Michigan Pasty Recipe | Yummy Beef Pasties w Vegetables + Easy Dough (2024)

FAQs

What are Michigan pasties made of? ›

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.

There will always be great debate about the origin of the pasty, but one easy way to detect the Devon pasty from the Cornish is that the Devon pasty has a top-crimp and is oval in shape, whereas the Cornish pasty is semi-circular and side-crimped along the curve.

Use a firm waxy potato such as Maris Peer or Wilja. A floury potato will disintegrate on cooking. Crimping is one of the secrets to a true Cornish pasty. A good hand crimp is usually a sign of a good handmade pasty.

No debate here: carrots are "sacrilege" as the Cornish Pasty Association points out: the swede adds all the sweetness this dish needs. Older recipes tend to be vague on exact details but potatoes should be waxy, as the CPA makes clear, rather than the floury ones Mark Hix uses, so they keep their shape when cooked.

At Campbells, we love celebrating food. The Cornish pasty originates from Cornwall and traditionally consists of beef, potatoes, swede, and onion cooked together then wrapped in uncooked pastry which is then baked in an oven.

This made for a hearty yet portable meal for the miners. They're still very popular there, and you'll find them in every local bakery and community cookbook! American pasties are the American equivalent to Cornish pasties.

No meat other than beef, and no vegetables apart from those listed can be used in the filling. There must be at least 12.5% beef and 25% vegetables in the whole pasty. All the ingredients must be uncooked when the pasty is assembled and then slowly baked to develop all that famous Cornish pasty taste and succulence.

Here's an ancient illustration of it where the pencil title calls it Boletus betulinus. I check the modern scientific name and it's apparently called Fomitopsis betulina now.

The traditional recipe for the pasty filling is beef with potato, onion and swede, which when cooked together forms a rich gravy, all sealed in its own packet! As meat was much more expensive in the 17th and 18th centuries, its presence was scarce and so pasties traditionally contained much more vegetable than today.

Why are pasties popular in Michigan? ›

Pasties: The Meaty Center Of 'Yooper' Food. Michigan's Upper Peninsula is a landmass jutting out of the northern tip of Wisconsin. 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.

However, another 14 per cent did get it right, as Graham describes, “the traditional way to eat a pasty is with the pasty held in a horizontal position and holding the crimp, starting with the filled pastry and working your way outwards.

Pasties should reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 15 seconds before serving. Enjoy! Microwave Oven: Place pasty off center in the oven cavity. Cook on high for 1 minute if thawed or 4 minutes if frozen.

They can be made from a variety of materials, including craft foam, artificial leather, buckram and plastic. Some are skin-colored while others are produced with decorative designs on them. They are often smaller in countries such as Japan than they are in America as they are typically not much larger than the areola.

The traditional Cornish pasty, which since 2011 has had Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status in Europe, is filled with beef, sliced or diced potato, swede (also known as yellow turnip or rutabaga – referred to in Cornwall and other parts of the West Country as turnip) and onion, seasoned with salt and pepper, ...

Pasties are typically baked, as well, whereas empanadas can be fried. Still, it's what's on the inside that really counts, and again, you'll find that empanadas and Cornish pasties are just as different when it comes to their fillings as they are with their exteriors.

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.