Hunt’s Mackinaw Pasties & Cookie Co
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Want the Best Pasties in Mackinaw City? Visit Hunt’s Mackinaw Pasties & Cookie Co!

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Are you looking for the best Mackinaw City pasties?!? An iconic “up north” Michigan food dishes that you must try before you die, the best pasties in Mackinaw City can be found at Hunt’s Mackinaw Pastie & Cookie Co, and stopping in to try this deliciousness is one of the best things to do in Mackinaw City!

Hunt's Mackinaw Pasty & Cookie Co - best pasties in Mackinaw City
Photo by Julie Rogier

About Hunt’s Mackinaw Pastie & Cookie Co.

The Hunt family (Dick, Jean, Donna, and Rob) and their dedicated crew have been making pasties in Mackinaw City since acquiring the Mackinaw Pastie Shop in 1983.

Having just celebrated 50 years in business, Mackinaw Pastie Shop was originally founded in 1964 by William E. Heikkila of St. Ignace at the present site, in Mackinaw City. The current owners continue using the original “Yooper” recipes, and over the years have added other pasty varieties including the traditional beef, chicken, vegetable, and cheese pasties.

What is a Pasty?

Michigan’s delectable pasty (rhymes with “nasty”) is perfect for a winter day – a savory “pot pie without the pot” made up of flaky crust wrapped around beef, potatoes, rutabagas, carrots, and onions. This traditionally Cornish meal was originally intended for miners to be able to enjoy a nourishing meal twice a day – they’d eat half for breakfast and the other half would be their lunch.

When the Cornish miners began to immigrate to America, many ended up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula due to the copper mines, and they brought their filling pasties with them. Pasties became synonymous with Upper Peninsula cuisine, and in 1968, Governor George Romney declared May 24th to be the first statewide Michigan Pasty Day.

Rating Michigan’s Pasties: The Key Pasty Indicators

If you haven’t been following along, we’ve been rating various Michigan pasty shops and sharing our findings. A key feature of finding the best Michigan pasties is reviewing each of the Michigan-made pasties using a proprietary rating system developed just for the Awesome Mitten blog.

The following 5 Key Pasty Indicators (KPIs) are unique standards carefully developed as pasty measurement criteria.  As you recall, we regularly rate pasties made by some of Michigan’s vendors using this KPI system, which goes from 1 to 11 just to keep things interesting.

Key Pasty Indicators (KPIs)

  • Crust to Filling Ratio – is there a good balance between the outer pastry crust and the savory filling?
  • Filling Consistency/Flavor – is the filling mostly recognizable chunks; also how are the texture, ingredients, spice, and overall flavor?
  • Price Consideration
  • Flake-0-Meter – how flaky is the crust?
  • Overall Savory Index
Hunt's Mackinaw Pasties follows the traditional Yooper recipe of savory, hand-crafted pasties in Mackinaw City
Hunt’s follows the traditional “Yooper” recipe of savory, hand-crafted pasties. | Photo by Julie Rogier

Rating Hunt’s Mackinaw City Pasties

We sampled the generously sized traditional beef pasty.

Hunt’s KPIs:

  • Crust to Filling Ratio Score = 8 … Good balance between pastry and filling.
  • Filling Consistency/Flavor Score = 6 … It was not easy to recognize carrots, rutabaga and onions, the filling was an overly smooth beef mixture.
  • Price Consideration Score =Price range: $6 – $10 8 … Hunts charges between $6 and $10 per pasty, a typical price point.
  • Flake-0-Meter Score = 8 … Crust flakiness was adequate.
  • Overall Savory Index = 8 … Overall, they were tasty.

Overall KPI:

Pastometer-7.5
Illustration by Collin Barlage

Based on the criteria above, we give Hunt’s Pasties in Mackinaw City an overall KPI of 7.6. Congrats, Hunt’s!

Here are some of the other Michigan pasty shops we’ve reviewed:

Where is your favorite place to get pasties in Michigan?

More to Do in Mackinaw City

Mackinaw City is a family-friendly destination of homey restaurants, iconic attractions, a range of lodging choices, and of course the much-visited Mackinac Island ferry terminals. It’s considered to be the gateway to Mackinac Island and the Upper Peninsula. Start planning your next visit, and don’t forget to include a stop at the best pasty shop in Mackinaw City!