Arising in another thread, I have been asked to share my family's recipe for an authentic "Cornish" pasty.
As I now live in Manchester, I cannot call them Cornish pasties when I make them; I now call them Pornish Casties.
To be honest, it isn't so much the ingredients that make a great pasty; it's the pastry, and the making of it proscribes the use of a Magimix or similar. This is one that needs an old-fashioned ceramic mixing bowl, and plenty of elbow grease in the prep.
I make them in batches of 12. I make the pastry in 2 goes; then the filling in one go. It works; the first lot of pastry can rest in the fridge while you make the second lot, then the filling. Then the second batch of pastry can rest in the fridge while you fill, crimp, and put in the oven the first lot (my electric oven will only cook them six at a time). Of course you can make just six - in fact you would be wise so to do with your first try; you never know, you might not like them! So here is the recipe for six pasties.
Pastry:
1lb strong white bread flour
4oz butter
4oz Stork, baking block, or good quality lard. I tried a supermarket own-brand lard once and it spoilt the taste.
Filling:
1lb after trimming of the worst beef you can find. I use shin beef.
4oz roughly chopped white onion
4oz sliced Swedish turnip (you probably call them Swedes).
10oz potato, any robust variety. I use Rooster.
Method:
Pastry first.
Prepare the fat by freezing it so that you can grate it coarsely into the pastry.
First, weigh and sieve the flour into the mixing bowl. Season it well with Cornish Sea Salt and pepper (I use fresh ground black pepper).
Then take about 2oz of the butter and rub it into the flour between your fingers & thumbs until it "crumbs", just like you were making real pastry. Then, grate the rest of the fat into the flour and hack at it with a table knife, in a slicing action. You are aiming for a state of play where all the fat is sliced into the flour with no noticeable large fat lumps, but definitely not the "breadcrumb" state usually involved with pastry, more of a "crushed peanuts" or "cat litter".
Add water; not much, maybe half a teacup, only just enough to bind all the flour/fat mix so that no dry mix remains, but don't overdo it. Stir the mix with a baking spoon until it forms a ball, then knead it lightly and stick it in the fridge to rest.
Filling:
First off, peel and slice the potatoes. I give myself a target of 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/4", not rigid of course, just to give you an idea of what cooks well.
Slice the Swedish turnip into similar size pieces.
Slice the onions into 1" x 1" "tiles".
Cut the beef into really small cubes, 1/4" cube is my target. This is the most time-consuming bit.
Put the ingredients into a bowl, season well with Cornish Sea Salt and ground black pepper to taste (quite a lot in my case) and crumble an Oxo cube into the mix. Stir well until it looks all evenly mixed.
The making;
Get the pastry ball out of the fridge. Divide it into six "rugby balls". Roll out each ball until the long measurement is about 9-10".
Divide the filling into six. Dump one-sixth into the centre of the pastry. Now the big debate; side-crimp or top-crimp? I top-crimp because by picking up both edges of the pastry you centralise the filling into the middle.
Starting at one end, pick up the pastry edges and pull them up so that they meet centrally above the filling. Have a pastry brush handy and brush one of the edges of the pastry with a tiny amount of water in the area where it butts up against the other edge. Think of it as glueing the two edges together. You are sort of making a pastry purse. Don't overdo the water; damp is fine.
Then pinch the two edges together so that they meld, and roll them over to form a clinch joint, and pinch them again to seal.
You will find the pastry a bit thick at either end; twist each end like one end of a Quality Street wrapper and pinch off the excess. Some people leave the excess on; they call them "Knockers' Ends" and the theory was that you broke them off and left them at the point of eating down the mine for the Knockers to eat. It kept the Knockers happy if you fed them. The last place you want to work is down a mine full of angry Knockers.
Brush them with water to help brown a little, cut a steam hole with a sharp knife, then-
Cooking:
In my electric fan oven, I cook the batch of six @ 200f for 15 mins, then @150f for 15mins, then usually switch off the oven but leave them in for about another 30mins. They stand checking every now and then, opening the oven door has no adverse effect if you are quick.
Eating:
They will be nuclear hot when removed; leave them standing for at least 30mins before eating.
They freeze well. They warm up well in - here ya go, ya TZ techno cooking club - AN AIR FRYER!- or ordinary oven. From frozen, 3mins in a microwave and 10 mins @150 in an ordinary oven.
You will easily beat mine for appearance, but once I get started I can't help but rush in my insatiable desire to sample the first one.
For some reason I have just been consumed with desire for a few bottles of Proper Job, so I will now leave you to evaluate the procedure and debate if the process is worth it for the end result - pasties like my mum used to make. They were legendary.
Edited to say: If at work, you are not advised to google "Knockers".
If you know, you know. If you don't, you're best off not knowing.
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Originally Posted by unclealec
