Kate Angus, a Michigander writing for the popular borderline alcoholic snark blog The Awl, has done a fine job telling the story and the makings of the pasty to her jaded audience (myself among them). Her perspective on the pasty comes from a fine source, her upbringing in Michigan where the Upper Pennisula pasty is a mainstay in pasty culture. The pasty, which originates in Cornwall, England (just as the Browns did), moved out into the world with its emigrant miners.
Here in northern Minnesota, pasties arrived with the miners, many of whom were in Northern Michigan in the decades prior to the discovery of reachable iron ore in Minnesota. One-hundred years later,my little school still made and sold pasties as a fundraiser for the band, with the Cornish dietary stable long having been adapted by Finns and the many other ethnic groups who settled here.
Angus’ post is replete with fun trivia and observations about the pasty, and you should check it out.
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