Goodrich – Some serve ’em with gravy, some with ketchup, some with salsa. Some have no embellishment at all.
Regardless of how pasties are eaten, for some it’s become local tradition to buy them’five times a year’at the Goodrich United Methodist Church.
‘We have almost exclusively repeat business,? says Ken Nylander, who helps make the pasties.
Early morning on the Friday of the sale, church volunteers will arrive’without jewelry.
Hat?
Check.
Apron?
Check.
Gloves?
Check.
Once the kitchen’s inspected by the Genesee County Health Department, the team will be ready to roll. Pie crust, that is.
Not everyone wants to brave making the crust.
‘We try to ask what everybody wants to do,? said Nylander. ‘Some people are better at rolling the dough than others.?
A visitor happening upon the scene might wonder at the white handprints. If you didn’t know better, you might swear you just missed a flour-fight in the jovial kitchen.
Time to make the meat mix.
The round steak is already coarsely ground, saving valuable cutting time. In go the carrots, rutabaga, and seasonings. The potatoes are already diced too.
Meat mix for a dozen pasties is made before all the ingredients are added.
‘I think one gentleman has an allergy to onions, so we make those first so we don’t contaminate it,? says Nylander.
The dough’s mixed. A volunteer divides it into balls, then weighs them. Yes sir, 4 ounces each.
Mixing the meat is a cold job carried out by two cooks.
Scoop and fill, scoop and fill.
In neat green-and-white attire, Rich Powers uniformly measures out the beef mix.
Four cooks roll the dough, giving it to four others who fold and seal the meat and vegetables inside.
Awash in beaten egg, the pasties are whisked, 10 at a time, onto a pastry sheet, then transported to the top-notch kitchens of the Atlas Valley Country Club on Perry Road.
Executive chef Mitch Plant bakes the pasties to perfection.
At 1 p.m. the pasties will be cooled, wrapped, and ready for pick-up by local pasty patrons. They’re a hefty size.
‘My wife and I split one,? says Nylander.
Sales earn nearly $10,000 a year since the pasty project started in the late 1990s. The money is donated back to church projects like sound or lighting systems, parking lot improvement, or to help furnish the kitchen in the new family life center the church will soon build.
Pasties will next be available from 1 to 4 p.m. March 18 and from 10 a.m. to noon March 19 at the church, located at 8071 S. State Road in Goodrich.
Orders and details: (810) 636-2444.