History of the Pasty

When one thinks of gifts from other cultures that carry with them great historical significance, one usually doesn’t think of food.  In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan there is a food delicacy that has gone ethnic to multi-ethnic and finally to regional.  To many people in the Upper Peninsula, the pasty is much more than food, it is an identifying cultural mark that gives them their own identity.  While it is a source of great pride to this region, the pasty itself, especially its ancient history is shrouded in mystery.

        The easiest way to describe a pasty, is a pot pie without the pot.  Nobody knows for sure where and when the pasty originated.  It’s thought to have been invented when the preparation of food became an art rather than roasting a hunk of meat on a stick.  The pasty came to the Upper Peninsula through Cornwall England.  When tin mining started going bad in England during the 1800’s the Cornish miners immigrated to America hoping to earn there fortunes in newly developing mines.  No one knows for sure

though whether the Cornish invented the pasty, or whether they picked it up from some other group.  Mrs.  R.F. Ellis of Cornwall insist that the

Cornish invented it and that it is a diminutive of the star gazed pie, which is a type of pie baked with fish, such that the fish heads stick out of the pie.  Others think the Vikings may have brought the pasty to the British Isles when they invaded.  And another theory states that it may have been derived from the Italian “pasta”, since the Cornish were considered to be great seamen.

        Textually, the earliest known reference to the pasty contribute it to the Cornish.  From 1150 to 1190 a man by the name of Chretien de Troyes wrote several Arthurian romances for the Countess of Champagne.  In one of them, Eric and Enide, it mentions pasties:  “Next Guivret opened a chest and took out two pasties.  “my friend,” says he, “now try a little of these cold pasties And you shall drink wine mixed with water….” ” Both Guivret and Eric came from various parts of what today is considered Cornwall.

        Pasties are also mentioned in the Robin Hood ballads of the 1300’s “Bred on chese, butre and milk, pastees and flaunes.”  and “Thys knight swolewed, in throte noght pering/ More then doth a pastay in onen tryly!”  The pasty was not unique to England by this time, a French Chronicler, Jean Froissart (1337-1414) wrote “with botelles of wyne trusses at their sadelles, and pastyes of samonde, troutes, and eyls, wrapped in towels” Today the French call the pasty, tourtiere.  The pasty has even shown up in a William Shakespeare play.  In the Merry Wives of Windsor (1600) “come, we have a hot pasty to dinner”

        When the Cornish came to the copper mines of the Upper Peninsula, they brought with them a lot of mining knowledge which the other ethnic groups did not have.  The other ethnic groups looked up to the Cornish and wanted to emulate their mining successes.  Many Cornish practices were then copied by the other ethnic groups, including the pasty as the standard lunch for miners.  The pasty became popular with these other ethnic groups because it was small, portable, was very filling, and could stay warm for 8-10 hours.  Pasty rivalry occurred between the Finns, Swedes, Irish, Poles, Germans, Scots, Italians and French with each group contributing something in the way of seasoning and other ingredients.  All groups agree that pasties must contain two things, potatoes and onions.  The portability of the pasty not only made it easy to carry, but if it should get cold it would be relatively easy to heat up.  This was done by putting the pasty on a shovel and holding it over a head-lamp candle.  Miners never ate a pasty with a fork, they ate it end to end, and held it upright to keep the juices in.  Since entire Cornish families worked in mines and each member of the family wanted different ingredients in the pasty, the Cornish wife would stamp the bottom corner of each pasty with an initial.  According to the Cornish Recipes Ancient and Modern, “The true Cornish way to eat a pasty is to hold it in the hand, and begin to bite it from the opposite end to the initial, so that, should any of it be uneaten, it may be consumed later by its rightful owner.  And woe betide anyone who take’s another person’s corner!”  There was a superstition among the Cornish miner’s that the initial corner should not be eaten, instead it was dropped on the ground for the mining gremlins to eat.  These “gremlins” caused mischief in mines, causing accidents and mine collapses, feeding them supposedly kept them out of trouble.  There is

some truth to this rumor, because the early Cornish tin mines had large amounts of arsenic, by not eating the corner which the miners held, they kept themselves from consuming large amounts of arsenic.

        The pasty survived the collapse of mining because it became extremely popular with the major ethnic group to remain after the mines closed, the Fins.  In 1864 a small wave of Fins came to the UP, well after the Cornish were established, when the big mining wave of Fins came 30 years later, they probably learned pasty making from the older Fins, not the Cornish.  The pasty resembles the Finish foods, piiraat and kuuko, so when the new Fins saw their countrymen carrying it in a pail, they thought that it was the Fins who invented the pasty.  Since there was a similar food in Finland, it was easier for the new Fins to adopt it.  During Finish “ethnic” celebrations the pasty is often featured as a “Finnish” specialty.

        The pasty remains relatively unchanged today, a few places have put in healthier vegetable shortening instead of lard, and a couple of other minor changes like the cut of meat used.  It’s importance in this area can be seen at local fund raisers for local groups and charities.  Local food businesses make and sell anywhere from 50 to 100 pasties every day!

Pasty Legends:

        From the cookbook Cornish Recipes Ancient and Modern, “It is said that the Devil never crossed the Tamar into Cornwall on account of the well-known habit of Cornish women of putting everything into a pasty, and that he was not sufficiently courageous to risk such a fate!  However, that may be, the Cornish pasty, in its various forms, is a delectable dainty and deservedly world famous.”

        During the 1890’s a pasty actually started a mine fire.  What happened is a miner forgot about his meal warming on a shovel.  The pasty eventually caught fire (because of the high amounts of lard) and spread to the timber holding the walls up.

Ref: http://www.hu.mtu.edu/vup/pasty/history.htm

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I recently made my broccoli salad recipe for a friends bbq, but forgot to steal some for myself. I remembered that I kept the stems from the broccoli and decided to see if I could make an amazing broccoli stem salad.

This video is the result. Enjoy!

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Ratatouille (/ˌrætəˈtuːi/ RAT-ə-TOO-ee, French: [ʁatatuj] ), Occitan: ratatolha [ʀataˈtuʎɔ] , is a French Provençal dish of stewed vegetables, originating in Nice, and sometimes referred to as ratatouille niçoise (French: [niswaz]). Recipes and cooking times differ widely, but common ingredients include tomato, garlic, onion, courgette (zucchini), aubergine (eggplant), capsicum (bell pepper), and some combination of leafy green herbs common to the region.

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The word ratatouille derives from the Occitan ratatolha and is related to the French ratouiller and tatouiller, expressive forms of the verb touiller, meaning “to stir up”. From the late 18th century, in French, it merely indicated a coarse stew. The modern ratatouille – tomatoes as a foundation for sautéed garlic, onion, zucchini, aubergine (eggplant), bell pepper, marjoram, fennel and basil, or bay leaf and thyme, or a mix of green herbs like herbes de Provence – does not appear in print until c. 1930.

In 2007 Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios released the film Ratatouille. The film features Remy, a young rat with an exceptional sense of taste and smell who dreams of becoming a chef. The climax of the film sees Remy prepare the titular dish in the form of confit byaldi for the notoriously harsh food critic Anton Ego, who unexpectedly loves the dish due to childhood nostalgia for his mother’s cooking. The movie gave widespread exposure to this meal in American culture and around the world.

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Pączki are deep-fried pieces of dough shaped into spheres and filled with confiture or other sweet filling. Pączki are usually covered with powdered sugar, icing, glaze or bits of dried orange zest. A small amount of grain alcohol (traditionally rectified spirit) is added to the dough before cooking; as it evaporates, it prevents the absorption of oil deep into the dough. Pączki are commonly thought of as fluffy but somewhat collapsed, with a bright stripe around them; these features are seen as evidence that the dough was fried in fresh oil.

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This recipe is a way to make Paczki healthier. They are baked in the oven!

Pączki have been known in Poland at least since the Middle Ages. Jędrzej Kitowicz has described that during the reign of Augustus III, under the influence of French cooks who came to Poland, pączki dough was improved, so that pączki became lighter, spongier, and more resilient.

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• 1 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 packet = 7 grams instant/dry active yeast
  

• 2/3 cup milk warmed to 120°F for instant/110°F for dry active yeast
• 3 Tablespoons canola oil
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• about 1/4 cup extra flour
  
• 1 Tablespoon melted butter
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• filling of your choice
  
  Custard Filling:
• 1/4 C sugar
• 4 tsp. cornstarch
• 1 C milk
• 1 egg yolk

Recipe inspired by Jenny Can Cook Polish Donut Paczki

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Hey everyone! I just got a new Wok from Amazon this week. It was a recommendation from Souped Up Recipe’s cook Mandy.

 In this video, we will be taking a look at the unboxing of the package as well as how to properly season a carbon steel wok in an oven. 

 Woks are used in a range of Chinese cooking techniques, including stir frying, steaming, pan frying, deep frying, poaching, boiling, braising, searing, stewing, making soup, smoking and roasting nuts.  Wok cooking is often done with utensils called chahn (spatula) or hoak (ladle) whose long handles protect cooks from high heat. 

The wok’s most distinguishing feature is its shape. Classic woks have a rounded bottom. Hand-hammered woks are sometimes flipped inside out after being shaped, giving the wok a gentle flare to the edge that makes it easier to push food up onto the sides of the wok.  Woks sold in Western countries are sometimes found with flat bottoms—this makes them more similar to a deep frying pan. The flat bottom allows the wok to be used on an electric stove, where a rounded wok would not be able to fully contact the stove’s heating element.  A round bottom wok enables the traditional round spatula or ladle to pick all the food up at the bottom of the wok and toss it around easily; this is difficult with a flat bottom. With a gas hob, or traditional pit stove, the bottom of a round wok can get hotter than a flat wok and so is better for stir frying. 

 Most woks range from 300 to 360 mm (12 to 14 in) or more in diameter. Woks of 360 mm (14 in) (suitable for a family of 3 or 4) are the most common, but home woks can be found as small as 200 mm (8 in) and as large as 910 mm (36 in). Smaller woks are typically used for quick cooking techniques at high heat such as stir frying (Chinese: 炒; pinyin: chǎo). Large woks over a meter wide are mainly used by restaurants or community kitchens for cooking rice or soup, or for boiling water. 

 Seasoning or curing is the process of treating the surface of a cooking vessel with heated fat or oil in order to produce a corrosion-resistant and stick-resistant coating. It is required for cast-iron cookware and carbon steel, which otherwise rust rapidly when heated in the presence of oxygen and water, even in small quantities such as in drippings from dry meat. In addition, food tends to stick to unseasoned iron and carbon steel cookware. Some cast-iron and carbon steel cookware is pre-seasoned by manufacturers, but most needs to be seasoned by the users.

Ay Chung Rice Noodles 阿宗麵線 can be found in it’s original form in Ximen Taiwan. They are well known throughout the country as making some of the best “mien xian” on the island. I would like to share my copy cat recipe with you.

If you love the flavor of the sea, warm Asian soups and are open to trying something truly authentic, then this is the recipe for you!

300g oyster meat fresh / frozen
130g mee sua (chinese wheat flour noodle)
2 tbsp sweet potato starch or corn starch
⅓ cup fried shallots
1 tsp dark soy sauce
4 tbsp cornstarch mix with 4 Tbsp water (adjust to desired consistency)
Fresh coriander
Black vinegar
1 large or a few small dried cuttlefish
3.5 C water
3.5 C chicken stock
20g sliced ginger
8 cloves garlic crushed or bruised
50g dried shaved bonito
1 tbsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp rice wine
1 tbsp light soy sauce

Happy Cooking,
UB

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Today I would like to show you how to make store bought ramen… Better!

Ramen is kind of Taiwan’s fast food. It’s sold in many stores like Family Mart, 7-11 and all major supermarkets like RT Mart.

Ramen (/ˈrɑːmən/) (拉麺, ラーメン, rāmen, IPA: [ɾaꜜːmeɴ]) is a Japanese noodle soup. It consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat or (occasionally) fish-based broth, often flavored with soy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as sliced pork (叉焼, chāshū), nori (dried seaweed), menma, and scallions. Nearly every region in Japan has its own variation of ramen, such as the tonkotsu (pork bone broth) ramen of Kyushu, and the miso ramen of Hokkaido.

In 1958, instant noodles were invented by Momofuku Ando, the Taiwanese-Japanese founder and chairman of Nissin Foods. Named the greatest Japanese invention of the 20th century in a Japanese poll, instant ramen allowed anyone to make an approximation of this dish simply by adding boiling water.

Beginning in the 1980s, ramen became a Japanese cultural icon and was studied around the world. At the same time, local varieties of ramen were hitting the national market and could even be ordered by their regional names. A ramen museum opened in Yokohama in 1994.

Today ramen is one of Japan’s most popular foods, with Tokyo alone containing around 5,000 ramen shops, and more than 24,000 ramen shops across Japan. Tsuta, a ramen restaurant in Tokyo’s Sugamo district, received a Michelin star in December 2015.

Ramen restaurants were particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, with 34 chains filing for bankruptcy by September 2020. Ramen restaurants are typically narrow and seat customers closely, making social distancing difficult.

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UB

#Ramen #superramen #instantnoodles #instantramen #unclebillskitchen

You asked for it, so here it is. In this video I teach you how to make air fryer ultimate French fries.

Thanks to everyone who liked our short and subscribed to let us know you were interested in how to make the ultimate French Fries.

Happy Cooking,
UB

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I often hear people ask how to cook frozen fries in an air fryer. Today, I am happy to share the way I do it. They always come out delicious and crispy.

Remember that every air fryer is a little different, so start your timer the way I have it setup here, then if you need to cook it longer, adjust accordingly.

French fries, or simply fries (North American English), chips (British and Commonwealth English, Hiberno-English), finger chips (Indian English), hot chips (Australian English) or French-fried potatoes, are deep-fried potatoes, which have been cut into batons.

French fries are served hot, either soft or crispy, and are generally eaten as part of lunch or dinner or by themselves as a snack, and they commonly appear on the menus of diners, fast food restaurants, pubs, and bars. They are often salted and may be served with ketchup, vinegar, mayonnaise, tomato sauce, or other local specialties. Fries can be topped more heavily, as in the dishes of poutine or chili cheese fries. Chips can be made from sweet potatoes instead of potatoes. A baked variant, oven chips, uses less oil or no oil.

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UB

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Reheating Chicken Wings is super easy and fast. They come out super crispy and delicious. Today I will show you how to reheat chicken wings in an air fryer.

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In 2010, Philips introduced the Airfryer brand of convection oven at a consumer electronics fair in Berlin. It used the patented Rapid Air technology. The term “airfryer” is now often used generically.

Early air fryers were barrel-shaped. More recently, many have come to resemble toaster ovens and pressure cookers, and share their functions.

According to Consumer Reports in 2019, the five top brands of air fryers in the USA were Elite, Farberware, GoWISE, Ninja, and NuWave.

Happy Cooking,
UB
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