An authentic Michigan food, the original Cornish beef pasty was brought to the Michigan Upper Peninsula by the English copper miners of the 1840s from their native Cornwall. The miners would place the pasty on top of their shovel and warmed it over the headlamps deep in the copper mine. This versatile meat pie can have a million variations, but we like to stick with the original beef pasty recipe from Michigan Tech.
Why Michigan Loves the Beef Pasty
Michigan has a strong cultural connection to the beef pasty, a pastry filled with beef and vegetables. The beef pasty became a popular and economical food for miners in the Upper Peninsula, and its popularity has continued to this day. Additionally, many local restaurants and bakeries in Michigan specialize in making beef pasties, which contributes to the dish’s cultural significance in the state.
Over 180 years later, this once ethnic dish is baked every day to create this authentic Michigan food. The Beef Pasty is a flaky crust with meat and veggies inside to keep you warm. They contain a hearty variety of beef, pork, potatoes, rutabaga, and carrots in a flaky crust.
Once prepared, these tender, flaky pasties can be warmed in the oven for just a few minutes to truly enjoy the taste of Michigan.
You can make authentic Cornish Beef Pasties in your home kitchen. The recipe is arranged by the relative proportion of each ingredient – a good shortcut of time, especially when using store-bought pie crust. In addition, we’ve included shortcuts that use pre-made pie dough or even commercial puff pastry (although you do lose the flavor).
Michigan Technological University was first established as a mining college in Houghton, Michigan. Their recipe for pasties is considered authentic genuine, and straightforward recipe passed down locally from the Cornwell miners to their college kitchens.
If you’re a student at Michigan Tech, you can expect to see the Pasty in your freshman dorm cafe.
Michigan Tech Dining Services Famous Pasty Recipe
This recipe makes ten pasties. Put about 12 oz of filling in each crust.
Dough: 3 1/2 flour 9 oz. shortening 10 oz. cold water 1Tbl + 1 tsp salt
Filling: 3 1/2# potatoes, peeled 1 1/2# coarse ground pork 12 oz coarse ground beef 9 oz diced onions 8 oz diced carrots 7 oz diced rutabaga 1/4# butter 1Tbl salt 1Tbl pepper
Preparation of the Original Beef Pasty
Chop the carrots and onions. Dice the potatoes and rutabagas in 3/8-inch dice. Mix all the filling ingredients and set them aside. Mix the flour and salt. Cut in the shortening for pie crust. Add the water and mix gently until the dry particles are absorbed; do not over mix.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On a floured surface, roll 4-ounce balls of dough into circles about the size of a dinner plate. Put about 12 ounces of filling on one half. Dampen the edges, fold the crust over the filling, and seal. Place on greased baking sheets (or use baking paper). Place in oven and bake for one hour. Serve with either catsup or gravy.
Variations of the Original Pasty Recipe
You can fill the pasty with many different variations of ingredants. The original Cornish pasty can include other meat such as lamb, chicken or even rabbit! What ever you have on hand. Turnips and parships can be a substitute for rutabega and potato. You can experiment with cut fruit, fruit preserves and jams.
What to Serve With a Beef Pasty
The entire purpose of a beef pasty was that it was a complete meal all to itself. However there is an ongoing debate on what you can put on top of an original beef pasty if you are not deep in a mine in Northern Michigan. The two most favored toppings on a beef pasty is gravy or ketchup. Gravy can be made of the drippings from the cooked ground beef and pork.
The Michigan Beef Pasty has been identified as one of the 10 Hometown Foods That Scream You’re From Michigan. While we love the original recipe from MTU its obvious that there are a million ways to make this tasty meat pie and we want to try them all. From Presque Isle Park in Marquette to Detroit there are great shops that make this tasty treat.
Pasties were the original fast food of copper miners and lumberjacks. Brought here from the mining region of Cornwell, England, U.P. wives would fill the rolled-out dough with leftover beef, potato, onion and rutabaga, fold the pastry in half, seal the edges and bake.
You can tell a true Michigander by the way he or she pronounces the word "pasty"('PASS-TEE' is the correct way to pronounce this tasty, authentic northern Michigan treat).
The pasty's prevalence is linked to an early 1800s rush to mine copper deposits in the region. The resulting onslaught of laborers from Cornwall, England, brought over the pasty.
These pasties (and the alleged venison pasty 1660s London diarist Samuel Pepys suspected was actually beef) were little more than cuts of meat wrapped in pastry dough. By then the Cornish pasty—made from chipped beef, potatoes, swedes (rutabagas) and onions—had already taken its place in Cornwall's regional cuisine.
Even so, the pasty remains a staunchly regional dish. The Michigan pasty can trace its origins back to Cornwall in England. Cornwall is the peninsula on the southwestern coast of England that juts out into the sea. The Cornish were known for their mining skills.
If you're from the UP, chances are you've had more than your fair share of pasties. For the uninitiated, Yooper pasties trace their roots back to Cornish miners that migrated to the Upper Peninsula to work in the copper mines located in the Western Upper Peninsula.
Mop – This one is subtle to me, but a Michigander really goes aggressive on the “o” and the word sounds more like “mahp” than how most Americans say the word, which is with a softer vowel sound. Milk – In Michigan, you'll likely be confused when you hear this pronounced as “melk”.
Pasties can be found in Wisconsin's largest cities, Madison and Milwaukee, as well as in the far northern region along the border with Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Pasties date back as far as the 13th century, at which time they were a pie baked without a dish of French origins, with a rich filling of venison, veal, beef, lamb or seafood, gravy and fruit. The name pasty is a mutation of the Medieval French “paste”, for pie.
There was a pretty large number of Cornish miners who came to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. They brought their pasty recipes with them. Likely the Finns adopted this tasty and filling meal from the Cornish.
The Cornish Pasty originates from Cornwall (Southwest England) and can be traced back as far as the 1200's. Mining was once a thriving industry in Cornwall and at that time pasties were baked by the wives and mothers of the tin miners.
Pasties date back as far as the 13th century, at which time they were devoured by the rich upper classes and royalty. The fillings were varied and indulgent, often containing venison, beef, lamb and seafood like eels, flavoured with rich gravies and fruits.
A pasty is a handheld meat pie. To be considered authentic, according to the Cornish Pasty Association, it must use diced beef, potato, rutabaga (swede in the U.K.), and onion. Beef skirt steak is the most common cut of meat used.
Pasties tend to be defined as a singular, folded pastry case with a crimped lid and a savoury filling, typically of seasoned meat and vegetables. Pies, on the other hand, traditionally have a base and sides and a separate lid.
What are Cornish Pasties? A Cornish pasty is a turnover-shaped baked shortcrust pastry filled with beef and vegetables. The edges are sealed by crimping them in characteristic Cornish fashion.
Buckram. Buckram is a material that is most often found in things like the lining of hats. It is a firm material that can be molded to whatever shape you create when it's damp, and then it dries in that form. Buckram is a great material to line your pasties so that you can apply adhesives and make them more durable.
Cornish pasties are made of simple ingredients which makes them much healthier than other fast food. It is stuffed with real vegetables, not just lettuce leaves and tomatoes as in fast food burgers. The swede fillings are enriched with calcium which is good for building the bone.
We offer the traditional Belfast 'Pink' Pastie made from a blend of spices and potato and also Regular Meat Pasties too. Available in a range of sizes - normal, jumbo, kiddies and bite size.
Introduction: My name is Barbera Armstrong, I am a lovely, delightful, cooperative, funny, enchanting, vivacious, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
