CHOW! SPRING 2010
THE PERFECT PORTABLE FOOD
Pasties, Eugene style
WORDS BY DARCY WALLACE | PHOTOS BY TRASK BEDORTHA
E
ver wanted to try a Cornish
pasty? The delectable combina-
tion of meat and vegetables
wrapped up inside a dough crust?
You must have had a hard time,
since hardly anyone’s served them in
Eugene. Until now.
Cousin Jack’s Pasty Co. specializes in
the traditional Cornish pasty — and every
variation you can think of. Owners Dave
Clark and Kim Gibson make up to 800
pasties per day, but unlike many other fro-
zen food makers, they use only local ingre-
dients whenever possible, such as
Tillamook cheddar, beef from Knee Deep
Cattle Co. and vegetables grown in Lane
and Linn counties.
The pasty (that’s pronounced past-ie,
not pay-stie) was eaten by Cornish miners
hundreds of years ago and later by Finnish
miners as well. Workers needed a hearty
meal to last the day since they often couldn’t
leave until the day’s work was done. The
solution was to bake meat and vegetables
left over from dinner inside dough, a little
like a calzone or a meat pie. The dough kept
food warm for hours, and miners could eat
the filling and throw away the crust, since
their hands would be covered in minerals
and arsenic after working half the day.
The crusts, Gibson says, were offerings
to the spirits of the mines, who in return
might give the workers protection. Pasties
often had beef, potatoes and either rutaba-
gas or turnips depending on region. Carrots,
however, are a major subject of debate.
“We do put carrots into two of our
pasties because they’re so delicious,”
Gibson says. She also says peas are some-
times considered taboo as well.
When Gibson and Clark met, they dis-
covered some commonalities. Clark worked
in the restaurant industry and Gibson had
several years of experience running
Lochmead Dairy. She says Clark lived in
England, where pasties were as prolific as
hamburgers in the U.S., for a year and a
chow.eugeneweekly.com
Kim Gibson and
Dave Clark
half. He found it odd that, despite their
immense popularity overseas, pasties were
so rare in Oregon. “We decided now is the
time for Eugene to have pasties,” she says.
An average day at Cousin Jack’s
begins with the dough. They use flour and
butter with organic palm shortening, but
the unique ingredient is orange juice,
which Gibson says makes the crust extra
flaky. The dough is then divided into
rounds and rolled up, ready to be filled.
The next day, employees dice up vegeta-
bles, potatoes, mushrooms and any other
ingredients for whatever pasties they’re
making that day. The mixture gets scooped
into the dough rounds and “sealed” inside
with turnover hand-crank machines, then
cooked and frozen for shipment to local,
organic food stores. Gibson says she can
make about 80 at once and 400-800 in a
day, depending on the number of ingredi-
ents and complexity of the recipe. But
these aren’t assembly-line Hot Pockets:
Cousin Jack’s makes broccoli and cheese,
cheeseburger, pesto lamb and Steak n’
Ale pasties, among several others. Steak
for the Steak n’ Ale marinates in Ninkasi
Oatis Stout, and in return the Ninkasi tast-
ing room sells some of Cousin Jack’s
pasties. “The barter system is alive and
well in Eugene!” Gibson says.
Clark is a fanatic about pasty history,
which he says dates back over 800 years.
Some Cornish citizens claim ownership of
the pasty, and they say it mustn’t have car-
rots. But inhabitants of Devon say their reci-
pe came 100 years earlier, and carrots are
perfectly acceptable.
Another big deal, Clark says, is how one
crimps the pasty dough: It’s either along the
top, as made in Devon, or, according to
Cornish tradition, along the side. Pasties go
back to the days of Shakespeare, who refer-
enced them in some of his plays. Pasties
were even part of the lives of some Round
Table knights. Almost every country seems
to have their version of the pasty, from meat
pies to the Russian pirozhki to mass-pro-
duced Hot Pockets. With Cousin Jack’s, you
can have your pasty and eat it too.
■
Cousin Jack’s pasties are available hot at the UO’s Court
Café, Gary’s Coffee, Max’s, the Ninkasi Tasting Room and
local Dari-Marts. You can find them in the freezer case at
Capella, The Kiva, Friendly Street Market, Long’s, Market
of Choice, New Frontier, Red Barn and Sundance. Cousin
Jack’s also has a stand at the Lane County Farmers’
Market. For more info and a complete list of outlets, see
www.cousinjackspasty.com
CHOW! APRIL 1, 2010 3