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

FAQs

What is a Michigan pasty? ›

Pasties, pronounced "pass-tee", are traditional meat pies that began in England and were brought to Michigan by Cornish miners when they migrated to Northern Michigan in the 1800's. Pasties are a beloved tradition in Michigan, particularly so in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula).

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.

For the Shortcrust Pastry:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour. 1 teaspoon salt. 5 ounces unsalted butter , very cold, diced. 5 ounces lard , very cold (can substitute butter but lard makes the flakiest crust)

Ready to eat cold - but best heated in an oven for true pasty pleasure! From Chilled: 180°C / Fan 160°C / Gas mark 4 for 20-25 minutes. From Frozen: 190°C / Fan 170°C / Gas mark 5 for 40-50 minutes. Allow it to rest for 3-4 minutes - and enjoy.

There are five main types of pastry dough for creating pastries: flaky, shortcrust, puff, choux and filo. All of them are made primarily from flour, water and fat. However, these five types of pastry dough each have slightly different core ingredients, different ratios of ingredients and, ultimately, different uses.

Upper Peninsula Pasties Recipe photo by Taste of Home. Pasties are handheld turnovers filled with meat and vegetables. These savory stuffed pies were originally made for miners in Cornwall, England, to take down into the pits during “crib” time (meal time) because they were an easy, portable and sustaining food.

A pasty is a meat hand pie generally made with beef and potatoes. Pastry is is a dough made with flour, a liquid, and a solid fat such as butter, shortening, or lard. Pastry can be either sweet or savoury.

In Middle English, paste developed on the one hand into pasty and on the other hand into pastry. On both sides of the Atlantic, pastry now refers either to dough or baked sweet food made with the dough, while pasty, in British usage at least, refers to a small pastry case with a savory filling.

Some sources state that the difference between a Devon and a Cornish pasty is that a Devon pasty has a top-crimp and is oval in shape, whereas the Cornish pasty is semicircular and side-crimped along the curve.

Pie crust, while buttery and flaky, is not nearly as light, doughy, and crisp as this shortcut puff pastry. Yeasted pastry dough, such as something we can use for croissants, croissant bread, or a pastry braid, contain yeast.

How unhealthy is a pasty? ›

Pasties get a bit of a bad rep for being unhealthy, but in reality, they're a fairly good complete meal. Now, we're not recommending you eat one EVERY day, but you certainly shouldn't feel bad when you do reach for one. Or two! In fact, calories aren't a particularly good gauge of how healthy foods are for us.

They're similar, but the pasty has no liquid and is handheld. It's made with a savory pie crust, folded in half and the edges are crimped together.

If the fat melts before a strong gluten structure has formed, the pastry will end up soggy. Overly moist fillings can also contribute to a soggy bottom as the liquid will drop to the bottom of the pie and ooze into the pastry. To ensure crisp pastry, the base can be blind baked before adding the filling.

Try liquid filling

As mentioned above, beef and vegetables are the most common fillings. However, as The Guardian pointed out, some chefs go a step further with a little extra liquid filling. Namely, the addition of gravy can prevent the entire dish from drying out.

Michigan pasties are a whole meal folded into a pastry shell. Most commonly they are filled with beef and root vegetables then baked until tender. These handheld meat pies are popular with my Yooper neighbors to the north in Michigan's upper peninsula who made these portable meals for Cornish miners.

It's A Portable Pie With History Baked In. Miners favored the pasty due to its portable nature — a small meat pie that could easily be carried into the mines for 12-hour workdays.

The difference between the two is all in the structure, he said. 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.

Cornish and Finnish immigrants settled in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (U.P.) in the 1860s to mine copper and iron ore. The tradition of taking pasties down into the mines continued.