Exploring Butte’s Pasties

Miners called them “letters from home” and what beautifully written letters they were. Packaged in pastry envelopes and containing nothing save beef, cubed potatoes, salt, pepper, and perhaps, the merest hint of an onion, there could be no better letter from home. The miners would take pasties to lunch with them. Without sauce, the pies made little mess, and the miners could hold onto the crimped crust of the pastry pocket, keeping the rest of the food clean. In the rest of the world, the Cornish are most famous for their pasties. In Butte, the beef pies mostly get associated with the Irish. Whatever the origin, pasties quickly became a Butte staple. They were the perfect workman’s food-cheap, hearty, portable, and delicious.

My first Butte pasty came from the Park Street Pasty. Today, many people put gravy on their pasties, but I ate it in the traditional manner-unadorned and slightly warm. I must admit I was a little bit unsure of the whole thing. It seemed like the kind of food that deserved gravy. I was worried that it would be dry, and maybe a little bland. My first few bites seemed to confirm my suspicions, but the more I ate it the more I enjoyed it. The flavors were subtle and simple, but they were made for each other. The beef and the potatoes, accompanied by the merest hint of onion create a symphony of flavor in your mouth.

The next time I needed a meal in Butte, I went to Joe’s Pasty Shop. There, in the name of research, I ordered my pasty warm with gravy. I found, and I am still shocked to see these words on the page, that I preferred my pasty without gravy. Don’t get me wrong, the gravy covered pasty was delicious, but the gravy overwhelmed some of the subtler flavors in the beef and potatoes. That being said, however, it was a pretty warm day. I can imagine that on a cold, blustery day when the snow drifts around the streets, cutting into a piping hot pasty covered in steaming brown gravy would be just about the most comforting experience in the world.