A whole ton of pasty lore, recipes and even a pasty video!
Wandering West Michigan's Josh Leo took a trip to Houghton where he got the answer to "What is a Pasty?".The Cultural Context of the Pasty (yes, the pasty is that important) tells of the history of the pasty:
The pasty came to the Upper Peninsula through Cornwall England. When tin mining started going bad in England during the 1800's the Cornish miners immigrated to America hoping to earn there fortunes in newly developing mines ... When the Cornish came to the copper mines of the Upper Peninsula, they brought with them a lot of mining knowledge which the other ethnic groups did not have. The other ethnic groups looked up to the Cornish and wanted to emulate their mining successes. Many Cornish practices were then copied by the other ethnic groups, including the pasty as the standard lunch for miners. The pasty became popular with these other ethnic groups because it was small, portable, was very filling, and could stay warm for 8-10 hours.
This site from Michigan Tech has a number of pasty recipes as well and you can get even more pasty recipes from Tony Wesley. While traditional pasties usually contain potatoes, carrots and meat, you can fill them with pretty much watever you want. My personal favorite filling is black beans, potatoes, onions, salsa and asiago cheese.
If all this sounds like too much trouble, you can always hop over to Pasty.com's Pasty Central to buy pasties online. Pasty Central is an employee-owned company in Calumet, Michigan that has shipped over 300,000 pasties. They also have great photos and links for the UP.
8 Comments
Thanks for using my picture. I didn't make the pasty, so I'm not sure about the fold. It tasted good though.
BTW, I went to school at Michigan Tech.
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There are a couple of really great pasty places along US 2 as well as around NMU's campus in Marquette. All of the best places are practically anonymous and even with a troll pass, you have to beg a Yooper to tell you where to find the best of the best.
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Many years ago My Grandfather, Louis C. Gerbec lived in Houghton for most of his life and was Chief of Police, Then a County Comissioner. Anyway As we always visited Houghton and then on to Jamestown to the cottage, during the summer my favorite memories are swimming in Lake Superior and then back to eat all the pastys we could. We would buy them or my grandparents would hand make for us. Of course They always did like to spoil us..Thanks for the memories on this site.
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I'm driving through the UP right now, stuck at a detour of course, and was wondering what pasties were. Thanks! I might pull off and get one
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I may get kicked out of my wife's family for my perversion of the family pasty recipe: http://marty-littlebites.blogspot.com/ Do you know of any traditional pasties that use bacon and / or fresh herbs?
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We lived in lower Michigan but visited the UP each summer as my father's family were in the Negaunee/Ishpeming area. We had family reunions and while other families ate fried chicken and potato salad we had pasties and Cross and Blackwell Mustard Pickle. I live in western Wisconsin now and we recently got a pretty good pasty place. Yum!
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My wife is a Finn from Michigan , who still makes pasties . The recipe has been handed down to our sons families . Its good hot or cold .
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I'm a Michigander by birth, I was visiting Mac City earlier this month and stopped to pick up a dozen pasties. Brought them home all the way to Florida to share with friends. They all liked them. Got them at the Pasties Co. ( Good Eats );o}
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