# Yooper Pasties



## Zhizara (Oct 28, 2010)

First let me ask, what is a Yooper?

That being asked, I gather that pasties are like meat pies.  How about some examples and recipes I can try.  

I love the idea of meat pies, but after buying a pre-made package of pie crust, it sat in the freezer for a couple of months because I couldn't figure out what to put in a meat pie.

I finally took some leftover meat and vegetables from a soup I made and made little pies.  It wasn't very good, but I still get hungry for "pasties" when I keep coming across them in my reading.  They just sound so good.


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## Hammster (Oct 28, 2010)

A "Yooper" is from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Yooper=Upper.

Pastie is sort of like a meat/veg pie, but in turnover fashion. It can also contain dessert in one end of it. Typically it will contain cubed beef (round steak seems to work well), veg can range from diced potatoes to carrots to rutabagas to turnips. Also some onion, s/p to taste. 
The dessert area, if you want to put some in one end, can be something like a pie filling.
They are typically cooked without any liquid inside them and are sauced at the table once cracked open with ketchup or brown gravy.

They were intended as a portable, hearty meal for the Cornish, from Cornwall U.K. miners. Hence the name, Cornish Pasties.

Here are some recipes.


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## Selkie (Oct 28, 2010)

Besides the Cornish Miners version as mentioned by Hammster, pasties, by design, can also be found as Scottish Meat Pies, the same construction as a pastie, but contains a lamb stew. And there's a Scottish-American meat pie that uses ground beef (in place of lamb), onion, carrot, potato and LOTS of black pepper.


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## Hammster (Oct 28, 2010)

Selkie,
I haven't seen the Scottish ones. I've had Scottish meat pies at Scottish Highland Games here in San Diego (take that for what it's worth) and they were more of a traditional pie shape and not a turnover shape.


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## Selkie (Oct 28, 2010)

If you want the turnover shaped pies, go to the L.A. Scottish Games...


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## Hammster (Oct 28, 2010)

Hah!! LOL. Interesting to know.


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## Bolas De Fraile (Oct 28, 2010)

*Pies/Pasties*

Most area's of the UK have a traditional pie or pastie, the people of Wigan in Lancashire are refered to as Pie Eaters. Melton Mowbray is the home of Pork Pies made with hot water crust pastry.Steak and Kidney pudding is fantastic. The Cornish Pastie or Tiddy Oggy is one of the best.


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## 4meandthem (Oct 28, 2010)

Sweeny Todd made a great meat pie!


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## bigdaddy3k (Oct 28, 2010)

Hammster said:


> A "Yooper" is from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Yooper=Upper.
> 
> .


 
Not Upper but for the abbreviation U. P. as in UPer


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## Zhizara (Oct 28, 2010)

Thanks guys.  I never would have guessed.  I was thinking something like yuppie.  Now I know.

I appreciate the recipe site.  Now if I can remember how to copy it onto a document so I can make it easier to read and print out for my notebook.  Someone told me here so I have to go find the thread/site..

Thanks again.


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## joesfolk (Oct 28, 2010)

Highlight what you want to copy.  Then press control c.  Then click on where you want to put the information and then click control v.  That should copy your recipe for you.  I think.

I warn you , as good as they are pasties are often very dry.  Do make a gravy.


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## taxlady (Oct 29, 2010)

Zhizara said:


> Thanks guys.  I never would have guessed.  I was thinking something like yuppie.  Now I know.
> 
> ...
> 
> Thanks again.



Me too, but I Googled


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## Zhizara (Oct 29, 2010)

taxlady said:


> Me too, but I Googled



I suppose I could have done that too, but I like getting all the answers from the members here with all the other info and conversations it starts that it didn't even occur to me.

Sally


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## Zhizara (Oct 29, 2010)

Zhizara said:


> Thanks guys.  I never would have guessed.  I was thinking something like yuppie.  Now I know.
> 
> I appreciate the recipe site.  Now if I can remember how to copy it onto a document so I can make it easier to read and print out for my notebook.  Someone told me here so I have to go find the thread/site..
> 
> Thanks again.



If anyone is interested I did find one way to copy recipes that don't want to be copied.  

I used the snippet tool to make a screen shot and pasted it into a document.  I wasn't able to edit it, but I was able to enlarge it as a unit by pulling out the "handles", making it easier to read.


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## snickerdoodle (Oct 29, 2010)

Zhizara said:


> I suppose I could have done that too, but I like getting all the answers from the members here with all the other info and conversations it starts that it didn't even occur to me.
> 
> Sally


 
I 100% agree!


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## sparrowgrass (Oct 29, 2010)

I used to live in iron-mining country in way northern Minnesota.  Here is what I learned about pasties. . . .

Miners took pasties underground, because they were portable.  Their wives made them with heavy crusts to keep them together, and with a thick edge to hold onto.  Miners have dirty hands, so that last little bit of crust that was used as a handle was too dirty to eat.  It wasn't wasted, however.

Down in the mines, there are little mischievous guys called tommyknockers--sorta like leprechauns.  To keep the tommyknockers happy, miners tossed those dirty bits of crust over their shoulders for the tommyknockers to eat.  

Woe betide the miner who didn't do that--he was sure to lose his tools, or his candle would blow out, leaving him in total darkness.


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## sparrowgrass (Oct 29, 2010)

Oh--in my part of Minnesota, REAL pasties are made with cubed beef (or venison), some ground beef suet, and cubed potatoes and rutabaga (beggies).  I don't remember any onions, but some infidels do put carrots in them.

A friend of mine is Cornish, and he says when his granny made them, she waited til the crust was just browned, cut an X in the top, and poured cream over the filling.  Put them back in the oven and cook til the cream bubbles.

My Minnesota friends ate them with ketchup.  

Pasty making is a popular fundraiser for churches--the ladies all gather and make hundreds of them, and people buy them by the dozen.  They do freeze well.

I find them rather flavorless--I prefer a nice southern chicken pot pie with lots of gravy.


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## Hammster (Oct 29, 2010)

sparrowgrass said:


> I find them rather flavorless--


 
That's cause you didn't put onions or carrots in them.


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## Zhizara (Oct 29, 2010)

joesfolk said:


> Highlight what you want to copy.  Then press control c.  Then click on where you want to put the information and then click control v.  That should copy your recipe for you.  I think.
> 
> I warn you , as good as they are pasties are often very dry.  Do make a gravy.



Hey, Joesfolk.  It worked!!  I never would have thought about that since I always copy/paste using the right click.  I'll be smart about it this time and write it down

Thanks for the tip.  Kayelle's idea of pasting into an email worked too.  It just wouldn't do it using the right click to paste into either a Word or OOo document.  Your way is the easiest.  Thanks again.


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## joesfolk (Oct 29, 2010)

I'm glad it worked.  I've never heard of the right click thing.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Oct 30, 2010)

4meandthem said:


> Sweeny Todd made a great meat pie!


 
No he din't!


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## blissful (Oct 30, 2010)

My grandparents (slovenian) started out in the iron ore area of Minnesota and she made these for him when he worked in the mine.
She taught me to make them when we visited with her.
Her crust was much like that listed above (like a pie crust, a little thicker) and she'd put in a little sugar in the dough, she said it helped them brown better.
We'd assemble cubes of venison, potatoes, onions (chopped), infidel-carrots  and rutabagas in a big bowl, make the crust, rolled in a circle, fill with raw ingredients, sprinkle with S&P and top with a slice of butter before folding the crust in half edge to edge and sealing the edges, then baking. 
It's still one of my favorite things to eat. Ketchup, no gravy--that was our traditional way.


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## Sprout (Oct 30, 2010)

sparrowgrass said:


> Oh--in my part of Minnesota, REAL pasties are made with cubed beef (or venison), some ground beef suet, and cubed potatoes and rutabaga (beggies).  I don't remember any onions, but some infidels do put carrots in them.
> 
> A friend of mine is Cornish, and he says when his granny made them, she waited til the crust was just browned, cut an X in the top, and poured cream over the filling.  Put them back in the oven and cook til the cream bubbles.
> 
> ...




Then it's a good thing she asked about Yooper pasties, and not Minnesota pasties, jk.  Imho, carrots and oinions make the pasty. I grew up a little deeper into the UP, but I worked a couple summers in St. Ignace, the southern gate to Yooper country. Of course signs for pasties speckled the scenery. We always had trolls i.e. folks from the lower peninsula (they live below the Mackinac Bridge) and other tourists stopping in and asking what a "pay-stee" was. I always wanted to tell them it was an adhesive patch that certain women use to strategically cover as little as legally necessary. I probably would have gotten in trouble though, so I gently corrected their pronunciation (pass-tee) and explained exactly what Blissful described and to try them with ketchup and a big glass of at least 2%, if not whole milk. They are not for the calorie-conscious, but they're worth it occasionally!


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## DaveSoMD (Oct 30, 2010)

4meandthem said:


> Sweeny Todd made a great meat pie!


 



PrincessFiona60 said:


> No he din't!


 
Correct, Mrs Lovett made the pies, Sweeny just provided the filling. 

Darn now I have that song stuck in my head....


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## angelfadedblue (Nov 7, 2010)

funny, I just had a discussion with Finace about what a Pasty is.. he is from Washington and didnt know. Topic brought up as we passed a local Danish & Pasty store by our new house!

here is a Yupper recipe..  
Pasties II Recipe - Allrecipes.com


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## Bolas De Fraile (Nov 8, 2010)

Blissful Slovenia is a beautiful country with very good food.


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## JMediger (Nov 8, 2010)

We have a Pasty shop near my parents cabin that we frequent and fill the freezer so I've never tried making my own but this thread is proving inspiring!  DH eats them plain but I use ketchup and we both love ones with potatoes, rutabagas, onions and carrots!  As a side note, if you are ever in WI visiting the capitol in Madison, there is a Pasty restaurant (hole in the wall really) about 2 blocks away that is to die for.  They have about 12 types of Pasties hot and ready and you buy them by the 1/2 or whole.  Delicious!


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## snickerdoodle (Nov 8, 2010)

JMediger said:


> They have about 12 types of Pasties hot and ready and you buy them by the 1/2 or whole. Delicious!


 
12 different types??  I didn't know there was such variety.  I need to explore that.  Maybe I can find one with a filling that dh would like.


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## Sprout (Nov 8, 2010)

A little pizza place in my home town served "Pizza Pasties." They were really just a large pizza crust topped, folded in half, and baked. They were amazing. The place is now under new ownership no longer serves them. I've tried calzones and the like from other places, but they're just not the same...


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## porky (Nov 14, 2010)

Does anyone still put suet in their pasties.  My mom used to use it ... sure tasted good!


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## Selkie (Nov 14, 2010)

*Suet?* - Pure beef or mutton fat collected from around the kidneys!?

I don't make mince meat pie from the old fashioned recipes.

It's about 850 calories per 3.5 oz. which is too high for me to consider using for anything more than mixing with seed and feeding to the birds.


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## joesfolk (Nov 14, 2010)

I suspect that some folks do still use suet but these days it's not pc to admit that you use animal fats.  I use lard in my pie crust and I justify it because it works so much better than shortening and since I only make a few pies per year I don't think I am hurting anyone.  But there are those in my aquaintance who would be horrified to hear of this practice.  To each his own.


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## taxlady (Nov 14, 2010)

joesfolk said:


> I suspect that some folks do still use suet but these days it's not pc to admit that you use animal fats.  I use lard in my pie crust and I justify it because it works so much better than shortening and since I only make a few pies per year I don't think I am hurting anyone.  But there are those in my aquaintance who would be horrified to hear of this practice.  To each his own.



I use lard too. I know what it is (I have rendered fat into lard myself). It has fewer weird chemicals. It's reasonably low in trans fats. And, of course, it works really well.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Nov 14, 2010)

joesfolk said:


> I suspect that some folks do still use suet but these days it's not pc to admit that you use animal fats. I use lard in my pie crust and I justify it because it works so much better than shortening and since I only make a few pies per year I don't think I am hurting anyone. But there are those in my aquaintance who would be horrified to hear of this practice. To each his own.


 
A friend of mine and I go to the store twice a year and blithely buy pounds of lard for our Tamales.  If people don't like it, they don't have to eat them.  But, we never seem to get anyone who turns them down.


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## Selkie (Nov 14, 2010)

Suet and lard are two different things entirely. Suet comes from around either beef or mutton kidneys. It's not just ordinary fat, whereas lard is rendered pork fat... a different critter and process.

I use lard for making pie crusts too, although fortunately for my weight, 4 out of 5 pies I bake end up on someone elses table.


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## joesfolk (Nov 14, 2010)

I think our Latin American friends are much more accepting of meat fat as a general rule.  Frankly I would rather use lard than say something that I consider more artificial like margarine.  Give me a pound of butter anytime!


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## PrincessFiona60 (Nov 14, 2010)

If a recipe calls for margarine, I use butter, if it calls for shortening, I use lard.


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## taxlady (Nov 14, 2010)

PrincessFiona60 said:


> If a recipe calls for margarine, I use butter, if it calls for shortening, I use lard.



Same here.


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## joesfolk (Nov 14, 2010)

Fatheads Unite!


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## PrincessFiona60 (Nov 14, 2010)

joesfolk said:


> Fatheads Unite!


 
Now, just who you calling a Fathead?


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## joesfolk (Nov 14, 2010)

Maybe it should have been meathead!   Present company Accepted!  Yes, I meant the A.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Nov 14, 2010)

joesfolk said:


> Maybe it should have been meathead! Present company Accepted! Yes, I meant the A.


 
You called that one right!


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## Bolas De Fraile (Nov 15, 2010)

My Suet crust Saltbeef/Cornedbeef Pasty
Combine suet, plain flour, water using the same ratio as for short crust pastry, rest and roll thinner than usual.
Filling, cube your cooked saltbeef, fry onions,pots and swede slowly till the onions are translucent(small cubes)add saltbeef mix up, cool, fill pasty eggwash and bake, serve with baked beads and daddies brown sauce.


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