A Lady In Grand Rapids, Mn...
Ever wished you could come up with a neat idea that everybody liked and pestered you to make it happen?
Me neither!
But Ruth Kutz of Grand Rapids, Minnesota did. She didn’t know at the time that she had created a winner 12 years ago, but the way people kept knocking on the window of her little shop asking to get in and buy her product, was kind of a tip-off.
In 1997 Ruth was in her little Pasty shop on highway 2 getting ready to open during the 1997 Tall Timber Days Festival. But, as Ruth tells the story, she was still perfecting her dough recipe and wasn’t ready to fling the doors open to see if anyone was interested in what she was making.
They were.
People kept looking in the windows of her shop and were asking if they could buy her pasties.
For a long time Ruth turned people away because they weren't ready yet. Well, the hungry masses would not give up and eventually Ruth started selling her tasty little meat pies to the persistent customers even though she insisted the dough wasn't exactly the way she wanted it yet. Ruth said, ”they were falling apart, but people wanted them anyway because they told her they tasted so good”.
What are ya gonna do???
Let’s digress a moment and talk Pasties for a moment for those who have not had the pleasure of tasting this ingenious meat and veggie filled delicacy.
Pasty dough is firmer than pie crust for a reason. It traps the moisture
Inside the dough and helps the meat and vegetable cook better. Ruth learned early in life, "a miner should be able to drop a pasty on the floor and not have it fall apart". Why a miner you ask. Well, pasties seemed to have been created to be eaten by hand by miners. At least if you ask Ruth, that’s probably the answer you are going to receive.
You see...Ruth is originally from the upper peninsula of Michigan. Her grandpa was a copper miner and pasties were a staple in their regular diets. When Ruth's father retired, they decided to move to Grand Rapids, Minnesota and start a pasty shop because, as Ruth recalls, you just couldn't get good pasties anywhere around here.
History explains the Pasty this way.... The pasty originated from Cornwall, England and thus was referred to as the Cornish Pasty. It was carried into the mines. Miners got a bit of warmth from carrying the hot pasty, and would therefore be provided with a portable meal, usually still warm because of the thick exterior dough crust. Americans used the turnover or meat pies in much the same way in the 19th century.
Okay, let’s jump back to today.
Ruth’s shop menu shows 5 varieties of pasties.
Surprisingly, the rutabaga pasty is the best seller! I can’t explain the taste of rutabaga to anyone who hasn’t sampled this vegetable before. Nor can I assure you that it will make it to your favorite food list. I like it, but.....well, let’s not go there.
Ruth also has on her menu...
1. Regular Pasty - beef, onion, potato and carrot
2. Rutabaga Pasty - beef, onion, potato, carrot and rutabaga
3. Beef and kraut pasty - bean, onion, potato, carrot, rutabaga, and sauerkraut
4. German pasty - bratwurst, onion, potato, sauerkraut
5. Breakfast pasty - sausage, onion, potato, eggs, cheese
But, as we mentioned at the outset there is more to making the perfect pasty than the inside fixin’s. You gotta get the dough right!
Ruth uses a secret blend of flour to make her dough. Everything is made from scratch and vegetables are peeled by hand - every day. And, Ruth only makes enough pasties to serve in a single day and they are never more than 24 hours old.
You don’t have to take off your shoes when you enter Ruth’s Pasties Plus eatery but you may want to....not really. I just say that because Ruth keeps her shop neat as a pin...except for the walls. I get to the wall thing in a moment.
In fact, the local health inspector says the Pasties Plus shop is one of only a very few businesses that truly make "everything" from scratch. One day she ran out of flour and couldn't even find a bakery in the area with real flour to sell to her because so many bakeries use mixes for their products.
Ruth’s pasty place is tiny. The entire store-front business is a total of 330 square feet and most of that is the kitchen. The dining area is about 30 square feet and has seating for 6 people. Now you would think that such a small dining area would cut down on business. Nope...Take-Out is very popular and Ruth ships pasties all over the country.
In the store, Ruth serves 150-300 pasties a day depending on the season.
Now, here’s the thing about the walls in Ruth’s tiny establishment that make just sitting...if you are lucky enough to get a seat...so you can enjoy your hand-made pasty, so special.
The walls are filled with signatures and comments from customers from all over the world. When they changed locations a few years ago, their old location even had signatures on the ceiling tiles. As signatures fade, new ones are added over the top of the old ones. There are signatures from Denmark and China, cartoon drawings and other little funny odes to the pasty.
Ruth doesn't recall having any celebrities visit the shop, but she isn't the kind of person to get wrapped up in that kind of thing anyway. Ruth will tell you she likes all of her customers. Some local and area politicians are regulars at Ruth’s...but they aren’t considered celebrities.
Ruth was kind enough to outline the steps she takes in making pasties for her customers and friends. But, there is no guarantee they will turn out like Ruth’s.
Here goes....
Steps to making a pasty:
Make the dough and refrigerate it overnight.
Peel and chop the vegetables
Mix the vegetables with course ground meat in a huge bowl to make the
"schmoo" - that's the filling
Fill the dough with "schmoo" and bake.
That's it! No more hints! Pick your own temerature and time!
Doing this at home could take you all day and it does at Ruths Pasties Plus as well. Wow...you wouldn’t think writing about Pasties could make you so hungry!
Ruth...you are another "Minnesota Treasure"!
cj
Posted by: cjjohnso on July 27, 2009 at 12:19 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
