Why everyone’s talking about... Pasties
WORLD leaders are tucking into haggis mousse and lamb sweetbreads at the G7 in Cornwall this weekend. But what’s wrong with a traditional Cornish pasty?
Exactly! But – and don’t say this too loudly west of the Tamar – pasties probably weren’t invented in Cornwall. They’ve been around for centuries, mentioned in the Robin Hood legend and Shakespeare’s plays. But Cornwall’s 17th Century tin miners made it the county dish.
How so?
They loved having a full meal, easily carried and eaten, with the pastry keeping the innards warm for hours. The chant ‘Oggie, Oggie, Oggie’ even came from the mines, as cooks shouted ‘ Hoggan’, Cornish for pasty, when they were ready. Traditionally, pasties had beef, potato, onion and swede at one end, and fruit at the other, for pudding. A bit like their lesser-known rival, the Bedfordshire clanger.
And now?
About 120 million are made each year. The world’s largest was 15ft long, weighed a ton and contained 1.75 million calories. Cornish pasties have protected status, so must be prepared in Cornwall, be D-shaped and crimped on one side, not the top. If crimped by a left-hander, it’s a ‘cock pasty’; right-handers make ‘hen pasties’. But the idea that the edging was a handle so miners didn’t touch the main pasty with contaminated hands has been debunked. Controversially, Over The Top in the town of Callington (Cornwall, obviously) has been named the UK’s best Cornish pasty shop, despite pinching them on top – so not official Cornish pasties at all.
Sounds like they take it seriously…
Absolutely. When Greggs opened its first store in Cornwall in 2018, locals in Saltash called it ‘Satan’s franchise’ – and it was forced to close. But there have been rebels: TV chef James Strawbridge made the world’s most expensive retail Cornish pasty with white crab meat and clotted cream, priced at £10.95; in March, a Cornish farmer shocked with a video showing how he poured milk on his pasty; and last month, National Express buses launched Cornish pasty-flavoured boiled sweets.
Where can I find out more?
Try the world’s first Cornish pasty museum… just 5,300 miles away from Cornwall in Real del Monte, Mexico, where the dish is hugely popular, having been introduced by immigrant Cornish miners in the 1820s.