Da Pasty

My husband is a graduate of Michigan Technological University. During his time in the UP, he learned to love one of their favorite dishes, the pasty.
Since the early years of our marriage I have wanted to make pasties for him. It only took ten years to actually do it! Several years ago I found this list of recipes for pasties. After looking over the proportions and trying to decide how many I wanted to make, I finally selected the Chunkie UP Pasties recipe.
I followed the directions fairly closely, only substituting an extra small potato since I didn't have rutabaga on hand and using ground beef. Also, to save time, I took a cue from some of the other recipes and changed the baking time and temperature. I baked them at 375 for 30 minutes, then lowered the temperature to 350 for 15 minutes. The timing was great; they were perfectly done.
I was amazed at how this dish came together. I wasn't sure how it would work since all of the filling ingredients were uncooked. However, the fat from the ground beef brought everything together quite nicely. We ate them in traditional UP fashion using ketchup, but they would be fantastic with a gravy on the side too.
The verdict? These were labor intensive--crust making, chopping, filling, etc.--but yummy. They would be especially good on a cold winter's night.

Comments