Mineral Point, Wisconsin literally started as a hole in the ground. The original Wisconsin badgers (European frontiersmen in the early 1800's) moved into this south-central area of Wisconsin to mine for lead. Like Badgers, they dug their homes into the sides of the steep, lush hills rising up from the picturesque Pecatonica River. By the 1830's news of the hills' rich lead veins reached Cornish miners in Cornwall, England. The Cornish brought their families and mining expertise to the area and transformed the rough Wisconsin semi-wilderness into a thriving city. The Cornish built impressive, limestone homes along the river, some of which have been beautifully preserved and can be toured with the local historians dressed in period garments.
But Mineral Point, Wisconsin is not a small town of the past. It thrives today as an arts and cultural center of south-central Wisconsin. The downtown area is peppered with artists' studios in which visitors can find hand-crafted pottery, wood and glass sculpture, and fine-art paintings. The Mineral Point Opera House hosts theater groups and the Mineral Point Film Society. Mineral Point's diverse restaurant scene can please any palette and mood.
The natural beauty of the town, its historic architecture, and its vibrant art community draw tourists from around the state. It is a must-see site for visitors to Wisconsin. Mineral Point has won numerous awards and is now in the running for America's Coolest Small Town. Click on the link to vote for Mineral Point, and do it this week because voting ends April 3, 2009!
But one award that Mineral Point truly deserves and I'm afraid it has never been honored with is the award for "most-improved food". Times were hard in the 1840's and the variety of foods the Cornish people ate was unappetizingly small, -tubers and potatoes mostly. The Cornish women were challenged to pack an easily-portable lunch for their husbands. These women perfected the pasty, which is essentially a meat pie, except if you're poor you substitute a lot of potatoes and rutabagas for the meat. Savory seasonings to flavor the roots were non-existent for the Cornish, -if they had salt they were lucky. Thus, pasty perfection was not measured by flavor but rather by a substantial density of crust. A pasty had to remain intact while carried off to the mine in a man's coat pocket. It should not crumble when he swung his pick ax hour after hour. The Cornish miners had contests to see whose wife made the best pasty. The winning pasty was the pie that stayed intact when thrown to the bottom of a mine shaft.
Click on "continue reading..." for a very old Wisconsin recipe for a Cornish pasty.
I found the Cornish pasty recipe in the cookbook Potluck!: Home cooking from Wisconsin's community cookbooks. The author, Toni Brandeis Streckert created the cookbook with friends in order to preserve Wisconsin's culinary heritage and to celebrate Wisconsin's popular new trend of incorporating locally-grown, fresh produce into gourmet cuisine. Streckert wrote, "The potluck recipes in this book that come from church and community cookbooks span both worlds...Some recipes function as part of a rich oral tradition, and are a link to previous generations; this is particularly true in Wisconsin, which has such strong and vital historic connections."
Streckert found this pasty recipe in the Castle Rock Lutheran Church Cookbook. Its author, Gillian (Folitz) Pakula solicited recipes from the oldest members of her community in order to preserve the cultural heritage expressed by her community's cuisine. This pasty recipe is as authentic as they get. I've reproduced it here, but didn't cook it; instead I'll go to Mineral Point and dine at one of its many exceptional restaurants. For sure you can still get a pasty in Mineral Point, but it's guaranteed to crumble when you drop it down a mine shaft. However, with its savory aromas of seasonings and fresh ingredients, you'll be sure to keep it on your fork until it reaches your tongue.
Pasty (Cornwall, England)
Crust:
- 2 cups flour
- 2/3 cup shortening
- 4 Tablespoons (or more) ice water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Combine ingredients and chill.
Pasty:
- 2 1/2 cups peeled diced potatoes
- 2 cups peeled diced rutabagas
- 2 cups peeled diced carrots
- 1 large yellow onion
- 1 to 2 pounds ground meat
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Other seasonings you may like
Brown meat and onion on stove-top while you parboil potatoes, rutabaga and carrots. Season both to taste. Let cool. Combine both mixtures for filling.
Remove dough from the refrigerator and warm to room temperature. Roll out a baseball-size piece of dough into an oblong shape. Put about 1 1/2 cups of filling on half of the dough and close the pasty by pinching the edges, with the filling inside. Cover edges with aluminum foil and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, then remove foil and bake for another 25 minutes or until the crust is brown. Yield: 16-20 servings. These can go right into the oven from the freezer, although it may take longer to cook.
If you're not in the mood for Cornish food, Wisconsin excels at cooking German food, Swedish, Danish, and dishes from many other ethnic heritages. Try some of these for a taste of Wisconsin.
Nurnberger German Style Bratwurst
O & H Danish Pecan and Raspberry Kringle
Receive $5.00 off any Wisconsinmade.com purchase by entering this offer code with your order: FBLOG309. Offer expires April 1, 2009.
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