Mr. Pastie ("PASS-tee") is a brand name

pasty A pasty () is a British baked pastry, a traditional variety of which is particularly associated with Cornwall, South West England, but has spread all over the British Isles. It is made by placing an uncooked filling, typically meat and vegetab ...

, a meat-and-potato turnover product. It is marketed by entrepreneur Garnet T. Sleep, Jr., owner of Real English Foods, Inc., based in

Pen Argyl Pen Argyl (; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Kleiberg'') is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. The borough's population was 3,510 as of the 2020 census. Pen Argyl is located north of Allentown. It is part of the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

."A TASTE OF PA.'S 'SLATE BELT' IS SPREADING FAR AND WIDE" ''

Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'' February 7, 1985, B16 Local Mr. Pastie is based on a traditional Welsh/Cornish recipe and has been called "the original fast food." It has been sold in US military commissaries,

High's Dairy Stores High's of Baltimore, LLC, doing business as High's Dairy Stores, is a chain of gas stations and convenience stores in and around Baltimore, Maryland. , the chain has 60 locations, the majority of which are in Maryland, plus four in Pennsylvania ...

Weis Markets Weis Markets, Inc. ( doing business as Weis and stylized as weis) is a Mid-Atlantic food retailer headquartered in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. It currently operates 199 stores with over 23,000 employees in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jer ...

"Pass It On: The Original Fast Food comes to Lancaster Freezer Cases" Lancaster Newspapers, April 5, 1995.

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

, and

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...

convenience stores."Like Mom Used to Make" ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', Tom Sietsema, March 9, 1988.

Description

The Mr. Pastie is an oven-baked pie. It consists of a handmade dough shell, folded into a half-circle around a filling traditionally consisting of "ground beef, diced potatoes, and minced onion."
AP, Ocala Star-Banner, March 6, 1985. Fillings may incorporate additional vegetables, such as carrots and peas, and Real English Foods has made pasties containing chicken, pork, ham, and sausage. With its doughy crust, the pasty can be eaten without utensils. This feature and the turnover's long history in the British Isles have earned it the title "the original fast food."

History

The name Mr. Pastie derives from "pastie" or "pasty," a Welsh or Cornish appellation for a meat pie commonly taken by miners to work in the

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

mines of

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and the neighboring English county of

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

."Hearty pasty from Pennsylvania is a tasty treat for fall," ''Atlanta Journal'' and ''Atlanta Constitution,'' September 11, 1985 Some of these miners emigrated to the United States and settled in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, where slate was also mined (the "Slate Belt"), bringing their traditional recipes with them. Many such recipes exist, perhaps at least one for each village in Wales and Cornwall. Garnet Sleep, raised in the town of

in Pennsylvania's Slate Belt, founded Real English Foods, Inc. in 1981 with the goal of bringing this traditional product to a wider marketplace as a pre-packaged meal. Sleep had earlier run an advertising agency in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

"Pasties called latest entry in food trends" Jan Corwin, Daily News, Easton Express, May 2, 1985 Sleep's grandfather had immigrated into the region in the 1880s from Cornwall, England, bringing a "special family recipe" for pasties that had been passed down through generations,Pocono Record
"The power of pasties; Gar Sleep, owner of Mr. Pastie, has found that a good product can open doors" Sara Jerome, ''Pocono Record,'' July 22, 2007. and Sleep states that selling pasties is the fulfillment of a boyhood dream.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.mrpastie.com Food product brands