Ingredients:

Pastry:

3 cups flour
1/2 -1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups lard or shortening
3/4 cup very cold water
Measure flour and salt.

Cut in lard until dough resembles small peas.

Add water and divide into 6 equal parts.

Filling:

5 or 6 medium potatoes (red are best)
3 medium or 2 large yellow onions
parsley for flavoring
2 pounds of meat (loin tip, skirting or flank steak)
butter
salt and pepper

Directions:

Roll dough slightly oblong. Slice in layers on dough, first the potatoes, then the onions and last the meat (sliced or diced in thin strips). Bring pasty dough up from ends and crimp across the top. Making the pasty oblong eliminates the lump of dough on each end. Bake at 375° for about one hour. Brush a little milk on top while baking.

Note: Old-timers claim the pasty arrived in Butte, Montana along with the first housewives who followed their husbands into the mining camp. Long favored in the copper miner’s lunch bucket, the pastry-wrapped meal was an ideal way for “Cousin Jeannie” to provide a hearty meal for the hard working “Cousin Jack.” As the miner unwrapped his lunch, he would refer to the pasty as a “letter from ‘ome.” Its popularity spread quickly throughout the camp, and today the pasty is as much a part of Butte as the Berkeley Pit.

From the Butte Heritage Cookbook

Pat Williams – US House of Representatives
In 1978 Williams ran a successful primary campaign against Dorothy Bradley to win the Democratic nomination for the 1st District of Montana. That November, Williams defeated Republican Jim Waltermire in one of Montana’s largest door-to-door campaigns, winning 57% of the vote and gaining election to the 96th U.S. Congress.

Ingredients:

10 to 12″ trout (1 fish per serving)
fresh mushrooms or canned
onions, chopped
parsley, chopped
bread crumbs
seasoning (salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaves)
butter
white wine

Directions:

Sauté fresh or canned mushrooms, onions, and parsley in butter. Toss with breadcrumbs and seasoning (to suit own taste). Stuff trout cavities. Place in greased baking dish, place lemon slices on top (2 for each trout). Melt butter in pan, add equal amount of white wine and 1/4 as much lemon juice. Baste frequently with wine sauce as fish bake for 20 to 25 minutes in hot 400° oven.

To prepare fresh brook or other pan-sized trout, clean and scale if necessary, soak in salted water for 1/2 hour to remove film from fish. Rinse thoroughly and remove head (optional). Dry. Dip in beaten egg and roll in rich cracker crumbs sprinkled with seasoning salt. Fry in hot fat. When golden brown on one side, turn and brown on the other. Turn only once.
These are especially good, fresh caught, cooked over a campfire in a heavy skillet, using the grease from fried bacon strips. Fire should be hot but not flaming so fish will not cook too fast or burn. Cook only until they flake easily when tested.
Top with crisp bacon.

J. McGrath

Note: Here is a good accompaniment for pan-fried fish when not using bacon for frying. Sauté chopped green onions with fresh or canned mushrooms in butter. Add a little sherry or white wine and heat. Do not boil. Serve with fish for brunch, along with minted fresh fruit and blueberry muffins.

Ingredients:

3 pounds venison roast
1 good-sized onion
1 can tomatoes, no. 303
1 cup water
1 can tomato hot sauce
Salt
Pepper
Flour
Garlic salt
Oil or shortening

Directions:

Trim the roast of fat and bad spots.
Cut the roast as thin as possible.
Sprinkle salt, pepper and garlic both sides of each piece of the roast.
Then flour both sides.
Use enough oil or shortening to cover the bottom of fry pan.
Heat, brown on both sides.
Put the pieces in a roaster or covered pan.
Put the rest of the ingredients over the top the roast and bake in the oven at 300° for about 3 hours or until done.
Take the meat out and use the rest for gravy.

Serves 10 to 12.

Mrs. J. Denton

Mrs. Denton’s recipe for The Montana Special won first prize in the Wild Game Cooking section of the Montana Standard recipe contest several years ago.