Cornish Pasty – made by our Lockdown Cook

Things you can do in lockdown No 3

Cook up a Cornish Pasty? What a great idea that is.

Our cook had a bright idea after discovering a recipe for Cornish Pasty on the back of a placemat from the home of Cornish Pasty, Cornwall in England.

The Cornish Pasty was a staple food, but it was particularly important for the men and boys who worked underground in the tin mines. Not only a tasty and nutritious food, it was also easy to manage in the darkness down below.

Our cook, Soeren, is not Cornish, but he was up to the task of cooking a treat and John, our creative director, was there to capture it all on video.

Steps in making a Cornish Pasty

First the filling

Cut the lean beef into small cubes. Do the same with the potatoes, the swede and the onion. Soeren pre-cooked all of these to make sure they cooked thoroughly in the oven. These were allowed to cool while he prepared the pastry.

The pastry

And now Soeren turned on the oven to 200^oC and then prepared the pastry. He mixed the flour and butter by hand and followed that with the water to make a firm dough.

Next was the artistic bit, dividing the dough into four and then rolling out each quarter into rough circles. These were filled with the vegetable and meat filling.

Soeren dampened the edge of the pastry with water and brought the edges together to enclose all the filling. For his next step he carefully crimped the edges together with the fork.

Traditionally, the edges of the Cornish Pasty were formed into a handle so that the miners were able to manage them easily

The glaze for the Cornish Pasty

Now for the final step – glazing the pasties with beaten egg and placing in the oven to cook for 45 minutes. And when they came out of the oven, didn’t they look good?!

You can see how it was done in this video above.

And the four of us really enjoyed our dinner that night.

John was happy too – not only a very tasty meal, but also another outlet for his creative ability. You can see other examples of what he got up to during lockdown when he decluttered the garage and renovated the old lawn mower.