Mom's Cornish Pasty

Mmmmm, Pasty.   If you're not from Wisconsin or Upper Peninsula of Michigan, you may have never heard of these small meat pies that were the workingman's meal for many a Cornish and Finnish immigrant in the 1800's.  Cornish immigrants worked the galena (lead) mines in the Southwest corner of the state while Finnish immigrants worked the iron ore and copper mines in Northern Wisconsin and the Yoop (short for U.P. or Upper Peninsula...residents are referred to as Yoopers).   The Pasty was their staple food...hearty, well rounded, filling and cheap.  And as one Yooper told me, "A Pasty isn't a Pasty without Rutabaga".

Traditionally, they are made as individual-sized pies, but Mom always made Pasty as a whole pie from which slices were served.  You can do either with this recipe, though I'll give the recipe as a whole pie.  If you want individual pasties, just roll out smaller pieces of the pastry crust and put an amount of the meat mixture into the center, fold the crust over and pinch the edges, vent and bake.

There are a lot of options for making them, you can pretty much 'clean out the fridge' of vegetables.  Serving suggestions vary...Mom always served pasty with Heinz Chili Sauce on the side.  I've used that, ketchup, jalapeno relish, sriracha sauce (Huy Fong brand) and beef gravy.   Use your imagination!

Here are the basic ingredients for the filling:

1 lb hamburger
1/2 rutabaga, diced small (or use 2 small to medium sized potatoes)
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 large or 2 small carrots, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, diced
1 egg, whisked and beaten.
Garlic salt, Pepper
Few dashes Worcestershire

Mix all ingredients by hand in a large bowl, season to taste.  Prepare pie crust (recipe below), place meat in bottom crust, cover with top crust, pinch seams and vent the top.  Bake in 350 oven for 1.5 hours with a cookie sheet underneath to catch any juices that might come up through the vents.  If making individual pasties, bake for 1 hour.

Crust:

2 cups Flour
1/3 cup Olive Oil
1 teaspoon salt
Buttermilk

Mix first three ingredients in a bowl with a fork.  Add buttermilk a little at a time (start with 1/8 cup) and mix til the mixture is just between wanting to form crumbles and wanting to form a ball.   Don't get it too moist.   Divide in half, roll out first half on counter til it's a bit larger than the size of your pie pan.  Fold in half, grease your pie pan, lay the folded crust over one half of the pie pan and unfold.  Press and stretch and form into bottom of pan and up sides til covered.   Roll out the other half of the crust dough, fold and place in the same manner over top of meat after it has been added, unfold and pinch halves together, cut vents.

Green Bay Style "Chili Johns" / "Real Chili" Chili

Chili comes in many varieties...about as diverse as the ethnic mixes of the regions that made each style famous.  One of the oldest and most unusual varieties is that which is known as "Green Bay" Chili or "Chili John" chili.  It predates the similar Cincinnati 5-way by a number of years and traces back to Lithuanian immigrant "Chili" John Isaac, who opened a restaurant in 1913 down by the docks of Green Bay, WI, hanging a simple sign out front that said, "Chili".

"Chili" John Isaac

Not only did John Isaac invent this style of spaghetti-meat sauce-beans on top chili, he also invented the Oyster Cracker, calling upon the Nabisco company for a cracker that would be sized more appropriately for adding to his chili.

Chili John's at one time had 3 locations...Green Bay, Beaver Dam, WI, and Burbank, CA.   All three are still in business, though not affiliated, and only the Green Bay one still serves the completely authentic John Isaac recipe.  (UPDATE:  As of 2024, there is no longer a Chili Johns in Green Bay, nor do they sell the sauce).  John Madden, legendary NFL coach and broadcaster, never missed a visit to Chili John's when he covered a Green Bay Packers game.  Fran Tarkenton also was known to have a bowl before playing the Packers at home.

So where does "Real Chili" come into the story?

According to the Real Chili website, Milwaukee's infamous chili restaurant was started by Francis Honish in 1931.   What the website doesn't tell you is that Francis Honish was a former cook at Chili John's in Green Bay.  Hmmm.   There was actually a bit of bad blood and a lawsuit or two over the issue way back when, but time seems to have quelled the implications of chili-theft.   Both chilis are very, very similar in style and taste.  Patrons today probably don't care about the politics involved, they're just glad that they can get a bowl of Green Bay Chili in Milwaukee or Green Bay!

I've eaten at Real Chili and all three of the no-longer-related Chili John's restaurants and no matter what variation you get, it's all good!   This is a close rendition of the original Chili John's chili, though the real recipe is still a secret.  

(2024 update: So secret that, of the dozen or so "Chili John" recipes on the Internet, NONE of them are 100 percent correct.  This is as close as I have come.  If anyone out there *has* the real recipe and cares to share it -- particularly now that in 2024, Green Bay's Chili Johns is no more, please do so! 

Until that day, which may never come, I give you this: )

You will need for the Meat Sauce:

1/2 lb. Beef Suet, rendered
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 lbs hamburger browned
1 oz. unsweetened Baker's chocolate
3 T chili powder
1 T cayenne pepper (or less if you don't like it hot)
1.5 T garlic powder
1 T cumin
1 T paprika
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
3-4 chili peppers, ground finely
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 T Johnny's French Dip Au Jus (comes in a little jug)

(10/08/2024 -updated - nutmeg, clove and allspice removed after several of those familiar with the real Chili John recipe said to omit them, some other amounts and ingredients changed.  It's as close as you'll get without the actual recipe!)

Render the suet in a large pan, remove whatever is left and cook onions until tender. Add the meat and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. When meat is browned, add spices, chocolate, broth,  and vinegar, stirring to mix well. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer uncovered for 1½ hours. It should start to thicken. It is best if refrigerated overnight and reheated the following day.

To serve, you will need:


Spaghetti noodles
Shredded cheddar cheese
Sour cream
Vinegar (I like British Malt Vinegar)
Chopped onions
Warmed kidney beans or chili beans
Franks Red Hot
Oyster crackers
Pickled jalapeno slices

Spoon some cooked spaghetti noodles into a bowl, spoon generous portion of meat sauce on top of that, with some beans, a handful of oyster crackers, and a dash of vinegar.   That's your basic Green Bay Chili.  In addition, you can add any combination of the above toppings to complete your Green Bay Chili experience.  Mmmm...hot, greasy, yummy Green Bay Chili!

Mom's Chili

When I was growing up, every Saturday, September through April, Mom would make a big pot of chili in the morning.  It would always be gone by the end of the weekend.

Mom with one of her legendary
wild game pies

Mom's chili was what she called "Dodge County Chili", named after the area of Wisconsin where she grew up, but was really her own variation, a much more chili-like variation than what traditionally fit that name.

In Wisconsin, chili is (or was, before the Internet and cable tv cooking shows homogenized a lot of regional cooking) divided into two camps...that which is similar to what Mom made, and what's known as "Green Bay Chili" which will be covered in a future edition of this blog.

Mom's Chili was known far and wide by her friends and family as the best around.  She made it every year for the last day of Deer Hunting season and held an open house on the lake they live on for any and all hunters.  It was a perennial hit!

We lost my Mom to cancer earlier this year.  With the nip in the air now, my thoughts naturally turned to her chili, and I'm going to try to keep up the tradition of making a pot of it every Saturday.

I love chili -- all types and styles -- and though this may not be a true chili by those who make standards on such things, it will always be my favorite.  I hope you'll make a pot of this too and enjoy it as much as I have over all these years.  Thanks, Mom!


You'll need:

1 large can tomatoes (or frozen tomatoes, about a quart)
1 lb hamburger
1 can chili beans or kidney beans
3 stalks celery
1 onion
1 green pepper
2 jalapenos (optional)
1 T Cumin
3 T Chili Powder
Garlic Salt
1 T Beef Boullion powder
1 Quart Tomato Juice
1/2 cup elbow macaroni

Brown the hamburger, toss in the onion, diced, along with the celery and peppers, also diced.  When hamburger is browned and vegetables soft, season with garlic salt to taste, then add the beef boullion, stir in well til dissolved.  Then add the tomatoes, beans and the rest of the seasonings.  Simmer, season with garlic salt and more chili powder if necessary, add the noodles and the tomato juice.   Simmer 30 minutes, serve.

Dig House Tater Salad

Potato Salad...that staple side dish of church picnics, summertime barbecues, dish-to-pass events and sporting tailgates.  There are countless ways to make potato salad, but my recipe is loosely based on a 'tater salad' that I had many years ago, who's author was undoubtedly some unknown mom of a college student.

The Dig House today

I don't know who started it, or when, but back in the early 1980's at UW-Platteville there was an off-campus house at 40 E. Cedar St known as the "Dig House" because of a re-occuring party tradition known as the 'Potato Dig'.   The residents of said house would get 50 lb bags of potatoes and an alarming number of half-barrels of beer and throw a party.   Potatoes, being cheap, were the perfect fare for college students and the Dig House folks served them up mashed, french fried, baked and pretty much any way you could imagine, including potato salad.

At one of the Potato Digs that I attended, there was a terrific potato salad that had lots of dill and pickles in it.   I had never had such a thing in my young life and, due to the deliciousness of the salad and the inebriated state I was in, promptly ate a ton of it.

This is not that recipe, I have no idea who made that particular potato salad, but ever since I've made my potato salad 'in the spirit' of that potato salad.  I think it's pretty darn good.  I hope you'll think so too.

You will need:

4-5 large potatoes or 6-8 medium, peeled
4 eggs
1 stalk celery
3-4 Milwaukee Kosher Baby Dill pickles
1 small onion
4-5 radishes
1 cup Mayonnaise
1/8 cup Yellow Mustard
Juice of 1/2 lime
Salt and Pepper

Start by peeling the potatoes, cut into chunks, place in a saucepan with 1 T. Salt and the 4 eggs, cover completely with water and bring to a boil.  While this is boiling, dice up the celery, pickles, onion and radishes, put in a colander with 1 T salt and toss, set over sink or over large bowl.  The idea is to leech much of the water out of the vegetables.  Don't worry about the high salt content, most of it leeches out with the liquid.

Mix the mayo, lime juice and mustard together, salt and pepper this dressing to taste.

Watch the potatoes, you want them not quite 'done', so that you can slice them into cubes and have them be soft, but they'll hold their shape.   Depending on the potato, probably about 10-15 minutes of boiling.   When done, remove from heat, put pot in sink and run continuous cold water in the pot to cool the eggs and potatoes.

Dice the potatoes up into approx 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes.  Peel the hard boiled eggs and dice up.  Place in large bowl and add the rest of the vegetable mix.  Add the dressing and toss liberally.  Adjust seasoning to taste, sprinkle with Paprika  and garnish with a sprig of Parsley.  Cover and refrigerate at least a couple hours before serving, best if it sits overnight.

Super Easy Hot Beef Sammiches

I really have to rename this blog.  

We moved out of Door County about 6 months ago, relocating to where I grew up, in the Central Sands of Wisconsin.   The lands of Aldo Leopold and John Muir, what naturalists call the Oak Savannah.  Here, the soil is like beach sand, the water table is at shoveling depth, irrigation is the rule for farming, and the farmers grow things like potatoes, cucumbers, peppers and some anemic looking corn.  Like the general store in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", we live in a geographical oddity...we're about 1 hour from everywhere, if everywhere encompasses the Fox River Valley cities, Madison or Stevens Point.   Clear blue lakes with sand bottoms and untinted water abound.  Wildlife such as cranes, turkeys, deer and a few wolves and bears abound.  Giant pine trees stand like soldiers at attention in orderly rows, next to woods full of various types of oak and jack pine.   The sound of blue jays and whipoorwills fill the air, which smells of pine and sand.

I could really use some help in renaming this blog...bring on the suggestions.  On with the recipe!

This hot beef sandwich recipe is so easy that it doesn't even need pictures.  This is a perfect 'start before work, come home to dinner' meal that's good any time of the year.   In fact, we're having it tonight.

You need:

1 crock pot
1 3-4 pound chuck or other cheap beef roast
1 bottle of lager beer
1 small onion, cut up
1 or 2 jalapeno pepper, halved and seeded (optional)
1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons beef bouillon powder
Salt, pepper

Rub the roast with salt and pepper, set in crock pot.  Pour bottle of beer in the crock pot, throw rest of ingredients in the crock pot.  Set on high for 6 hours (medium if you need it to cook longer).   Roast should fall apart easily.   Spoon beef onto buns.  You can serve as is, or use condiments such as horseradish, raw onion, pickled jalapenos, swiss cheese slices, etc.   Very tasty and so easy!

Shrimp Almikay

A lot of times, I'll throw together a dish that has no real basis for being.  It's not really like an actual signature dish like Shrimp Alfredo, but maybe more in 'the spirit of'.  I won't consult a recipe or recipes as a starting point, I'll just 'wing it'.   At times, that means using what I have on hand in the cupboards and refrigerator, at other times, it means using whatever I toss in my shopping cart, and still other times, it's a combination of both.

Such is the case with "Shrimp Almikay".  I originally made this one Sunday afternoon when my dear wife Kathy was tasked with taking our son back home to Platteville, WI, where he attends college, about a 6 hour round trip from our home.  I wanted to make something 'nice' for her...and being that pasta is one of her favorite things to eat, I drove about 20 miles to the nearest larger grocer and wandered the aisles and threw this recipe together in my head.  It turned out so well that I made it again last night, and decided to name it and cycle it in to my favorite recipe box and into this blog.

This recipe is relatively quick and easy and unpretentious enough to use alfredo sauce right off the grocer's shelf.

You'll need:

1 jar of Alfredo Sauce (Both times I have used Newman's Own Roasted Garlic)
1/2 box Angel Hair Pasta
1 bag 31/40 Uncooked Frozen Shrimp
1/2 Lemon
1/4 cup white wine
1 T minced garlic
1/3 stick butter
3 T Olive Oil
1 T Salt
Black pepper
Small wedge Parmesan Cheese

Start by thawing and peeling the shrimp.  Melt butter on medium/high heat in a fry pan.  Dump jar of Alfredo Sauce in saucepan over low heat.  Add minced garlic, 2 T  Olive Oil and wine to fry pan, toss in Shrimp.  Cook shrimp til firm and pink, reduce heat to simmer.  Squeeze 1/2 lemon over Shrimp.  Simmer shrimp for 5 minutes or until most of the liquid is reduced.  Add entire pan contents to Alfredo Sauce.   Heat water for pasta in large pot.  Add 1 T Olive Oil and 1 T Salt to pot, cook noodles til Al Dente (just to the point of being 'done', not past...almost 'chewy' yet...this is so that the noodles will soak up some of the sauce).   Drain noodles, serve on plates, spoon alfredo/shrimp sauce liberally over the top, grate fresh parmesan cheese on top.  Enjoy!

The Best Fries You've Ever Had...At HOME!

French Fries...as French as French Toast or French Dressing.  That is to say, completely Pas D'Origine Française -- about as French as Sauerkraut or Swedish Meatballs.

However, just about EVERYONE loves French Fries.  Or, as we will refer to them for the rest of this blog post, simply "Fries".  They’re a staple at fast food restaurants from coast to coast and a regular compliment to any hamburger plate anywhere.  Yet, making truly great fries at home – from scratch – has evaded me for years.  They’d turn out fairly tasty, but would end up lacking of those qualities that almost any drive-thru fry could possess…a firm exterior, fluffy interior and wondrous flavor without sogginess or greasiness.  How infuriating to someone like myself who almost always prefers home-made to mass-produced when it comes to food!

I even know of one famous hamburger chain who prides themselves on making homemade fries and even displays bags of potatoes around the restaurant and a sign saying who’s farm the spuds were grown on…who’s fries suffer from the same soggy, greasy results as my own did.

True, I could go half-way and buy a bag of frozen fries and fry them myself, and that was slightly more satisfying, but still…it really wasn’t the same as a good and proper fry.

So one day, with nothing better to do than ponder the mysteries of the Fast Food Fry, I began my internet search on how to make proper fries like that Famous Chain With The Arches does. 

This search led me to one very over-the-top individual who went into extreme research, scientific study and detail on the subject (and quite a lot of other burger-related subjects) who finally cracked the code on how to make a decent fry at home.  I’ll spare you all the background detail (though you can read about it along with other burger science geekdom here). and cut right to the recipe.  To do it absolutely the best way takes an additional step and some planning, but the ‘short version’ works very well also.  So without further ado, here’s how to make AMAZING fries at home.

You need:

5 or 6 nicely sized Russet potatoes

2 quarts Water

3 T Vinegar

2 T Salt

Oil for frying

Candy or Deep Frying Thermometer

7 to 10” diameter pot with fairly high sides

Firstly, you need to slice the potatoes into fries that are about ¼” X ¼”.  You can buy a fry cutter or just do this with a very sharp knife (be careful!).   You can peel them first or leave the skins on, your choice.  Immediately toss them in a bowl of water as you cut them, so they don’t turn bluish.

Next, put the Water, Vinegar and Salt in a large pot on the stove and bring to a violent boil.  Gently add the fries and boil in this mixture for 9 minutes.  Remove carefully and drain in a colander, then lay out on paper towels to cool and dry.

Now take the 7” to 10” diameter pot with high sides and put 3 to 4 inches of oil in the pot.   Make sure that you have enough oil in the pot to deep fry, but not so much that it could boil over and start a fire.   If you have an actual deep fryer, that would be preferable to use, set it to 375 degrees.  Else, you’ll have to experiment with your stove and use the candy / deep frying thermometer til you can get a steady temp of the oil at 375 degrees.

Working in small batches, add fries to the oil and fry each small batch for ONE MINUTE.  Then remove and drain on paper towels.   Do this til you’ve gone through all of the fries that you plan to make.

Now, here comes the really weird part.   Take all of the fries and put them in a bag and freeze them.

When you’re ready to make the fries to serve (presumably at least 12 hours later), again heat your oil up to 375 but this time deep fry the fries til they are golden brown.  After each batch, put the fries on a paper-towel lined cookie sheet and keep on “warm” in the oven.  Lightly salt the whole works when done and serve. 

You and your guests will be amazed at how well these turn out!

In a hurry?  Skip the freezing step.  Just drain and cool all the fries after the one minute fry session, then start over, frying till golden brown.  They’ll be about 85% as good as the ‘long’ way, but still amazing!

What I like to do is work with several bags of Russet potatoes, changing the water/vinegar/salt mixture every 2 batches, and make up a whole bunch of fries to freeze at once.  I then pack them away in meal-sized bags…they should keep for 2 or 3 months that way.