Well did I really need an excuse to eat a Cornish Pasty!

Pastries have been documented as a part of the British diet since the 13th Century being devoured by the rich upper classes & royalty. Fillings were varied & rich being venison, beef, lamb & seafood like eels, flavoured with rich gravies & fruits.

AT LEAST 120 MILLION CORNISH PASTRIES ARE MADE EACH YEAR.

It wasn’t until the 17th & 18th centuries that the pastry was adopted by miners & farmworkers in Cornwall as a means of providing themselves with easy, tasty & sustaining meal while they worked. No cutlery was required & hence the Cornish pasty was born.

THE LARGEST PASTY WAS 728kg (1,604lb) MADE IN AUGUST 2010 BY THE PROPER CORNISH FOOD COMPANY.

OF COUSE YOU CAN ALSO NW GET COCKTAIL PASTIES.

They have a distinctive shape & style to both hold in the contents as well as provide a handle with which it is said they were held. Because of the mining environment then especially with arsenic mines to avoid arsenic poisoning in particular, it was an essential part of the pasty. That traditional crust may have been held to avoid the dirty from hands being consumed but it is more commonly thought that they were wrapped in paper or muslin and this was held to eat the pasty. However, you should always leave a little behind for the “knockers” – the spirits of the mines which protected you or guided you to a good vein.

CRIMPING IS THE TECHNIQUE OF SEALING THE PASTY & IS STILL PRIMARILY DONW BY HAND.

A SKILLED CRIMPER WILL AVERAGE 3 OR 4 PASTRIES A MINUTE.

Wives would individually mark the pasty so if the miner was to eat part & come back to it later, he could identify his pasty. Its dense folded pastry would stay warm for several hours & often kept the miners warm (carrying it near to the skin). Allegedly they could be thrown down into the mine without breaking, but I’m not sure that I’d want to try it!

THE FAMILIAR “OGGY, OGGY, OGGY” CHANT IS SAID TO HAVE ORIGINATED FROM PASTRY SELLERS OR TIN MINERS’ WVES ANNOUNCING THE ARRIVAL OF THEIR FRESHLY BAKES WARES. THE TRADITIONL ACKNOWLEDGMENT WAS “OI, OI, OI”.

Although the officially protected (since 2011) Cornish pasty has specific ingredients list the old cookery books suggest that they were filled with whatever food was available & may not contain any meet if there was none available. Some suggestions have been made that they were often savoury at one end & sweet at the other (not to be mixed up) making them a complete meal.

AT LEAST 2000 PEOPLE WORK IN THE PASTY PRODUCTION. MANY OF THEM FULL TIME WITH ADDITIONAL SEASONAL ECONOMY

As the contents was so varied it is said that the devil would not cross the Tamar for the fear that ee’d be baked into a pasty.

IF A PASTY IS CRIMPED BY THE LEFT HANDER IT IS CALLED A COCK PASTY.

RIGHT-HANDED CRIMPERS MAKE HEN PASTIES.

When you look at the early fillings for pastries then some of the modern takes on traditional contents don’t seem so outlandish. Chicken Tikka, Steak & stilton, smoked haddock & cheddar, Salmon & couscous, or Vegan alternatives. As they miners travelled all over the world, they took their food traditions with them & you can now see what resembles a pasty all over the world.