kernewegor
Bon vivant, raconteur and twit
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Pasty.. the 'a' as in 'apple' (unless you're from Northern Ireland or South Africa) and don't believe the website which says it's pronounced 'paarsty' - it's a leg-pull!
I was going to post the pasty recipe I use but... a mere recipe is hardly enough. Pasties can be among the trickiest of the culinary arts to get right. Many baker's shops in Cornwall fail in this regard - let alone elsewhere...
Besides, I'm vegetarian and don't really have the experience of making meat pasties. And pasties are a pretty extensive subject... so please forgive me if I cheat a little...
Ann Muller, one of the very best pasty makers in Cornwall, has put her recipes online to share, and she has included enough additional information and hints and tips which can make the difference between a reasonable effort and a 'proper job'. Ann also tells how she got into setting up a pasty shop, and other stuff which makes pleasant and informative reading. Her vegetable and cheese pasty recipes are identical to mine - I use the vegetarian Cookeen option instead of lard, of course.
Ann's recipes:
http://www.annspasties.co.uk/cornish/pasty-recipe/
Other pasty lore:
When the 'mad cow' (BSE) crisis hit, Cornish pasty makers found sales of the traditional beef pasty nose-dived. They responded with new variations: pork pasties, lamb pasties, bacon pasties, turkey and stilton pasties (I'm told these last were delicious) and the vegetarian options expanded, too - apart from the 'traditional' vegatable pasty (see Ann's recipe) cheese and onion pasties became more widespread, and some pasty makers (the 'crunchy alternative' end of the market) even added sweetcorn, green beans and other pulses. Carrots, though, are frowned on...
This last variation reflects a Mexican recipe. Real Del Monte, in Hidalgo County, Mexico, was largely populated by Cornish who mined for silver there in the 19th century. The churchyard bears testimony to this, and still today many of the Spanish speaking inhabitants bear Cornish names, and some of them have pasty shops.... there are half a dozen or more in the town (pasties are 'pastes' in Spanish) and while they produce a traditional beef pasty which would compare well with any from Cornwall, they have also developed a hot, spicy vegetable pasty containing chillies...
I do not believe that pasties are exclusively Cornish in origin. I seem to remember reading that they were made through much of Europe in the Middle Ages (lack of hardware shops selling pie dishes, I suppose) and arguments about whether to chip, slice or dice the vegetables (no spuds, though, in Europe until the late 16th century) and exactly how a pasty should be crimped probably started with the first pasty ever made... and continue still, unabated.
Some will hold that a pasty without beef 'isn't Cornish'. Nonsense! Not everyone in the past could afford beef, and even those who usually could might have had to 'make do'. Fish was more commonly eaten than meat in many places... People were sometimes vegetarian from poverty, rather than choice.
Testimony to this is the alternative name for the pasty, the 'tiddy oggy'(or just 'oggy'). This is heard in the rugby chant "oggy, oggy, oggy!" - what other nation shouts out the name of its national dish at a sports event? "Haggis, haggis, haggis?" "Rarebit, rarebit, rarebit?" "Spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti?" We Cornish are a funny lot, sometimes... well, quite a bit of the time, actually...
The first word is dialect for potato, the second derived from the Cornish language ('hogan') and means a pie, pasty or merely baked pastry (if you were really poor!) So strictly the word indicates a vegetable pasty (a pasty without onion - or, failing that, leek - would not be very tasty!)
While pasties for 'crib' or 'croust' (east and west Cornish dialect for a worker's midday meal, or a picnic lunch) are invariably 'manhandled' (grab one end, start eating from the other) a knife and fork is an option if eating at the table.
My mother told me that her father used to eat at least seven pasties a week... sounds a lot, but some of them would have been small 'jam pasties', eaten for dessert. He didn't eat meat, but granny couldn't conceive of making a pasty without it, so I remember watching grandad pick the bits of meat out as he ate...
Incidentally, the ('traditional', beef) Cornish pasty was awarded PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) status in 2011.
I hope this inspires you to have a go and see if you can do a 'proper job'! Have fun!
I was going to post the pasty recipe I use but... a mere recipe is hardly enough. Pasties can be among the trickiest of the culinary arts to get right. Many baker's shops in Cornwall fail in this regard - let alone elsewhere...
Besides, I'm vegetarian and don't really have the experience of making meat pasties. And pasties are a pretty extensive subject... so please forgive me if I cheat a little...
Ann Muller, one of the very best pasty makers in Cornwall, has put her recipes online to share, and she has included enough additional information and hints and tips which can make the difference between a reasonable effort and a 'proper job'. Ann also tells how she got into setting up a pasty shop, and other stuff which makes pleasant and informative reading. Her vegetable and cheese pasty recipes are identical to mine - I use the vegetarian Cookeen option instead of lard, of course.
Ann's recipes:
http://www.annspasties.co.uk/cornish/pasty-recipe/
Other pasty lore:
When the 'mad cow' (BSE) crisis hit, Cornish pasty makers found sales of the traditional beef pasty nose-dived. They responded with new variations: pork pasties, lamb pasties, bacon pasties, turkey and stilton pasties (I'm told these last were delicious) and the vegetarian options expanded, too - apart from the 'traditional' vegatable pasty (see Ann's recipe) cheese and onion pasties became more widespread, and some pasty makers (the 'crunchy alternative' end of the market) even added sweetcorn, green beans and other pulses. Carrots, though, are frowned on...
This last variation reflects a Mexican recipe. Real Del Monte, in Hidalgo County, Mexico, was largely populated by Cornish who mined for silver there in the 19th century. The churchyard bears testimony to this, and still today many of the Spanish speaking inhabitants bear Cornish names, and some of them have pasty shops.... there are half a dozen or more in the town (pasties are 'pastes' in Spanish) and while they produce a traditional beef pasty which would compare well with any from Cornwall, they have also developed a hot, spicy vegetable pasty containing chillies...
I do not believe that pasties are exclusively Cornish in origin. I seem to remember reading that they were made through much of Europe in the Middle Ages (lack of hardware shops selling pie dishes, I suppose) and arguments about whether to chip, slice or dice the vegetables (no spuds, though, in Europe until the late 16th century) and exactly how a pasty should be crimped probably started with the first pasty ever made... and continue still, unabated.
Some will hold that a pasty without beef 'isn't Cornish'. Nonsense! Not everyone in the past could afford beef, and even those who usually could might have had to 'make do'. Fish was more commonly eaten than meat in many places... People were sometimes vegetarian from poverty, rather than choice.
Testimony to this is the alternative name for the pasty, the 'tiddy oggy'(or just 'oggy'). This is heard in the rugby chant "oggy, oggy, oggy!" - what other nation shouts out the name of its national dish at a sports event? "Haggis, haggis, haggis?" "Rarebit, rarebit, rarebit?" "Spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti?" We Cornish are a funny lot, sometimes... well, quite a bit of the time, actually...
The first word is dialect for potato, the second derived from the Cornish language ('hogan') and means a pie, pasty or merely baked pastry (if you were really poor!) So strictly the word indicates a vegetable pasty (a pasty without onion - or, failing that, leek - would not be very tasty!)
While pasties for 'crib' or 'croust' (east and west Cornish dialect for a worker's midday meal, or a picnic lunch) are invariably 'manhandled' (grab one end, start eating from the other) a knife and fork is an option if eating at the table.
My mother told me that her father used to eat at least seven pasties a week... sounds a lot, but some of them would have been small 'jam pasties', eaten for dessert. He didn't eat meat, but granny couldn't conceive of making a pasty without it, so I remember watching grandad pick the bits of meat out as he ate...
Incidentally, the ('traditional', beef) Cornish pasty was awarded PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) status in 2011.
I hope this inspires you to have a go and see if you can do a 'proper job'! Have fun!
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