Culinary specialties are a cultural part of a region which we want to experience and taste when we travel. Sometimes we throw our nutritional principles overboard and start looking for them. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan offers some of these specialties. Many are less surprising, such as the numerous fish sandwiches with fried or un-fried whitefish as topping. But then there are also others like the Pasty, not to be confused with a pastry. A pasty has absolutely nothing to do with the light pastry that is associated with Danish pastry, quiches or croissants. “The pasty is a sort of portable beef stew folded into a purse of pie dough and baked to a rich, golden brown. Warmed on a shovel held over a candle, the Cousin Jack’s pasty provided him with a nourishing, well balanced meal no matter how far underground he was working. Together with the vegetables which went into it, it made just the dinner a hard worker required.” I borrowed this description from Agnes Murdoch from her book: Boom Copper; The Story of the first US mining boom.

The miners are also the ones who brought the famous pasty from Cornwall in England to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Those who came to the USA for the first mining boom brought this meal with them and introduced it to the region. Today, there are numerous pastry shops on the peninsula, which offer these in different flavours. We bought one in Minominee in Michigan from a shop that was recommended. It offers the classic beef pasties as well as chicken and vegetable pasties. It is indeed a hearty pastry that lacks any lightness and elegance, but it really serves as a complete meal and satisfies hunger for quite some time. The vegetables, however, are mainly potatoes, which makes the dish not lighter but more authentic.

July 16, 2020 – Klaus