Forever on a search for a pasty that really tastes 'homemade'!

Photos: A Jean Kay pasty; outside views of Dobber's in Escanaba; inside views of Jean Kay's in Marquette.

My mother, Helen Marjorie Roberts Sage, was a fantastic cook, professionally and in the home. As one of five children I grew up with foods such as kreplach and pasties, cooking that she had brought from Ishpeming and Negaunee. Mom used to make pasties in the wee hours of the morning after she had finished one and sometimes two shifts at a local country club. When we awoke, my brother and I would have a pasty for breakfast (we were not a breakfast-orthodox family!) and take a wrapped one for school lunch. Hiding them at school became a challenge, as mine was sometimes stolen from my desk (we didn't always have lockers in my elementary school). The aroma, though, would often give up the culprit.

When I left home, it was first to Houghton, Michigan in the UP. I had no need to make my own pasties there, as pasty makers had certain days during the month for making pasties and people could call in orders. Also, the Kaleva Cafe across the canal, in Hancock, had substantial and extremely tasty 'homemade' pasties.

When I finally started making my own, it took six attempts before I could match the taste of Mom's. She never had a recipe, but I had watched her so often and was always amazed with her skills. My older son asked for a recipe and I had to find the closest I could with proportions and then give him the basic rules: USE RUTABAGA and ground beef! It may be true that I adhere to

the idea that the best pasties use rutabaga only because my mother made them that way. People may show their passion in discussing religion or politics, but never underestimate the passion about pasty ingredients!

Years ago I used to make ethnic food for art fairs (I found it more lucrative than my artwork). My son and I would generally make about three hundred pasties, a couple hundred each kreplach and tamales. A woman once approached me asking her question before even reaching our booth: 'Do you use rutabaga?' When I said 'yes', she began her rant against rutabaga in pasties.

I used to look forward to visiting Grama T's in Negaunee for pasties....great crust and the right mix of ingredients. The last good one I had there was in 2002. While visiting the Hiawatha Music Festival a year or two later, I took my friend with me and I was sadly disappointed. Was it because they had strayed and gone the way of expanding to pasties with cheese, broccoli, etc. or because the shop had been up for sale? When does a pasty stop being a pasty? Their traditional pasty had lost its flavor and my favor.

A couple years ago when in Negaunee/Marquette, I bought four different pasties to take home for a taste test. I rated three very low and one so-so. On this July trip with my aunts and cousins, we tried Dobber's in Escanaba - never again. Lawry's in Marquette - better, but not again...and the potatoes were julienned! Some people would say that one shop's location would have better pasties than their other location, but even if true, I want consistency. The last we tried on this trip was Jean Kay's in Marquette. It was better. It actually had rutabaga, onion and flavor....Cleo and I agreed though...it was still not as good as OUR homemade!

Cleo is a great travel companion, ready to try different things and have fun in the doing. It got to the point where we were almost dissecting each pasty as well as critiquing it. But we never complained about them and always had fun. At one shop I had ordered my pasty, then added a cudighi sandwich to take out also. We got back to the motel, and found the cudighi, but not the pasty! Cudighi is another story...

I'll have to cool down my kitchen, make room in my freezer, and get started! It's so labor intensive, I'll need to psyche myself up for the task. Pasties - so much more to write about them: origin and evolution of recipe and ingredients, sociology of..., short personal stories related to the ubiquitous pasty.