Yooper Pasty
Yooper Pasty – Comfort Food for Cool Days
Some of you may know that I grew up in Michigan, and spent 5 years living in the Upper Peninsula. Last week, I was feeling a little homesick for the U.P., especially with the cool weather and spring feeling so far away, and yet so close! So, I figured for all of those not familiar with the Yooper Pasty, it would be a great topic for this blog! It is a very flexible and affordable recipe. A Yooper Pasty is very similar to a Cornish Pasty – as a matter of fact, it is believed to originate from miners who settled in the U.P. originally from Cornwall, England.
This was a good solution for miners who didn’t want arsenic poisoning during that time, as they could hold the pie with their hands and pour the insides into their mouths and then toss the crust. Some families also added in a dessert on the end of the pie, and the miner’s initials on the dessert end. That way, the miner could eat the meal first, and follow it with dessert!
Okay, enough on the history. If you’ve ever had a pasty before, you’ll know how you feel about them. However, if you haven’t tried them, imagine a meatloaf or a beef pot pie without a gravy on the inside, all rolled into a pie. Mmmm! Anyhow, there’s so many recipes out there, but my advice is to use whatever pie crust or dough you’d usually use, along with the meat and veggies you have on hand. That was how the miner’s wives did it back in the day, and there’s no shame in you doing the same!
Recipe & Variations:
The recipe I used is a well referenced and used traditional recipe, published in historical newspapers, and various places on social media:
- pie crust for 2 double crust pies
- 1 pound round steak, cut into 1/4″ cubes
- 1/2 pound pork, cubed
- 2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped (1 1/2 cups)
- 3/4 cups coarsely chopped carrots
- 1/2 cup chopped rutabaga
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp butter
Like I said above, go ahead and use what you have available, but most important is the onions and potatoes. I’ve seen all the other ingredients be substituted. For instance, you can put steak, ground beef, venison, or even just mushrooms as the meat. If you hate rutabagas (please don’t hate them, they are just misunderstood), you can use sweet potato, carrot, or other root veggies. A great variation is to add spices – rosemary is really delicious!
In this particular recipe, I used ground beef, rutabaga, turnips, and carrots with, of course, potatoes and onions.
Helpful Hints:
The most important note to consider when making the crust is to use very cold butter if you make it from scratch. Also, please don’t use a regular pre-cooked pie crust – you need to be able to shape it. In either case, ensure that your dough is cool before you divide and roll it (best practice is to wrap and place in refrigerator for ~30 minutes).
The standard size is roughly 4 oz of dough, rolled into a 10 inch oval, and filled with ~10 oz of filling. Top the filling with a tablespoon of butter. Next, ensure a tight seal when folding over. You can use a fork, crimp, or roll the edges and tuck on the edges. I folded, crimped lightly with my fingers, then used a fork to ensure a good seal.
Finally, cut a few slits at the top and add any decorations you’d like. The most common styling is to cut 3 slits out from the center, and carve the initials of each person in one end. In our house, we don’t change the inside, but this is super helpful if one person doesn’t like onions or doesn’t eat pork (or is a monster who hates rutabagas).
Bake:
After styling your pasty (it doesn’t have to be very pretty, just functional), place on a greased sheet pan and dust with butter or egg wash. Bake until cooked golden. (This amount will vary based on whether you pre-cooked your meat, how much filling you put in, and how thinly you rolled your dough. I placed everything in raw, and cooked for roughly 45 minutes at 350°F. I also used an egg wash to get the crisp and golden color above.
Allow to cool until you can touch the pasty for 3 seconds without burning your finger (you want to eat it while it’s warm, but you probably don’t want to burn yourself, but you do you!). You can eat it on a plate or with your hands!
Presentation Variation:
This depends on your personal preference. For a first timer, I’d set it up all 3 ways to determine your favorite way to eat a pasty!
- Alone. With your hands. Eat it plain. It’s pretty good this way, but it can be a little dry, even though it is delicious.
- With Gravy. I’d match the gravy to your filling meat, but that’s not really required. Serve it with gravy by either spooning it on top and eating with a fork, or simply dunking it in a small bowl of gravy. Both ways are pretty delicious, but sometimes the pie crust gets a little mushy. Some people just eat quickly to get around this.
- With Ketchup. Honestly, my favorite. You can control the amount, you don’t need to much, and it gives a great balance between saucy and dry. If you want to be more health conscious, you can have home made ketchup (catsup, if you prefer) or low-sugar ketchup. I just put some on the top, and eat with a fork. Similar to gravy, you can also dip the pasty into ketchup if you wish.
