An Upper Peninsula pasty from Jacob Taylor of Marquette, Michigan.

The recipe appears in The Mad Feast , a madcap tour of American culinary practice and tradition, by Matthew Gavin Frank. It was given to him by Jacob Taylor of Marquette, Michigan. Unfortunately Frank has given us no other information about Mr. Taylor. His recipe is a good one. Twelve pasties.

For the pastry:

• 4 cups flour
• 1 1/3 cups lard (preferred) or other shortening
• 1¼ teaspoons salt
• 4 Tablespoons or a little more icewater

For the filling:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 minced onions
• 4-5 big brown potatoes, peeled and cut into ¼ inch cubes
• a small yellow turnip, peeled and cut into ¼ inch cubes
• salt and pepper

1. Put the flour into a dough mixer followed by the other pastry ingredients into a countertop KitchenAid or other dough mixer; start with 4 tablespoons water and mix the dough until it forms a ball. Dribble another 1 or 2 teaspoons water if required to get the dough to adhere. ( see the Notes)
2. Cut the dough into 12 equal portions and roll each one out into a 6 or 7 inch disc.

Preheat the oven to 400˚.

3. Mix together the filling ingredients and divide it among each disc.
4. Fold the pastry over the filling to form semicircles and crimp the edges of each one.
5. Bake the pasties until the crust turns gold and the temperature of the filling reaches 165˚, usually in about an hour.

Notes:

-If you do not have a dough mixer you can of course knead the dough by hand. Handle it as little as possible.

-“The U.P. pasty, Frank notes, “when compared to the Cornish variety, contained larger chunks of vegetable, a higher ratio of vegetable to meat, encased in a thinner crust.” The otherwise are indistinguishable.

-Mr. Taylor recommends serving his pasties with ketchup or gravy.