Cornish Pasties

[Binky Profile]

When my mum used to buy cornish pasties at the butchers shop, they were always crimped down the middle and fairly round in shape.

Today, I had a pasty for the first time in about 30 years (for lunch at a local wildlife visitors centre) and it was flat and crimped at the edge. It didn't taste as good as the ones I had years ago, but then nothing does. The question is though, which is the correct shape for a cornish pasty?

[Suffs Profile]

Crimp on the top!!!??? That’s not a Cornish pasty!!!

If you look here (scroll down a bit) you’ll see how to do it http://www.cornishpastyassociation.co.u ... ish-pasty/

[jeral Profile]

Ah, the never ending debate.

All I'd say is that an elderly inlaw who'd be a centenarian now, Cornish through and through, made them flat with the rolled 4-layer edge, presumably due to tradition.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

I used to love them, to the point that my local grocer nicknamed me 'Oggy'. They were my preferred picnic food if out fishing for the day. He used to sell ones that were large and filled with a chunky mixture of meat and vegetables.

However, I doubt I've eaten half a dozen in the last 30 years. I was last tempted about 9 years ago when Mrs B was in Addenbrooke's, there was a pasty stall at Cambridge station. One night I succumbed. Salty slop, I thought.

Whether or not it's my imagination, changing taste, nostalgia, but I haven't eaten one I liked for ages. They must vary hugely I suppose.

[Suffs Profile]

These are the ones you want ... we’ve been to her shop on the Lizard and watched them being made ... since Rick Stein said she was a Food Hero her business has grown , but the pasties we had last summer were just as good as ever they were https://www.annspasties.co.uk

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Thanks for that. I notice a variety of crimping styles!

I suppose pasties, like so many famous examples of British food, have become commoditised and are freely available made as cheaply as possible. Apart from price, the consumer doesn't know until they bite into them. It's a similar thing with spring rolls, our local takeaway does a large one filled with beansprouts , other veg and scraps of meat. Crunchy, savoury - it's maybe a quarterly treat for us, but many spring rolls are filled with a salty mush.

It's not as if pasties (or spring rolls) are made with expensive ingredients, just a market reluctance to pay a fair price for a properly made item when someone else can produce an inferior product more cheaply

[cherrytree Profile]

When we were in Cornwall, I bought Ann’s mother’s Pasty Book.
I adore pasties and love the tale that they should still be warm when you approach Exeter. I’ve even made them for a picnic in France but it was dependent on being able to buy a swede (or yellow turnip as they are called in Cumbria)

[cherrytree Profile]

When we were in Cornwall, I bought Ann’s mother’s Pasty Book.
I adore pasties and love the tale that they should still be warm when you approach Exeter. I’ve even made them for a picnic in France but it was dependent on being able to buy a swede (or yellow turnip as they are called in Cumbria)

[Amyw Profile]

I actually live 15 minutes away from Exeter and have been to Cornwall many times. That brought a smile to my face.

Most pasties I see nowadays are crimped at the edge. I struggle to find a decent one . The best one we have in our town is actually from a pasty stall in Tescos . Nicely seasoned meat and veg plus good pastry

[Joanbunting Profile]

I have made pasties in France Cherrytree. You can get swede or rhutabaga as it is known here. I was taught how by the cook in the pub next to where M's parents had the village stores . On the Helford estuary.

They are wonderful when properly made and this lady was a master of her craft. That was back in the 60's. I spent a whole summer there looking after M's little brother and sister while his parents worked in the shop/post office. It was not an especially happy summer but at least I was with M and we could slope off to the pub from time to time to eat pasties and drink scrumpy!

[jeral Profile]

My inlaw made hers the size of half a dinner plate and weighed a ton; it definitely kept active calorie burners full for a good while. She used a lot of little pieces of beef from the Sunday roast, plus turnip and potato pieces sort of snipped off as little elongated triangles. (I don't recall onion, just S&P).

Bought ones tend to be a solid splodge of tastelessness rather than discrete pieces, so more reliable to make one's own given ready-rolled pastry is now commonplace.

Be careful about those kept in a warming oven display. I once bit into a perfect turquoise/green coloured filling, eek!.

[strictlysalsaclare Profile]

I love the proper Cornish pasties you get from the independent shops down there. You know, the ones made with shortcrust pastry . In these parts (the South East), I don;t bother eating them and get veggie or cheese and onion ones instead. If I wanted a proper one whilst at home I would have to make one!

[Wic Profile]

My mother used to make Corned Beef pasties. They were really good. I’d forgotten about them till I read this. I may have to try to recreate them, just to see whether they still work for us.

[Suffs Profile]

I used to make those too Wic ... a tin of corned beef, a tin of mixed veg, an onion and anOxo cube made enough filling for lunchtime pasties for the week for my builder ex (except he wasn’t an ex then of course) ... a batch of rough puff pastry was quickly made and assembling the pasties was a regular weekend task.

[Wic Profile]

Thanks for the recipe, Suffs. I’ll tell you how I get on.

I’d got as far as corned beef, onion and potato. It would never have been written down, my M was an instinctive cook, she just did it and it worked. I once asked her for the recipe for something or other and she wrote it out and sent it to me. It was a list of ingredients, no measurements or oven temperatures. It took me several goes to actually get it right!