Pasty championship

[Gob]

March 2012 Last updated at 14:25 GMT
Eden Project holds first World Pasty Championships

More than 100 cooks from around the world are in Cornwall for the first World Pasty Championships.

The event, at the Eden Project, near St Austell, is celebrating the popular local delicacy, which was given protected status under EU law in 2011.

Entrants have come from as far afield as Australia and the United States.



The pasty has been associated with tin miners in the county and was a part of many people's diets during the 18th Century.

The Oxford English Dictionary suggests it was first identified around 1300.

Families in Cornwall have passed down the recipe for a Cornish pasty through the generations.

Judges will be looking for the best pasty made to the traditional recipe.

The Cornish Pasty Association, which is backing the competition, came up with the "genuine" Cornish pasty recipe as part of its successful Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) application.

It said an authentic pasty should have a distinctive "D" shape and be crimped on one side, never on top.

It added that the filling should be "chunky, made up of uncooked mince or chunks of beef with swede, potato and onion and a light seasoning" before being slow-baked.

Simon King, one of the chefs from the Hairy Bikers TV series, said he was aware how particular people were about the ingredients when he made one.

He said: "There was some pontification on what steak you use. It's very hotly contested".

He also emphasised that "there are no carrots", and that their inclusion was a common mistake made by non-pasty aficionados.

Variations on the pasty taken around the world by expatriates can be found from Australia to California and Mexico.

Separate competitions in the championships, being held on Saturday, looked at alternative recipes hailing from different parts of the world.

Pasty pastry, for four eight-inch pasties

450g 1lb strong white flour (large pinch salt optional)
100g 4oz margarine (Echo or similar hard variety)
110g 4oz lard
175ml 1/3pt water

Put the flour and salt (if used) into a bowl. Cut off a quarter of the lard and rub into flour. Grate or slice the rest of the fats into the mixture and stir with a knife. Pour all the water in and stir until absorbed. Knead a little and leave at least 30 minutes in the fridge before using.
Pastry can be made the day before, wrapped in polythene and stored in the fridge overnight. Pastry freezes well, but remember to take it out the night before you need it. Do not refreeze.

Pasty filling, quantity for one pasty

50g 2oz onion or shallot (some people like leek)
50-75g 2-3oz turnip (swede)
100g 4oz beef skirt or chuck steak
150g 6oz sliced potatoes
black pepper, salt

Making the pasties

Keep the sliced potatoes in a basin of cold water till needed. Trim and gristle off the meat and cut it (with some fat) into 6 mm (1/4 in) pieces.

Generously flour the board or area you are using. This allows the pastry to relax as you roll, especially if you flip the pastry up from the surface every now and then. Cut off a quarter of the prepared pastry. Roll it out, keeping the shape, into a circle 21-23 cm (8-9 in) across. The pastry should now be the right thickness. Place an upturned plate over the pastry and trim round to get a good shape.

Place most of the turnip and onion across the centre of the round. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper to taste.

Place meat along the top and well into the ends; season the meat with a little salt. Top the meat with most of the potato and the remainder of the turnip.

Sprinkle again with a little salt, and add the remaining potato. Do not season the top layer: salt directly in contact with pastry can make it taste slightly bitter.

Dampen one side of the pastry with a little water. If you dampen the pastry all round or use too much water you will find the edges slide instead of sealing, so don’t slosh it on.
Fold the damp side of the pastry to the other and press firmly but gently together, so that you have a seam down across the pastry, or by the side, whichever you find easier. From the right side if you are right-handed (or the left if you are left-handed) fold over the corner and crimp by folding the pastry seam over and over to the end. Tuck in the end well to seal. Alternatively, if you find this difficult, just curl the edge like a wave.

Make a small slit in the top with a knife and patch any other breaks or holes with a little dampened rolled-out pastry.

Brush the pasties with milk or egg wash or even just water and place them on buttered paper or a greased and floured tray, leaving 5 cm (2 in) between them.

Bake in a hot oven 220C (425F, gas 7) for 20 to 30 minutes. Check the pasties. If brown, turn them down to 160C (325F, gas 3). Bake for another 20 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave them in the oven for another 15 minutes with the door shut.

Remove from the oven and with a slice lift the pasty onto a plate. Cut in half, allowing some of the steam to escape.

If you are eating them picnic style, place the pasties onto a cooling tray and wait 15 minutes before eating. If you want to eat them an hour or so later, or are taking them on a journey, wrap them straight from the oven in paper and then a clean cloth. Pasties keep extremely hot for a long time and if well wrapped a pasty made in Helston would still be ‘hot’ when you reached Exeter. I’ve even been told by holiday-makers that their pasties were still reasonably warm when they reached London.

http://www.annspasties.co.uk/cornish/pasty-recipe/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-17244158

[Lord Jim]

Well now that was certainly a disappointment....

I was envisioning an altogether different sort of competition...

[The Hen]

No-one can make a pasty like the Cornish. Particularly Aussies.

We seem to be CRAP at making pasties.

Where is it written that instant potato mix should be used with frozen peas, corn and carrots?

Nowhere, that's fucking where.

[Sean]

Funnily enough SMF makes a fairly decent pasty...

[Lord Jim]

The recipe doesn't sound too bad, I might give it a try. (I know Tati would enjoy making the pastry. (Though I'm not much a turnip fan, and I might also want to punch it up a bit with maybe a little diced jalapeno...sliced mushroom sounds like a good addition as well.)

Substituting lamb for beef might work too...

[Sean]

A little advice if I may Jim...

Never, EVER say that to a Cornish person.

Unless of course you quite fancy the idea if wearing your arse as a hat!

[The Hen]

Funnily enough SMF makes a fairly decent pasty...

I am NOT surprised in the slightest.

[BoSoxGal]

I make a wonderful pasty; I have a terrific recipe that I was given by an old lady in the UP of Michigan, handed down in her family since they emigrated from the UK.

[Econoline]

Right on, bsg. The iron mining area of Michigan's Upper Peninsula is probably the only place in the US where they make a decent-to-excellent pasty. Part of my late father's (Italian) family still lives up in Iron County, and that's where my mother learned her recipe...which I am proud to say she has passed along to my (vegetarian--but she has no problem cooking meat for others to eat!) younger daughter.

[BoSoxGal]

I've heard one can get a really good pasty in Butte, Montana - which makes sense, as the mining pit there attracted immigrants from all over the UK and elsewhere in Europe. It also allegedly has the wildest St. Patrick's Day celebration, no doubt in part because the city does not have an open container prohibition in the ordinance code.

[Gob]

The Cornish people who immigrated to Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the United States in the middle of the 19th century to work in the mines made them. The miners reheated the pasties on shovels held over the candles worn on their hats. In Michigan, May 24th has been declared Michigan Pasty Day. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan the pasty has gone from an ethnic food to a regional specialty..

Edited to add;

The phrase Tre, Pol and Pen is used to describe people from or places in Cornwall, UK. The full rhyming couplet runs: By Tre, Pol and Pen shall ye know all Cornishmen. Many Cornish surnames and place names still retain these words as prefixes, such as the name Trelawny and the town of Polperro. Tre in the Cornish language means a settlement or homestead; Pol, a pond, lake or well; and Pen, a hill or headland.

[Gob]

The aptly-named Graham Cornish, who works at pasty-maker Ginsters, won the two professional classes.

Meanwhile, Billy Deakin, from Mount Hawke, neat St Agnes, won the Cornish Pasty Amateur category.

Mr Cornish - who won the Cornish Pasty Professional, and Open Savoury Professional categories - said he had been making pasties since he was five.

He said he was "humbled" to win, saying the secret was using the freshest ingredients.

Head judge Dave Menear said he and his panel had found some of the entries "fascinating".

He said: "There were 102 pasties judged and we thought there were only two or three duds out of all of those."

Some classes in the championships also looked at alternative recipes.

Mr Menear said: "Some of the stuff we were tasting in the open category were not really a Cornish pasty, but they were amazing. Some real creativity went into it."

One alternative recipe entered was a fish and chip pasty.

However, Suzanne Manson, from Bristol, won the Open Savoury Amateur class.

Her pasty was filled with wild rabbit poached in cider-soaked leeks, with peas and lemon zest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-17249619

[BoSoxGal]

Mine aren't traditional, because I alter the basic recipe by seasoning the meat with other than salt & pepper; otherwise I find them to be too bland for my taste.

[Lord Jim]

I'd certainly include garlic for a start...

[Gob]

Garlic, in a pasty?!?!

[Lord Jim]

Yeah, well you can tell the Cornish I rub it on their game hens too....

[Rick]

One must always ensure their pasty will not spring a leek...

[The Hen]

Yeah, well you can tell the Cornish I rub it on their game hens too....

I'm game!

[BoSoxGal]

Gob, I shit you not; my grandmother of Yorkshire heritage once asked me what herbs & spices were!

Though she baked lovely pies and certainly knew what cinnamon and nutmeg were, I doubt she used much else besides salt & pepper her whole cooking life.

[Daisy]

Garlic, in a pasty?!?!

It's worse than that ... It's more like this