Anyone who is familiar with the Upper Peninsula of Michigan knows that a pasty is a very important aspect of culture in the UP.

It has been mentioned before, but for anyone who doesn’t know: Hailey and I both went to school in the UP (and if you don’t care, I don’t care that you don’t care. You’re on my blog and you must read what I write muahaha).

If you want to learn more about the mining industry and the importance of pasties in the UP of Michigan, go read about it somewhere else – I am not a historian. A great option is: History of the Pasty.

This is a more traditional style pasty, using venison as the meat. Next week I will be posting a more non-traditional pasty flavor: Reuben pasty.

This recipe should take about 2 hours to make a big batch of pasties. 1 hour of active work and 1 hour of baking!

Ingredients

• Crust (8 servings):
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 cup butter, cubed (2 sticks of butter)
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 cup ice water
• Insides:
  • 1.5lb Ground Venison (or any other meat – get crazy see if I care)
  • 1.5lbs Potatoes (3-4 medium potatoes), diced
  • 1 Rutabaga, peeled and diced
  • 1 Onion, diced
  • Optional: butter

Recipe – Dough

1. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and cubed butter into a bowl (or food processor/kitchen mixer)
2. Slowly add in the cold water while kneading together the dough (very similar to pie crust)
3. Don’t over mix this! Once it is combined, wrap this up and put it in the fridge to chill more while you make the insides

Recipe – pasty insides

1. Prepare the veggies: Peel and dice the rutabaga, dice the potatoes, dice the onions.
2. Combine the veggies and meat in a big bowl, add seasonings (salt + pepper, etc.)
3. Preheat the oven to 350°
4. Separate the dough into 8 sections, and roll out (ideally like 10″ diameter)
5. Fill half of the pasty with the insides, leaving room on the edges
   • This will take some getting used to, but I try to fill it as much as possible
6. Optional: Add some butter to the top of the filling to add extra fat)
7. Fold the top of the pasties and roll over the sides on itself (idk if that makes sense just fold it how you want). Crimp with a fork to seal the edges.
8. Bake in the oven for 45min-1 hour.
   • Ideally the bottom is more crispy than moist
9. Enjoy with ketchup or gravy (I use ketchup)

If you have venison you most likely have a hunter in the family that butchers a deer. If that is the case, I have a great venison stock recipe that could be of interest to you!

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