MARQUETTE — It’s a story about friendship, family and pasties. The story of how Frederika and Mary Yungbluth sat down with Madelyne Fitzpatrick to compare family pasty recipes, resulting in the development of a combined recipe that features both families’ generational pasty recipe.

In the early 1920s, sisters Frederika Yungbluth Jorns and Mary Yungbluth Kellan sat with their best friend, Madelyne Fitzpatrick, to compare family pasty recipes. Together, the three of them combined the best features from both recipes to create a single recipe that was used and passed down by both families.

Bill Jorns, son of Frederika, grew up working with his family and Fitzpatrick would deliver pasties and coffee to Cliffs mine and lumberjacks in the area. Jorns would deliver enough pasties for the miners to have two one-pound pasties and the ‘damn black coffee’ as he bitterly recalled it.

“My dad would put on our stove coffee grounds and water and then it would percolate all day long,” Jorns said. “And then once every five days my mother would say ‘take it out and get rid of the tar’.”

Despite his strong dislike for the coffee, Jorns continued to help his family with delivering, traveling in a 1950s Ford Parklane to make sure the miners and lumberjacks got their pasties and coffee.

“The miners and lumberjacks kept Madelyne going,” Jorns said.

Fitzpatrick opened a pasty shop along M-28 between Marquette and Negaunee. The shop was a little log cabin directly across from the popular Northwoods Supper Club. With business doing well over the years, Fitzpatrick opened shops in Marquette, Negaunee and Ishpeming.

By 1960, Fitzpatrick was making 3,500 pasties a day, according to Jorns, which came out to around 80,000 a year. In total, Fitzpatrick sold over 30 million throughout her time. Pasties made were also flown daily to the Detroit area where they would be purchased at the Farmer Jack grocery stores after noon throughout throughout the week and weekend.

After Fitzpatrick retired and sold her U.P. shops, her son and his wife opened shops in Detroit’s downriver area until 1998 when they sold the business. After being sold, it was then renamed as The Pasty Shop.

While the shops are no longer open, the history behind Fitzpatrick’s pasties are still brought up today. Millions ate these pasties and to some families, Fitzpatrick’s still hold as some of U.P.’s best.

YUNGBLUTH FAMILY PASTY RECIPE

Crust

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons of salt

1 1/2 cups lard or shortening

1 cup of finely ground suet

3/4 cup of cold water

2 eggs

Mix flour and salt. Cut shortening or lard into the flor until size of peas. Work finely ground suet thoroughly into the dough. Use a pastry blender if desired. Mix water and eggs together. Sprinkle water in slowly as needed to make a soft dough. It should be a little more moist than ordinary pastry dough but not as soft as biscuit dough. For a large ball and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Divide into 8-9 circles and roll out circles the size of a small dinner plate. Place wax paper in between each circle to keep it moist.

Filling

2 lbs cubed round steak and/or pork

4 cups diced potatoes

1/2 cup each of diced carrots, turnips or rutabagas

2 medium size onions – large if you desire

1 1/2 teaspoon of salt, add pepper as desired

1/4 cup of butter

Chop the onions. Cut meat into small pieces. Some folks like to brown the meat with chopped onions. Mix the potatoes, chopped onions and vegetables together.

Place filling on one half of a dough circle. First, add a half inch of finely chopped potatoes seasoned with salt and pepper. Follow with a thin layer of sliced turnips, rutabagas and other vegetables. Add a layer of beef or pork mixture and season again. Top with a piece of butter the size of a walnut.

Moisten the edge of dough. Fold the uncovered portion of the dough over the stacked portion. Crimp the edges all around with a fork or rope twist crinkling, ending with a half-moon shape. Make a one inch slit in the top of the dough. Repeat the same process for the other circles of dough.

Baking

Place four pasties on a cookie sheet. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper so if crust leaks, pasty will be easy to remove. Bake at 350 degrees in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake for 45-60 minutes or longer until pasties are light tan.

Dreyma Beronja can be reached at 906-228-2500 ext. 248. Their email address is dberonj@miningjournal.net.