How to make a 'proper' Cornish Pasty

Traditionally a Cornish miner's lunch, pasties are tasty and filling savoury pies made with beef, potatoes, onion and turnip. It is said that the original pasties were mainly filled with vegetables and meat with one end filled with jam as a dessert. Head to toe with dirt, the end of the pasty would be filthy so miners were said to throw this end away for the knockers or sprites in the depths of the mines. Serves 4.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• 225g (8oz) Plain flour
• 1.25ml (1/4 tsp) Salt
• 100g (4oz) Butter
• Cold water to mix; allow between 5-7.5ml (1-1 1/2 tsp) per 25g (1oz) of flour
• 225g (approx 1/2lb)rump steak
• 3 or 4 large potatoes peeled and diced
• 1 small turnip or half a larger one peeled and diced
• 1 large onion peeled and chopped
• 1 pt. Onion or vegetable gravy
• Salt and white pepper
• Few knobs of butter to put in each pasty.

1. Preheat oven to 425F/220C.
2. Sift flour with salt in a bowl. Add butter and rub well with fingertips until it looks like fine crumbs. Sprinkle water over the crumbs and mix to a crumbly paste using a spoon or rounded knife. Draw it into a ball.
3. Knead pastry ball on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide into four pieces. Set aside.
4. Dice rump steak into bite sized pieces and roll in seasoned flour. Brown meat in a skillet. Once browned, remove to a bowl.
5. Add onion, turnip and potato to bowl with meat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Add gravy to meat and vegetable mixture. Allow to marinade while you prepare pastry.
7. Butter and lightly flour a 13 x 9" baking tray.
8. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each piece of pastry into a rough rectangle approximately 1/2cm thick.
9. Using a slotted or straining spoon, place 3 large spoonfuls of meat and potato mixture in the center of each pastry rectangle. Dot with small cubes of butter (3-4 per pasty).
10. Using a pastry brush, brush water around the edge of each rectangle. This will help to seal the pastry.
11. Bring the two shorter sides of each rectangle together along the middle and pinch together. This is easier said than done as filling has a way of sneaking out at this point and pastry can tear, so handle with care!
12. Crimp the pasty along the top to seal it properly. I'm a right-hand dominant, so I tend to work from right to left. With my left hand, I pinch the pastry together and use my right hand to tuck in the pastry so that it isn't just sealed, it looks pleasant as well.
13. Place each pasty on baking tray and brush with egg or milk so that it will colour evenly in the oven.
14. Bake for 15 minutes at 425F/220C in the top half of oven.
15. Lower oven temperature to 400F/200C and bake for a further 45 minutes.

Tips & Warnings

• It was rumoured that the devil never entered Cornwall as he'd heard tales of Cornish wives who used any and all foods available in their pasties. Seems, he feared being eaten! So take a leaf out of a Cornish wives' cookbook and experiment with different ingredients including carrots, soya (for vegetarians), mediterranean vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, etc), chicken.
• The pastry can be easily refrigerated in a zip-up bag and whole pasties can be frozen in freezer bags for cooking another day.