A customer visiting Dan Morrison Meat Pies 50 years ago would have seen the company's employees mixing ingredients, putting pies together, baking them and packaging them — by hand.
Just like a visitor would today, as a matter of fact.
The company's seven (sometimes eight) employees can make about 5,000 of the savory items each day, in three "bakes."
But making the iconic Salt Lake meat pies is not a simple matter. Debbie Strong, office manager and marketing official, outlined the pie-making process.
The dough is mixed and run through a large dough-maker a number of times. "This dough roller is similar to a pasta maker; lots of flour is used, and it makes a very nice white mess," Strong said.
The dough is rolled out in layers on a long table, where it is cut into stacks of rounds.
The tortilla-sized rounds are taken to a table where they are "pleated" onto a plastic form similar in shape to a round fence post.
A ring is slipped over the dough and plastic form, which is flipped over and the plastic stump removed to repeat the process. These same metal rings have been used to make the pies for years.
The dough-filled rings are placed 24 to a sheet. When the long counter is covered with trays of rings, each pie is filled with a scoop of seasoned beef, which has been mixed in a machine that is 100 years old.
After the pies are filled, the meat is pressed down and a long strip of dough is placed over all the trays. A person rolls the top sheet of dough repeatedly, causing the rings to act like cookie cutters from below. The dough surrounding the cuts is removed, and the pies now have tops.
The pies are loaded into a large revolving oven with five shelves. After 20 minutes, the hot pies are removed from the oven, the rings are removed from the pies and the trays of pies are placed on racks to cool.
The racks are rolled into a large walk-in refrigerator, cooled a bit more, then rolled into a walk-in freezer.
When the pies are frozen, they are placed on foam trays, a label is added, and they are run through the packaging machine. They're boxed and placed back in the freezer to await deliver to grocery stores and other businesses.
Strong said the process has not changed much over the years, and that may account for part of the pies' appeal.
After all, she said, "How many things are handmade anymore?"
E-mail: gkratz@desnews.com