Cornish flag
Contents

The Cornish Pasty

Cornish flag
Cornwall

English pasties

 

 

This web page deals with pasties that are the traditional Cornish pasty shape, i.e. the hand-held D-shape pasty and not the old, Medieval/Elizabethan/Georgian pasty that was really a deep pie in a pastry coffyn (a hard-baked pastry container for baking in) that was not eaten.

My first experience with English pasties was as a fresh, young student in 1964 in a pub in East Ham, London. It looked like a small Cornish pasty, and was advertised on the menu as a "Cornish Pasty". The pastry was short, which was fine, and the filling was purely of baked beans, which wasn't fine. As a Cornishman, it was very disappointing. However, the landlord thought his pasties were perfect! It should have been more properly advertised as a London Pasty or a Cockney Pasty or, perhaps, an "Eastender"?

 


 

The Bedfordshire Clanger

This is a great regional speciality. A photograph of the clanger can be seen here: http://www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk/rc_bedsbucksherts.htm, with further information. The page says .....

"The Bedfordshire Clanger is a hefty suet pastryBedfordshire Clangers with a savoury filling at one end and a sweet one at the other, thus giving farm labourers a complete meal in one. However, this does not seem to have been the original form. Clangers were once a boiled suet roll, like a plum duff or roly-poly. The roll contained a meat filling and the crust itself was studded with fruit, again a complete meal in one. Compilations of English country recipes show them to have been plain, substantial food for farm labourers and other manual workers. Suet pastry enclosed a filling that varied with the affluence of the family involved. The poor used bacon, which was the only meat that was readily available. Richer families used good steak or pork."

......... the Clanger is similar in purpose to a pasty but has its own regional design .....

Acknowledgement - We are grateful to the Development Director, The Great British Food Trust, www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk, for permission to reproduce the information above

 


Priddy oggies - Somerset, this is a recipe site but contains the following note:

"Note I’m interested and encouraged to see that there are many different descriptions and recipes for “Priddy Oggies” (or Priddy Oggy) out there. However, I can categorically assure readers that what follows is the original. I’ve also seen some strange comments about them. I can assure the reader that Priddy isn’t a place in Cornwall. Similarly, this is not a Celtic or old recipe, as such. It’s merely one my grandfather, Paul Leyton, put together when running the Miners’ Arms in Priddy in the 1960’s. It’s of course derived from Tiddy Oggies - as the name suggests and the article outlines below. However, Priddy is in Somerset, which is a couple of hundred miles away by car from Cornwall! Regrettably, The Miners’ Arms is no longer open, but it’s good to see so many people interested in this recipe that it survives."

The recipe involved cheese pastry, pork tenderloin, thinly sliced smoked pork, bacon or ham and with cheese and parsley in the filling.


Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with
kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Wikipedia - Priddy

 

Fatbadgers.co.uk - Britain -food - Priddy Oggies:
"A West Country 'pasty' first made at the Miner's Arms in Priddy, Somerset containing bacon, pork and cheese. Oggie is a West Country word for 'pastry'."

The worldwide gourmet.com - countries - uk - southwest.htm - "In lovely Somerset, you might find yourself raising a tankard of the local smooth still cider to accompany your Priddy Oggy, a crust-covered pie filed with pork and ham."

This ITV.com Lifestyle page is about Somerset tiddy oggy with crab apple jelly and apple chutney.

The Priddy is in Somerset link shows a Streetmap.co.uk page of the Priddy area. Unlike the OS map above, it shows the area is rich in archaeological remains. These can be seen better by clicking on the arrows around the edge of the map to move around the area - their density must rival that of remains anywhere in Devon and Cornwall The top right corner arrow leads to a better view of the Priddy circles.

 


A pasty from much further away - the Ironbridge pasty (from Shropshire) .....

Ironbridge, England, pasty
Source: http://www.justhungry.com/2004/08/england_part_2.html
© www.justhungry.com - used with permission

This has the Devon-style top crimp

 


Leeds (Yorkshire) Pasties c/o Wilsons of Crossgates

We have been told by a friend that there are some excellent pasties to be found in Leeds, UK. Here are some photos of them .....


© Wilsons Butchers 2008
Wilsons (Leeds) Giant Steak Pasties


© Wilsons Butchers 2008
Wilsons (Leeds) Cornish Pasties

Acknowledgement: We are grateful to John Green, Wilsons of Crossgates, Leeds, for permission to use photographs from their Famous Pies and Pasties web page. The pasties are made in the traditional way with traditional ingredients. The giant steak pasty has pieces of steak and the Cornish pasty has minced beef.

 


Cumberland Scrap & Currant Pasty

¾lb savoury, rich or shortcrust pastry

3 oz lard

3 oz currants

4 oz peeled, cored, and chopped apples

4 oz brown sugar

½ tsp. cinnamon

 

The pastry is rolled out (8 rounds with the above ingredients) and brushed with melted lard. The currants, apples, sugar and cinnamon are mixed and divided over the pastry rounds. The edges are drawn up and sealed. The pasties are then brushed with water or milk and sprinkled with a little sugar. They are then baked for 30 minutes at 220°C, 425°F or Gas Regulo 7.

 

Source: British Cookery 2nd edn., ed. Lizzie Boyd, 1988, ISBN 0-7470-0223-1, page 378.


 


 

Westmorland Pasty

 

1 lb puff pastry or ¾ lb sweet, savoury or rich shortcrust pastry

3 oz chopped suet

3 oz brown sugar

1 level tsp. ground nutmeg

Milk

Caster sugar

 

Mix the suet, sugar and nutmeg and divide over eight pastry rounds. Fold over the wetted patry edges, seal and brush with milk. Sprnkle with caster sugar and bake until golden: 30 minutes at 220°C, 425°F or Gas Regulo 7.

 

Source: British Cookery 2nd edn., ed. Lizzie Boyd, 1988, ISBN 0-7470-0223-1. page 379.
 

 


 

Yorkshire Mint Pasty

 

1 lb puff pastry or ¾ lb sweet, savoury or rich shortcrust pastry

2 oz currants

2 oz raisins

1 oz candied peel

1½ oz brown sugar

Pinch of grated nutmeg or mixed spice

1 tbsp. freshly chopped mint

1½ oz butter

Milk

Caster sugar

 

Roll the pastry into eight rounds. Mix the currants and raisins with candied peel, sugar, nutmeg or mixed spice and mint and bind with the butter. Fill the pastry rounds, fold over and seal the edges. Brush with milk, sprinkle with sugar and bake for 30 minutes

at 220°C, 425°F or Gas Regulo 7.

 

Source: after British Cookery 2nd edn., ed. Lizzie Boyd, 1988, ISBN 0-7470-0223-1. page 379. (the link is to the revised 1st edition, 1977)


 


Other English pasty links

Bolton, Greater Manchester - Carrs Pasties

Liverpool - Sayers

Liverpool - Sayers and Greggs pasties

London Bakehouse - Cornish Pasties

London - Historical - Edward Kidder's Lamb Pasty - 1720 - also photo of two modern-made historical venison pasties !!!
NB - Also, see this page: Historical Pasties, on this web site.

London, Covent Garden - West Cornwall Pasty Company

Newcastle - Northumbria University, pasties available at:

Southampton Fish & Chips - fruit pasties and fried candy bars - that is what it says!

 

 

Celtic spital animation