Pasty

Apasty(/ˈpæsti/) orCornish pastyis a British bakedpastry, a variety of which is particularly associated withCornwall, but has spread all over theBritish Isles, and elsewhere through theCornish diaspora.It consists of a filling, typically meat and vegetables, baked in a folded and crimpedshortcrust pastrycircle.
The traditional Cornish pasty, which since 2011 has hadProtected Geographical Indication(PGI) status in Europe,is filled withbeef, sliced or diced potato,swede(also known as yellow turnip or rutabaga – referred to in Cornwall and other parts of theWest Countryasturnip) and onion, seasoned with salt and pepper, andbaked. Today, the pasty is the food most associated with Cornwall. It is a traditional dish and accounts for 6% of the Cornish food economy. Pasties with many different fillings are made, and some shops specialise in selling pasties.
The origins of the pasty are unclear, though there are many references to them throughout historical documents and fiction. The pasty is now popular worldwide because of thespread of Cornish minersand sailors from across Cornwall, and variations can be found in Australia, Mexico, the United States,Ulsterand elsewhere.
Despite the modern pasty's strong association with Cornwall, its origins are unclear. The English word "pasty" derives from Medieval French (O.Fr.pastefrom V.Latpasta) for a pie, filled withvenison, salmon or other meat, vegetables or cheese, baked without a dish.Pasties have been mentioned in cookbooks throughout the ages. For example, the earliest version ofGuillaume Tirel's cookbookLe Viandier, which has been dated toc.1300, contains several pasty recipes.In 1393,Le Ménagier de Pariscontains recipes forpastéwith venison,veal, beef ormutton.
Other early references to pasties include a charter that was granted byKing John of Englandto the town ofGreat Yarmouthin 1208. The town was bound to send to the sheriffs ofNorwichevery yearone hundred herrings, baked in twenty four pasties, which the sheriffs delivered to the lord of the manor ofEast Carltonwho then conveyed them to the king.Around the same time, 13th-centurychroniclerMatthew Pariswrote of the monks ofSt Albans Abbey"according to their custom, lived upon pasties of flesh-meat".In 1465, 5,500 venison pasties were served at the installation feast ofGeorge Neville, archbishop of York and chancellor of England.The earliest reference for a pasty inDevonor Cornwall can be found inPlymouthcity records of 1509/10, which describe "Itm for the cooke is labor to make the pasties 10d".They were even eaten by royalty, as a letter from a baker toHenry VIII's third wifeJane Seymourconfirms: "...hope this pasty reaches you in better condition than the last one ..."In his diaries written in the mid-17th century,Samuel Pepysmakes several references to his consumption of pasties, for instance "dined atSir W. Pen's ... on a damned venison pasty, that stunk like a devil",but after this period the use of the word outside Devon and Cornwall declined.
In contrast to its earlier place amongst the wealthy, during the 17th and 18th centuries, the pasty became popular with working people in Cornwall and west Devon, wheretin minersand others adopted it because of its unique shape, forming a complete meal that could be carried easily and eaten without cutlery.In a mine, the pasty's dense, folded pastry could stay warm for several hours, and if it did get cold, it could easily be warmed on a shovel over a candle.
Side-crimped pasties gave rise to the suggestion that the miner might have eaten the pasty holding the thick edge of pastry, which was later discarded, thereby ensuring that dirty fingers (possibly including traces ofarsenic) did not touch the food or mouth.However, many old photographs show that pasties were wrapped in bags made of paper ormuslinand were eaten from end to end;according to the earliest Cornish recipe book, published in 1929, this is "the true Cornish way" to eat a pasty.Another theory suggests that pasties were marked at one end with an initial and then eaten from the other end so that if not finished in one sitting, they could easily be reclaimed by their owners.
The pasty is regarded as the national dish of Cornwall,and an early reference is from a New Zealand newspaper:
The term "Cornish pasty" has been in use since at least the early 1860s:
By the late 19th century, national cookery schools began to teach their pupils to create their own version of a "Cornish pasty" that was smaller and was to be eaten as an "economical savoury nibble for polite middle-class Victorians".
On 20 July 2011, after a nine-year campaign by theCornish Pasty Association(CPA) – the trade organisation of about 50 pasty makers based in Cornwall – the name "Cornish pasty" was awarded Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status by theEuropean Commission.According to the PGI status, a Cornish pasty should be shaped like a 'D' and crimped on one side, not on the top. Its ingredients should include beef, swede (called turnip in Cornwall),potato and onion, with a light seasoning of salt and pepper, keeping a chunky texture. The pastry should be golden and retain its shape when cooked and cooled.The PGI status also means that Cornish pasties must be prepared in Cornwall. They do not have to be baked in Cornwall,nor do the ingredients have to come from the county, though the CPA notes that there are strong links between pasty production and local suppliers of the ingredients.Packaging for pasties that conform to the requirements includes an authentication stamp, the use of which is policed by the CPA.
Producers outside Cornwall objected to the PGI award, with one saying "[EU bureaucrats could] go to hell",and another that it was "protectionism for some big pasty companies to churn out apasticheof the real iconic product". Major UK supermarketsAsdaandMorrisonsboth stated they would be affected by the change,as did nationwide bakery chainGreggs, though Greggs was one of seven companies allowed to continue to use the name "Cornish pasty" during a three-year transitional period.
Members of the CPA made about 87 million pasties in 2008, amounting to sales of £60 million (about 6% of the food economy of Cornwall).In 2011, over 1,800 permanent staff were employed by members of the CPA and some 13,000 other jobs benefited from the trade.Surveys by the South West tourism board have shown that one of the top three reasons people visit Cornwall is the food and that the Cornish pasty is the food most associated with Cornwall.
The recipe for a Cornish pasty, as defined by its protected status, includes diced or minced beef, onion, potato and swede in rough chunks along with some "light peppery"seasoning.The cut of beef used is generallyskirt steak.Swede is sometimes calledturnipin Cornwall,but the recipe requires use of actual swede, not turnip.Pasty ingredients are usually seasoned with salt and pepper, depending on individual taste.
The type of pastry used is not defined, as long as it is golden in colour and will not crack during the cooking or cooling,although modern pasties almost always use a shortcrust pastry.There is a humorous belief that the pastry on a good pasty should be strong enough to withstand a drop down a mine shaft,and indeed the barley flour that was usually used does make hard dense pastry.
Although the officially protected Cornish pasty has a specific ingredients list, old Cornish cookery books show that pasties were generally made from whatever food was available.Indeed, the earliest recorded pasty recipes include venison, not beef."Pasty" has always been a generic name for the shape and can contain a variety of fillings, includingstilton, vegetarian and evenchicken tikka.Porkandapplepasties are readily available in shops throughout Cornwall and Devon, with the ingredients including an apple flavoured sauce, mixed together throughout the pasty, as well as sweet pasties with ingredients such as apple and fig or chocolate and banana, which are common in some areas of Cornwall.
A part-savoury, part-sweet pasty (similar to theBedfordshire clanger) was eaten by miners in the 19th century, in the copper mines onParys Mountain,Anglesey. The technician who did the research and discovered the recipe claimed that the recipe was probably taken to Anglesey by Cornish miners travelling to the area looking for work.No two-course pasties are commercially produced in Cornwall today,but are usually the product of amateur cooks.They are, however, commercially available in the British supermarket chainMorrisons(under the name 'Tin Miner Pasty').Other traditional fillings have included a wide variety of locally available meats including pork, bacon, egg, rabbit, chicken,mackereland sweet fillings such as dates, apples,jamand sweetened rice - leading to the oft-quoted joke that 'the Devil hisself was afeared to cross over into Cornwall for fear that ee'd end up in a pasty'.
A pasty is known as a "tiddy oggy" when steak is replaced with an extra potato, "tiddy" meaning potato and "oggy" meaning pasty and was eaten when times were hard and expensive meat could not be afforded.Another traditional meatless recipe is 'herby pie' with parsley, freshly gathered wild green herbs and chives,ramsonsor leeks and a spoonful ofclotted cream.
Whilst the PGI rules state that a Cornish pasty must be a "D" shape, with crimping along the curve (i.e., side-crimped),crimping is variable within both Devon and Cornwall, with some advocating a side crimp while others maintain that a top crimp is more authentic.Some sources state that the difference between a Devon and a Cornish pasty is that a Devon pasty has a top-crimp and is oval in shape, whereas the Cornish pasty is semicircular and side-crimped along the curve.However, pasties with a top crimp have been made in Cornwall for generations,yet those Cornish bakers who favour this method now find that they cannot legally call their pasties "Cornish".Paul Hollywood, writing forBBC Food, stated that a traditional Cornish pasty should have about 20 crimps.
Migrating Devonian and Cornish miners and their families (colloquially known as Cousin Jacks and Cousin Jennies) helped to spread pasties into the rest of the world during the 19th century. Astin miningin Devon and Cornwall began to decline, miners took their expertise and traditions to new mining regions around the world.As a result, pasties can be found in many regions, including:
Pasties have been mentioned in multiple literary works since the 12th centuryArthurian romanceErec and Enide, written byChrétien de Troyes, in which they are eaten by characters from the area now known as Cornwall.There is a mention inHavelok the Dane, another romance written at the end of the thirteenth century;in the 14th centuryRobin Hoodtales;and in two plays byWilliam Shakespeare.
In the tin mines of Devon and Cornwall, pasties were associated with "knockers", spirits said to create a knocking sound that was either supposed to indicate the location of rich veins of ore,or to warn of an impending tunnel collapse. To encourage the good will of the knockers, miners would leave a small part of the pasty within the mine for them to eat.Sailors and fisherman would likewise discard a crust to appease the spirits of dead mariners, though fishermen believed that it was bad luck to take a pasty aboard ship.
A Cornish proverb, recounted in 1861, emphasised the great variety of ingredients that were used in pasties by saying that the devil would not come into Cornwall for fear of ending up as a filling in one.ACornishschoolboyplayground-rhymecurrent in the 1940s concerning the pasty went:
In 1959 the English singer-songwriterCyril Tawneywrote a nostalgic song called "The Oggie Man". The song tells of the pasty-seller with his characteristic vendor's call who was always outside Plymouth'sDevonport Naval Dockyardgates late at night when the sailors were returning, and his replacement by hot dog sellers after World War II.
The word "oggy" in the internationally popular chant "Oggy Oggy Oggy, Oi Oi Oi" is thought to stem from Cornish dialect "hoggan", deriving from "hogen" theCornishword for pasty. When the pasties were ready for eating, thebal maidensat the mines would supposedly shout down the shaft "Oggy Oggy Oggy" and the miners would reply "Oi Oi Oi".
As the 'national dish' of Cornwall, several oversized versions of the pasty have been created in the county. For example, a giant pasty is paraded fromPolruantoFoweythrough the streets during regatta week.Similarly, a giant pasty is paraded around the ground of theCornish Piratesrugby team onSt Piran's Daybefore it is passed over the goal posts.