This recipe is courtesy of the Butte Heritage Cookbook, I have made a few alterations. Butte, Montana was a big mining town and the Butte Pasty became a working man's staple. It is filled with steak, potatoes and onion! It is extremely delicious and if you have a working man or woman in your life why not make it for them?
Mining towns in the Rocky Mountains were responsible for establishing beef ranches to feed all the influx of workers. Beef ranches arose to feed the all the new residents and back then the beef was all grass-fed! Many of the miners in Butte, came from Ireland where they brought a tradition of meat pies much like the Irish Dingle pie. I used the La Cense flank steak, here is how pretty the filling looked:
Ingredients:
1 La Cense Grass-fed Flank Steak, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 large tablespoon butter, melted
salt and pepper
1 cup diced rutabagas (if desired)
1 medium sized potato, diced
For Pasty Dough:
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup butter or lard
1/4 cup cold water
Preparation: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder together; then cut room-temperature butter into the dough, kneed as you would pie dough. (This recipe makes 2 pasties) For one pasty, take 1/2 the dough and roll into shape and size of pie plate. Mix the filling together and season with salt and fresh cracked pepper. Pile half the filling mixture on only half the round of pie dough. Sprinkle with hot butter. Fold the dough over the filling, pressing edges together well.
Cut slit in top of each into which a teaspoon of hot water should be poured occasionally to keep from drying out. Bake 45 minutes in hot (400) or until will browned. Then reduce to 350 for 15 minutes. Enjoy!
