[mod.recipes] RECIPE: Pasties from the Upper Peninsula

recipes@decwrl.UUCP (07/11/86)

	      Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted
provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial
advantage, the USENET copyright notice and the title of the newsgroup and
its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of
the USENET Community Trust or the original contributor.

.RH MOD.RECIPES-SOURCE MEAT-PIE-2 M "18 May 86" 1986
.RZ "UPPER MICHIGAN PASTIES" "Cornish-style meat pies from the UP"
The pasty (\fIPAH-stee\fR) is a kind of English meat pie.  It was brought to
the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by Cornish miners in the mid-nineteenth
century.  The UP version differs slightly from the original Cornish
pasty in that it has more vegetables and less meat and crust.
.PP
You can eat pasties hot, warm, or cold.  If you wrap them in aluminum
foil when they come out of the oven, they'll keep warm for hours.  Or, you
can refrigerate/freeze them and reheat them later.  (Maybe the original
``fast food''?)
.PP
Most people who live in the UP don't bother to make their own pasties;
they buy them from bakeries and pasty shops (which are as common as
hamburger joints are in other parts of the country).  As a former resident,
though, sometimes I get homesick and resort to making them myself.
This is the recipe my mother sent me.
.IH "Serves 4"
.SH		CRUST
.IG "2 cups" "flour" "200 g"
.IG "\(12 cup" "shortening" "100 g"
.IG "\(14 cup" "lard" "50 g"
.IG "\(14 cup" "scraped suet" "50 g"
.IG "" "water"
.SH		FILLING
.IG "1\(14 lbs" "coarsely ground beef" "600 g"
.IG "4" "medium potatoes,"
diced
.IG "1" "large onion,"
chopped
.IG "\(14 cup" "rutabaga" "50 g"
(swede), diced
.IG "1" "carrot,"
diced
.IG "" "salt and pepper"
.PH
.SK 1
Put the flour in a bowl and cut in the shortening, lard, and suet.
Add just enough water to make a soft dough.
.SK 2
Divide the dough into four parts and roll out each piece into a
circle about the size of a dinner plate.
.SK 3
Crumble the meat into a bowl and stir in the potatoes, onion, rutabaga,
and carrot.  
.SK 4
Divide the mixture into four parts, putting some on one side
of each piece of dough.  Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
.SK 5
Fold the pastry over the filling to make half-moon shaped pies.  Seal
the edges and cut a couple of small slits on the top.
.SK 6
Bake on a cookie sheet at
.TE 375 190
for 30 to 35 minutes, then reduce heat to
.TE 350 175
and bake 15 more minutes.
.NX
These have a
high cholesterol content.  I've tried using an ordinary vegetable-shortening
pie crust, but it invariably turns out too dry and crumbly to hold
together. (Authentic UP pasties have a crust that's thin, moist, and
somewhat chewy, not a flaky crust.)  If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to
hear about them.
You can also cook the filling by itself in a casserole dish if you're feeling
lazy about making the crust.
.SH RATING
.I Difficulty:
moderate.
.I Time:
30 minutes preparation, 1 hour cooking and cooling.
.I Precision:
measure the crust ingredients.
.WR
Sandra Loosemore
Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation, Salt Lake City
{decwrl, utah-gr!uplherc}!esunix!loosemor