Michigan’s Humble Pasty is at the Heart of a Lawsuit that Transformed the Sandwich Industry

A pasty isn't a sandwich, is it? The humble meal that was popularized by miners in Michigan's Upper Peninsula was at the center of a lawsuit that changed the definition of a particular kind of sandwich.

The pasty is, as most Michiganders know, a crimped dough turnover filled with meat and vegetables, served piping hot from the oven. That doesn't sound much like a sandwich.

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The debate here isn't about ketchup vs gravy as a topping which many pasty fans will eagerly debate. (Or the use of mayonnaise as a pasty topper as one savage Yooper once did.) Rather, the debate is about the crimping of the pasty.

Smuckers' Uncrustables: The Antagonist

And that brings us to the sandwich antagonist, the JM Smuckers Company and their incredibly popular line of Uncrustables. You are likely familiar with the Uncrustable. Perhaps very familiar if you've ever been around a toddler or elementary school aged child.

Uncrustables are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches produced in the round with the crusts torn off and the bread crimped to encase the filling.

READ MORE: Is the 'Pizza Pasty' Really a Michigan Thing?

See the correlation to the pasty?

The Smuckers company sure did and decided to take many makers of crimped foods to court claiming trademark and patent infringement on the Uncrustable.

Albie's Foods Fights Back

In 2001, after Albie's Foods, a Gaylord-based company that produced pasties sold widely in Michigan grocery stores, became embroiled in a fight picked by the much larger Smuckers they decided to fight back. Albie's didn't settle and they went to court against Smuckers claiming their filled and crimped product was a pasty a dish popular in Michigan and dating back to the 1800s, and much longer, of course, in Europe.

Albie's won in court. And beyond the lawsuit, Albie's went to the US Patent Office and challenged the patent Smuckers held on a crimped crust. After the legal wrangling, Smuckers lost its patent on the uncrustable concept.

It's a David vs Goliath story with David prevailing after a fight he didn't pick.

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Albie's, for what it's worth, in the years since winning their case has pivoted away from producing pasties. But still produce many crimped sandwiches and calzones.

Though the credit goes to a Lower Peninsula company, Albie's in Gaylord, it's a victory celebrated by Yoopers.