Sorry that I'm a wee bit slow getting this posted, but I had to dig through my SO's recipe cards. (maybe someday I can convince her to put them all in the computer 8-) ). Anyway, this comes from Freda, Mi. Freda is a small village about 15 miles from Houghton. My Mum's parents were born there, so let's date this somewhere around the turn of the century.
We use this recipe and it works fine, but you have to be *carefull* with the dough.
Copper Country Pasties
In a large bowl, combine flour, butter and salt. Blend ingredients until well combined and add water, one tablespoon at a time to form a dough. Toss mixture until it forms a ball. Kneed dough lightly against a smooth surface with heel of the hand to distribute fat evenly. Form into a ball, dust with flour, wrap in wax paper and chill for 30 minutes.
Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Devide the dough into 6 pieces, and roll one of the pieces into a 10-inch round on a lightly floured surface. Put 1 1/2 cups of filling on half of the round. Moisten the edges and fold the unfilled half over the filling to enclose it. Pinch the edges together to seal them and crimp them decoratively with a fork. Transfer pasty to lightly buttered baking sheet and cut several slits in the top. Roll out and fill the remaining dough in the same manner. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Put 1 tsp. butter through a slit in each pasty and continue baking for 30 minutes more. Remove from oven, cover with a damp tea towel, cool for 15 minutes.
That's all there is to it. Trust me, these are *good*. As a sidebar to this recipe, my Grandpa told me how the miners used to bring pasties into the copper mines and heat them on a shovel with a candle underneath. It seems a pasty was once the cause of a mine fire in the 1890's. A miner forgot about his meal warming upon a shovel. The pasty caught fire and spread to the timber holding the walls up. (I guess this is another one for alt.folklore.coppercountry, eh, Dan? 8-) ).
Good eating, Terry Meyers