lightly floured surface, roll each out into a 9 inch circle. Place about 1 cup of the meat/veggie mixture on one half of each circle of dough; fold pastry over filling to make a half circle. Using tines of a fork, seal the pastry edge. Cut slits in the pastry for steam to escape. Carefully transfer pasties onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 400 F. til golden grown, about 45 minutes. Usually served with tomato ketchup.

This is close to the recipe that we usually get when we order around here (No. Wisconsin, hard on to the Yooperland Border). I personally think that the leeks and potatoes with peas would be delicious!! I've even thought about that version with lamb instead. We sure saw enough sheep in Cornwall to believe that as a more authentic filling!

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 04, 2001.