Traditional Cornish Pasty Recipe - My Gorgeous Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret of the Cornish pasty? ›

The humble pasty, to be the genuine article, has to contain 12.5% meat and 25% vegetables. The meat is beef, and the veg should be potato, onion and swede (turnip). These ingredients are uncooked when added to the pastry and are baked slowly for succulence.

Pasties date back as far as the 13th century, at which time they were a pie baked without a dish of French origins, with a rich filling of venison, veal, beef, lamb or seafood, gravy and fruit. The name pasty is a mutation of the Medieval French “paste”, for pie.

Tradition has it that the original pasties contained meat and vegetables in one end and jam or fruit in the other end, in order to give the hard-working men 'two courses'. Cornish housewives also marked their husband's initials on the left-hand side of the pastry casing, in order to avoid confusion at lunchtime.

There will always be great debate about the origin of the pasty, but one easy way to detect the Devon pasty from the Cornish is that the Devon pasty has a top-crimp and is oval in shape, whereas the Cornish pasty is semi-circular and side-crimped along the curve.

American pasties are the American equivalent to Cornish pasties. The border between Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is delineated by a line of pasty shops.

No debate here: carrots are "sacrilege" as the Cornish Pasty Association points out: the swede adds all the sweetness this dish needs. Older recipes tend to be vague on exact details but potatoes should be waxy, as the CPA makes clear, rather than the floury ones Mark Hix uses, so they keep their shape when cooked.

It must only contain: Roughly diced (or minced) beef, sliced or diced potato, swede (or as some call it, turnip), onion, seasoning to taste (mainly salt & pepper – we're not telling your our secret seasoning!). Yes – you read that right... No carrots!

You won't find this in Greggs! Chef creates world's most expensive Cornish pasty with Japanese Wagyu beef, French onions and Indian peppercorns... with a £230 price tag.

They can be eaten from chilled or oven heated to enjoy hot. Pre-baked pasties should be kept chilled on receipt and not cannot be frozen. To prepare pre-baked pasties: These instructions are the producers recommendations and should be used as a guide only.

What is another name for Cornish pasty? ›

In Cornwall, a pasty is often called an “Oggie”, and while it is unclear as to where the word originated, some people have suggested that it is derived from hoggan, a kind of bag in which the miners carried their croust (croust is the Cornish term for lunch).

Originally Answered: What is the traditional way of eating a cornish pastie? You hold it by the scrolled edge. You eat the stuffed bit, and maybe as much of the edge as you haven't touched.

Since 2011, the Cornish Pasty has enjoyed protected status under Protected Food Names legislation; so only a pasty made to a specific recipe in Cornwall can be called a “Cornish Pasty”.

However, another 14 per cent did get it right, as Graham describes, “the traditional way to eat a pasty is with the pasty held in a horizontal position and holding the crimp, starting with the filled pastry and working your way outwards.

The crust (crimp) served as a 'handle' – a means of holding the pasty with dirty hands without contaminating the meal. Arsenic commonly accompanies tin within the ore that they were mining so, to avoid arsenic poisoning, the crimp was an essential part of the pasty.

According to the Cornish Pasty Association, a genuine one should contain roughly diced or minced beef, sliced or diced potato, swede, onion and seasoning to taste. The CPA is pretty strict on that and adds: 'No meat other than beef, and no vegetables apart from those listed can be used in the filling.