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

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Michigan Pasty Recipe | Yummy Beef Pasties w Vegetables + Easy Dough (1)

By Sherry Trautman

Michigan Pasty Recipe: Fresh, Delicious, and Filling! Beef and Vegetable

Traditional Michigan Pasty Recipe | Beef Pasties with Vegetables + Easy Dough Recipe From A Yooper| Last updated: March 3, 2023 | By: Sherry Trautman | Travel-Mi.com

If you have ever crossed into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, you will see several small mom and pop stores/restaurants selling Upper Peninsula Pasties. It was a staple with the miners as this simple and filling meal could be easily transported and eaten in the copper mines.

So guys, I just wanted to clarify that these beef pasties with vegetables are seriously legit good. Speaking of legit, Chris is a born and raised Yooper (from Michigan's Upper Peninsula). His mom lives in the Houghton region and we love visiting as often as possible. She and Larry love to make homemade pasties or pasty pie and so do we!

See How I Make Pasties and Roll The Crust!

Michigan Pasties: Fresh, Delicious, and Filling! Beef and Vegetable

Easy Upper Michigan Pasty Recipe: Beef and Vegetable Pasties

    This makes about 6 pasties. This deliciouspasty recipe utilizes ground beef but you can leave it out to make a vegetable pasty.
  • 1 pound ground chuck
  • 2 russet potatoes, diced
  • 1 cup onion, diced (about 1 medium sized onion-I prefer sweet onions, by the way)
  • 1/2 cup rutabaga
  • 2-3 carrots, diced
  • 2 celery stalks, diced
  • 1 tsp garlic, diced
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • Optional: Egg for an egg wash

Michigan Pasties: Fresh, Delicious, and Filling! Beef and Vegetable

Super EasyMichigan Pasty Dough Recipe

    Yield: 6 dough balls
  • 3 cups of flour, sifted (I use King Arthur flour)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup Crisco (I use sticks)
  • 1/2 cup very cold water

Dice your onions, potatoes, rutabaga!

Huge Rutabaga for Pasties!

So, this is a rutabaga!

If you are worried about not liking the taste of rutabagas, they are very mild with a bit of a spicy zing. Very potato-like. Just buy a small one-I bought a huge one and didn't need even half of it for this Michigan pasty recipe.

OH MAN...rutabagas are super hard to cut! You will need a good knife, like a heavy steel blade to cut a larger one. Be SUPER careful. It's not easy like a potato.

Peel and chop it.

Diced onions, celery, rutabaga, carrots and spices: Ready for this pasty recipe!

Directions: Let's Make Michigan Beef Pasties!

  1. Wash, peel, chop or dice your vegetables to small bite sized pieces.
  2. Place vegetables in a large bowl.
  3. Add your spices
  4. Add your raw beef to the vegetables and mix by hand.

Diced onions, celery, rutabaga, carrots and spices plus the beef

Directions: Michigan Pasty Dough

Get messy! Use your hands to mix the pasty dough!

  1. Mix your sifted flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Add the shortening (Crisco) and incorporate with a pastry blade (see my video above). Once the shortening is cut into the flour and is the size of a tiny pea, it's time to get messy!
  3. Add the ice cold water
  4. You will need to get in there with your hands (washed first!) to properly incorporate the Crisco into the flour and salt mixture. Don't add more water until it is completely mixed.
  5. Don't over mix, I try to do this as quickly as possible to keep the dough cold and not allow the shortening to begin to melt from the heat of my hands. We want flaky crusts!
  6. The dough for this pasty recipe makes 6 balls.

Let's Assemble Our Michigan Beef Pasties with Vegetables

We are almost there! So, next take a rolling pin and roll out each of the six dough balls into as close to a circle as you can get. I made mine about 10 inches; you need it bigger than you think to allow room for the filling.

At this point, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

  1. Place 1 cup of the raw meat/vegetable mixture on one half of the dough.
  2. Fold the other half of the dough over the meat mixture.
  3. Tuck the bottom dough over the top and roll upward to seal in the meat mixture.
  4. Optional: In a small bowl, beat one egg with a fork and brush the egg onto the finished pasties to create a golden color after baking. So pretty!
  5. Place your finished pasties on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
  6. Bake uncovered for about 1 hour.

** See my video above! I attempt this one handed while videoing!

Add 1 cup of raw meat/vege mix onto the rolled dough

Roll the bottom layer of the dough over the top layer to seal to the mixture inside the dough

Let's Bake Our Beef Pasties! This Upper Michigan Pasty Recipe Looks so Delicious!

Bake the pasties in a preheated oven for about 1 hour!

Bake your beautiful Michigan beef pasties at 350 degrees for about 1 hour until they are golden brown! We like to eat them with ketchup just like the Yoopers in Upper Michigan! So delicious and filling! We hope you love this Michigan pasty recipe.

YouTube Video Below

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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.

How long does it take to cook pasties in the oven? ›

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. These are a guideline as ovens do tend to differ - Yours may have different settings, so please adjust accordingly.

What was in the original pasty? ›

These pasties (and the alleged venison pasty 1660s London diarist Samuel Pepys suspected was actually beef) were little more than cuts of meat wrapped in pastry dough. By then the Cornish pasty—made from chipped beef, potatoes, swedes (rutabagas) and onions—had already taken its place in Cornwall's regional cuisine.

What are the rules for pasty? ›

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.

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).

Why do my pasties have soggy bottoms? ›

Wet pie fillings + raw dough are a tricky combination. If the bottom crust doesn't set before the filling soaks in, it's going to be gummy. A metal pie pan placed on a preheated surface will set the bottom crust quickest; once cooked, the liquids from the filling above won't soak in, and as a result: no soggy bottom.

How do you keep pasties moist? ›

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.

How do you know when pasties are cooked? ›

If you think it's ready, put a knife or skewer through the top of the Pasty, then pull it out and feel the skewer, to check that the Pasty is piping hot all the way through.

What is the difference between a pasty and a pastry? ›

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.

Who brought pasties to Michigan? ›

The resulting onslaught of laborers from Cornwall, England, brought over the pasty. The Cornish miners favored the dish due to its portable nature — a small meat pie that could easily be carried into the mines for 12-hour workdays. In 1864, an even bigger wave of Finnish immigrants flooded the area.

What is the most expensive pasty in the world? ›

You won't find this in Greggs! Chef creates world's most expensive Cornish pasty with Japanese Wagyu beef, French onions and Indian peppercorns... with a £230 price tag.

What are the 5 types of pasty? ›

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.

What is the end of a pasty called? ›

The crust (crimp) served as a 'handle' – a means of holding the pasty with dirty hands without contaminating the meal. Arsenic commonly accompanies tin within the ore that they were mining so, to avoid arsenic poisoning, the crimp was an essential part of the pasty.

What is the best material to make pasties out of? ›

Buckram. Buckram is a material that is most often found in things like the lining of hats. It is a firm material that can be molded to whatever shape you create when it's damp, and then it dries in that form. Buckram is a great material to line your pasties so that you can apply adhesives and make them more durable.

What material are pasties made of? ›

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.

What is the difference between a Cornish pasty and a yooper pasty? ›

The traditional Cornish pasty has sliced vegetables while the evolved Yooper pasty has diced vegetables. The correct way to eat a pasty is from the top down, so if you don't finish the two pound pastry you can save it for later.

Why are pasties so popular in Michigan? ›

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.

What pastry are pasties made from? ›

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.

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