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Cornish Pastie
A Pint & A Pastie
I’ve been meaning to post this recipe for some time and when someone in eGullet asked for picnic ideas it was clearly time to do so.
Cornish Pasty
Pastry — see below
**** filling ****
3/4 lb chuck roast — ground
1 c potatoes — diced
2 ea carrots — small, shredded
1 c yellow onions — diced fine
2 tsps dried thyme
1 tsp mustard powder
2 tsps dried sage
2 tsps red wine vinegar
1/2 c beef broth
**** glaze ****
1 ea egg yolk
1 tbsp milkPastry:
Use your favorite recipe for a two-crust pie. If it calls for sugar, leave it out. Add 2 teaspoons of dried sage to the dry ingredients before cutting in the shortening. Also, for a traditional (and exceptionally good) pastry, use cold lard for the shortening.Filling:
Heat oven to 375F.Put diced potatoes and 1/2 inch of water in a covered microwave dish and cook in microwave until potatoes are just tender – seven to eight minutes. Drain potatoes and dump into a large bowl. Mash coarsely with a fork.
Place chuck in food processor and pulse until meat is coarsely ground (err on the side of under-processing.) Add ground beef and all remaining ingredients to the potatoes and mix thoroughly.
Roll the pastry out to a 1/8 inch thickness on a lightly floured board. Using a five inch round plate as a template, cut as many circles as you can. The scraps can be combined and rolled out one more time. You should have ten rounds.
Moisten half the edge of a pastry round and place about 1/2 cup of the filling in the center. Fold the round over the filling and press the edges to seal. Repeat for remaining pastry and filling. Arrange pasties on a pair of foil covered baking sheets.
Glaze:
Mix egg yolk and milk together and brush glaze over pasties. Cut two one inch slits in the top of each pastie and bake for 30 minutes or until golden.
These are also wonderful for supper on a cold winter night served with potato chowder, boiled cabbage, and beer. If you’re going to eat them hot then place a slice of cheddar cheese on top of each pasty that will be eaten that night about ten minutes before
the pasties are done.
They’re as good at room temperature as they are hot, so they also make great picnic fare.
9 Responses to “Cornish Pastie”
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Disclaimer: Most quantities in recipes are approximate. Adjust as needed according to your taste and experience. Unless otherwise specified, eggs are large and butter is unsalted.
Okay, now I need the honest truth from someone not native to the British Isles – are Cornish Pasties actually good? What would you compare them to? I’ve never tried one, obviously, and somehow I’ve never felt the need to…but I’m open to persuasion! ;)
Melissa,Keep in mind that I haven’t had one in England in 30 years. But I loved them when I was there. I’ll bet I ate at least one a day for the first two weeks I was in England.“What would you compare them to?”It’s a meat pie so it’s similar to a beef pot pie, or shepherd’s pie, or tourtiere. The main difference is that the pastry is a larger component in a pastie than in those other pies — and that’s what I’ve had the most trouble getting right in my recipe. Then an English friend told me that I needed to use lard in the pastry and that really cinched the recipe.Obviously I can’t vouch for what you can buy over there these days. I suspect what I was introduced to was made mostly from scratch whereas today they’re probably all commercially made and then frozen. But the recipe I posted makes a really satisfying meal — especially with a slice of cheddar melted over it.
I love pasties (sp?)! I had a home-sick, English boyfriend a while back and I got in the habit of making them every month or so. Mine were never as moist and I wanted them to be, but they were still delicious and oh, so easy to eat. I read somewhere that pasties were the ideal miner’s meal and they carried them in their pockets and when they were ready to eat them they’d heat them on their shovels over a hot fire. Hee hee.
Megan,Yeah, the moistness is a problem. I did find that adding beef broth helped and I have it in mind (you’ll love this) to try adding some bacon fat the next time I make them.“I read somewhere that pasties were the ideal miner’s meal”That’s true. It was Welsh miners that brought them to this country (they’re popular in the iron-mining areas of Michigan).
erm, actualy the reason pasties were made that way were so they could be taken down mine. Cornwall was famous for its Tin industry and Tin mines. The miners would take the pasties wrapped in cloth and eat them as substanance. The filling contained meat, veg and potatoes – all that you’d need. The pastry being the best way to keep it wrapped up, and be able to eat it with dirty hands by holding a corner of the pasty & they are the dogs bollocks!
what I really need is a recipe for totti cake, which I got from the fookseasons of my life about hannah hauxwell england. they made a video of her lonely life on the moors
Anon,I’m afraid I don’t have one. Sorry.
Wow what a great recipe, pies always go done so well especially when one is hungry, I just love this recipe and going to give it a bash one the weekend, and see how they turn out. Thanks again.
Home made pies I cant think of any thing better than this. We have a place here in Johannesburg called the home of the chicken pie and this has to be the best chicken pie that has ever been made