Pasties
A pasty (Cornish: pasti, hoggan, incorrectly written as pastie) is a type of pie, originally from Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. It is a baked savory pastry case traditionally filled with sliced meat and vegetables. The ingredients are uncooked before being placed in the unbaked pastry case. Pasties with traditional ingredients are specifically called Cornish pasties. Traditionally, pasties have a semicircular shape, achieved by folding a circular pastry sheet over the filling. The circular edge is then crimped to form a seal. This recipe is from Cornish Recipes, Ancient & Modern, 22nd Edition, The Cornwall Federation of Women's Institutes 1965. First collected & published by Edith Martin, Tregavethan, Truro, 1929, for The Cornwall F.of W. I.
Total Time
Prep: 30 minutes Baking: 1 hour
Servings
8
Prep Time
30 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
1 medium swede (rutabaga, yellow turnip) or similar root vegetable, peeled, cut into chunks, and then thinly sliced
4 large potatoes, prepared same as the swede
4 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced
2 pounds (900 g) beef round (skirt), sliced across the grain into roughly 1x2 cm strips
Pastry for Cornish Pasties
1 tbsp plain flour (optional)
1 tbsp milk (optional)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400°F 200°C Gas Mark 6.
Lightly dust the prepared meat in seasoned flour (optional but makes a thicker gravy of the enclosed juices).
Divide the pastry into 4 equal portions. Roll each into circles.
Layer meat and vegetables on one half of each pastry circle to within 1 inch of the edge. Season generously.
Brush milk onto the edge of the pastry circles (optional).
Bring the other half of the dough over the top of the mixture.
Pinch and twist to seal the dough around the edges.
Make a couple of small slashes in the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape.
Brush pasties with the remaining milk (optional).
Use pastry trimmings to make the intended eater's initial(s) on one end of the pasty. This is the Cornish housewife's traditional way of making and identifying individual pasties to suit each family member e.g. less seasoning for young children or more meat for a hard-working son or anaemic daughter. Also, it enabled tin-miners and fishermen to identify their pasties if they had had to put them down somewhere half-eaten to attend to some urgent work.
Place the pasties on a lightly-greased baking tray (or a double thickness of aluminium foil directly onto the oven shelf).
Bake for about 45 minutes on the middle shelf of the preheated oven.
45 minutes
Best taken with a pint of bitter or stout or a large mug of strong tea.