The Ultimate Hunting Comfort Food - Pastys!!!

Ok you guys! Here it is! The BEST comfort food to take along on your cold hunting or fishing trip! Actually, I know a lot of guys that just take these hearty little pockets to work everyday and eat them for lunch! I grew up on these things! My mom, grandma's and aunts would all get together and spend a ton of time in the kitchen making pastys to fill our freezers or give away to our friends and family. It's a family recipe that I have tweaked and made my own over the years. Now my girls love to help me make my own version! You can tweak your recipe as well with whatever seasonings or ingredients you might like. But here is my traditional recipe. Try and see if you like!!

Now, don't be scared of them! Prepping & building can be a little time consuming, but they are worth it! I always make a bunch at one time and they last in the freezer forever!! Here is what you will need to add to your shopping list to get started.

Shopping List:

1. All Purpose Flour

2. All Vegetable Crisco

3. 5 lbs. Chuck or Round Roast or a wild game roast is even better!

4. 8 lbs. of Idaho Potatoes (this varies. If you like more meat use less potato.)

5. 2 large yellow onions

6. Pepper

7. Salt

8. Garlic Powder

9. Basil

10. Parsley

11. Stick of unsalted butter

12. 1 egg

13. a small amount of milk

* This will make about 2 dozen 1 cup pastys

* FYI: I like to have all of my meat and potatoes cut up, mixed and ready to roll before I make my dough.

Dough Recipe:

• 4 Cups Crisco

• 12 Cups of Four

• 4 tsp. Salt

• 3 Cups Boiling Water

Directions:

This recipe works best if you have an electric mixer. One with a dough hook is even better! Get your water boiling while you add your flour and salt to the mixing bowl. In a separate bowl I measure the Crisco and when the water is boiling I add the 3 Cups of water to the Crisco and mix it around to help the Crisco soften and kind of melt a little bit. Then I add the hot water and Crisco mix to the dry ingredients. Turn your mixer on low and increase it to medium as the dough begins to form. The dough should form into a ball in the mixing bowl without being sticky. It should have more of an elastic texture.

Meat & Potatoes Mixture: (this is the time consuming part)

Directions:

Cut up roast into bite size pieces add them to a big bowl and season with salt and pepper and garlic powder to taste. Then cut up potatoes into bite size pieces and add them to the meat mixture. Dice up both onions and toss them to the mixture as well. Season meat, potatoes, onion with basil, parsley and I always add more salt, pepper and more garlic powder because well, I like it! Sorry you guys, I never measure any of my seasonings. I eyeball it all! That's how I was raised!!

Building & Baking!! (The fun Part)

Once you have your meat and potatoes mixed and your dough is ready, turn your oven on to 350 degrees. Get a small bowl ready and beat an egg mixed with a SMALL amount of milk. You're going to brush this over the pastys before you put them in the oven so that they turn that pretty golden brown color.

Start rolling out your dough! You want to roll it out as thin as possible without tearing it when you fold it over your mixture. I use 1 Cup to scoop into the meat and potatoes and place it on your dough just like in the picture below. You want to place it so that you can fold the top over and leave enough room to make the braid around the outside. When you have your mix in place on the dough take a sliver of butter off the stick and place it on the mix. Fold over your down and cut off extra dough around the outside of the pasty. But leave about a 1/4 inch to braid it shut. Once you have all the extra cut off throw it to the side. You can use your scrap dough to make a few extra pastys at the end. To braid the pasty, I start on one side and press my pointer finger down and begin folding the dough over until I get to the other side. Slice a small hole in the top of the pasty so it can breathe while baking. Place it on a greased baking sheet (I'm super lazy and hate scrubbing pans so I line all of my baking sheets with tinfoil. Easy Clean Up!) Right before you put your pastys in the oven brush the egg and milk mix over the top of them. Bake on 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Once the pastys have cooled you can individually wrap them in tinfoil and keep them in the freezer until your ready to pack them in the cooler for your trip! Or just have a fun Sunday night dinner with them! My family loves to eat them with gravy or ketchup and more butter melted on top!!

I hope you enjoy them!!