Recipe for Pasties

[JudyJB]

Pasties have a very long history. Samuel Pepys wrote often about pasties in his 1660's diary. (http://www.cornishpasties.org.uk/origin ... -pepys.htm) His were venison, however, and large enough for several people. By the way, the name "Cornish pasty" is by European Union law controlled, very much as is the name "champagne." They sell them in London, but mostly they are not real pasties because they contain things other than the four basic ingredients that real pasties must contain. (A real pasty does not contain chicken, for example.)

Warning! Do NOT skip the rutabaga in this recipe, or you will be arrested, and the pasties will not taste like pasties.

Pasties also were very popular with miners in Cornwall, England. The miners took beef pasties into the mines with them, wrapped in paper, and since they had been baked that morning by their wives, they stayed hot until lunch. They were handy to eat because you could unwrap just one end and eat your way down! They arrived in Michigan with Cornish miners in the 1840s, and as soon as you pass Sue's 45th parallel, you will see signs advertising them. Here is some history: https://www.history.com/news/miners-del ... nish-pasty

My family loves them. I would make them more often, but it takes a lot of work to make the pie crust and cut up the vegetables. So here is the very simple recipe I use, which is the same as the official one and very authentic.

The following recipe makes four generous, full-meal pasties.

- First, you need one pie crust per pasty. I suppose you could buy them, but I make my own.
- Cut the following up into 1/2 inch cubes until you have about one-and-a-half cups of each: potatoes, onion, and rutabaga. Add a little pepper and some salt. Mix in a bowl and store while you roll out the pie dough.
- Divide one pound of uncooked hamburger into 1/4 pound portions.

Roll out each pie crust and put 1/4 of vegetable mixture and 1/4 lb raw hamburger broken into pieces onto the lower part of each crust. I break the hamburger into small pieces so it gets mixed with the potato, onion, and rutabaga. Then, pull the top part of the crust over the mixture and seal by rolling the dough up and pinching with your fingers. Cut some steam holes like you would with a pie. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes or until you can stick a knife into it easily.

The Cornish people roll theirs up slightly differently. They put the mixture in the middle and pull both edges over the top, sealing it at the top like you would a pie. (I once went to St. Ives in Cornwall and stuck my nose into several bakeries before I chose one I liked.)

You can eat immediately or cool and freeze. Some people put gravy or ketchup on them, but i am a purist and just add a bit of butter and salt. (If frozen, take them out and let them sit on a cookie sheet until slight thawed and then heat in the oven or in the microwave. However, if you use the microwave, the crust will not be as crisp.)

If you don't know what a rutabaga is, here are some photos. A turnip is the one on the left, and the rutabaga is on the right. You need about one 4" diameter rutabaga for this recipe. Nearly every grocery store carries them, but be aware that they are covered with wax, so have to be peeled. The Brits call them "swedes" by the way. https://www.finecooking.com/article/turnip-or-rutabaga

[Queen]

That sounds delicious! I had pasties when I was in the UP, don’t know if they were authentic, but they sure tasted good.

[snowball]

will have to give them a try... how many does one feed? I am a little confused on that part.. will need to go back and reread it and see if I understand better
sheila

[JudyJB]

These are individual meals, so each one feeds one person. Nothing else is served with them as they are an entire meal in a pie crust. I posted more of an answer on Lyn's posting where you asked how big they were.

[Cudedog]

The men from Cornwall also came to California during (and after) the Gold Rush, especially when placer mining (stream panning for gold) gave out, and "hard-rock" mining (LOL - not "rock and roll", but rather mining that blasts and drills tunnels underground chasing veins of gold ore). Like in Cornwall, many of the mines in northern California would quickly become flooded with ground water, and needed to be pumped out, with pumps running 24/7. Cornish miners were experts at this kind of hard rock/ground water mining, and so were in demand.

One of the richest mines in the Mother Lode was the Empire Mine, in Grass Valley, California, not too far from where I live. The Empire Mine is now a California State Park, is absolutely fascinating, and I drive out there whenever I can. Grass Valley is a small Sierra Foothills town - but there are more than three-hundred fifty (350) miles of tunnels under Grass Valley, all now flooded and filled with water (the mine tunnels).

And the gold is still there, deep in the ground! Mining was stopped when the U. S. Government set the "official" price of gold at $42.00/ounce. It drove the Empire Mine out of business. At that price it was no longer economical to continue to mine. The state of California eventually acquired the "topside" of the mine area, buildings and machinery as a California State park. But the state does not have mineral rights (Gold!) to what is a still below the surface of the ground! So, theoretically at least, gold mining could start up again at any time!

I could go on and on about stories about gold and Grass Valley - they are varied, fascinating, and many - if interested, the Empire Mine is a good place to start:

https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/499/files/EmpireMineSHPWebLayout2016.pdf

Oh! And yes, Cornish Pasties. Fresh Cornish Pasties can be purchased at a great many places in Grass Valley/Nevada city. A great many Cornish men and their descendants still live in the area.

Do a Google search on "Grass Valley Cornish Pasties" and an entire page of links will come up, including some links to Cornish Pasties YouTube videos!

Thanks for an interesting topic, Judy!

Anne

[Queen]

Anne, that’s really interesting, I find old mining areas fascinating.

I also love how almost every culture has a food like a pasty; samosas in India, empanadas in Spain, meat pies in Jamaica... portable delicious food seems to be universal.

[monik7]

Those pasties sure sound wonderful. This isn’t quite about pasties, but since Anne brought up Grass Valley, my great-grandfather was a 49er who came by sailing ship from Boston around South America to San Francisco in 1849. He then made his way to the Grass Valley area to look for gold. Unfortunately he only found enough to survive. Deciding after 3 years he wasn’t going to hit it big, he eventually sailed to Panama, walked across the Isthmus of Panama, and then caught a steamship to New York. From there he made his way to Illinois and became a farmer. I have the diary he kept from the very start that describes daily conditions on the ship heading to California, his adventures moving from site to site in and around Grass Valley looking for his Mother Lode, finally giving up after 3 years, the adventure sailing home and worrying about possibly being murdered while trekking across Panama, the final sail to New York on a steamship rather than the usual sailing ship, finally ending up in Illinois as a farmer and all the records he kept about running his farm (selling a pig for $2, a few bales of hay for $?, etc.). The diary is a true treasure for my family.

I wonder if he met up with any Cornish miners while there and had a chance to try pasties. Perhaps he could have found them in Hangtown (today’s Placerville). I hope he did!
Sandi

[Cudedog]

Those pasties sure sound wonderful. This isn’t quite about pasties, but since Anne brought up Grass Valley, my great-grandfather was a 49er who came by sailing ship from Boston around South America to San Francisco in 1849. He then made his way to the Grass Valley area to look for gold. Unfortunately he only found enough to survive. Deciding after 3 years he wasn’t going to hit it big, he eventually sailed to Panama, walked across the Isthmus of Panama, and then caught a steamship to New York. From there he made his way to Illinois and became a farmer. I have the diary he kept from the very start that describes daily conditions on the ship heading to California, his adventures moving from site to site in and around Grass Valley looking for his Mother Lode, finally giving up after 3 years, the adventure sailing home and worrying about possibly being murdered while trekking across Panama, the final sail to New York on a steamship rather than the usual sailing ship, finally ending up in Illinois as a farmer and all the records he kept about running his farm (selling a pig for $2, a few bales of hay for $?, etc.). The diary is a true treasure for my family.

I wonder if he met up with any Cornish miners while there and had a chance to try pasties. Perhaps he could have found them in Hangtown (today’s Placerville). I hope he did!
Sandi

Sandi, the story of your great-grandfather sounds fascinating. You should consider publishing it. Seriously!! I'm sure a lot of people would love to read his story.

I know I would!!

Anne

[Queen]

Sandi, that is seriously cool!

[JudyJB]

I was going to say the same thing---that diary needs to be published!!!!!!!! And leave all the misspellings and poor grammar in it because that is part of the charm of the times.

I would love to read it, and can imagine it being sold in California visitor centers.

[Cudedog]

I was going to say the same thing---that diary needs to be published!!!!!!!! And leave all the misspellings and poor grammar in it because that is part of the charm of the times.

I would love to read it, and can imagine it being sold in California visitor centers.

And California State park gift shops - the Empire Mine, for example!

Anne

[Bethers]

Sandi, I remember you telling me about your great grandfather. I agree... You need to publish that diary.

[snowball]

How neat that you have that Sandi
what a treasure
I am with the rest many people would find it fascinating.
My son in law one time made something that he had up in French speaking Canada...
can't remember the city but he meet some folks from Peru and they also have there
portable lunch... he made them for us once and I've had them in a restaurant and now I can't get it off the tip of my tongue. a dough with a meat mixture in it then fried really good
or is it baked.. I was going to last year make them for him but didn't happen might this year if I can remember the name to look it up
sheila
I remembered what they were called pupusa's sure it's misspelled although spell check didn't red it out

[JudyJB]

Back to pasties, you really could make them any size. I make mine fairly large but you could make pie dough for two two-crust pies and make six pasties instead of four as I do.

Also in Cornwall, they use coarsely chopped steak instead of hamburger. I have occasionally used what some butchers call chili beef which is a more coarsely chopped hamburger and it gives them a nicer texture. Not easy to find however.

Also, I was thinking of Italian calzones, another handheld meal in a crust!!

[Cudedog]

Back to pasties, you really could make them any size. I make mine fairly large but you could make pie dough for two two-crust pies and make six pasties instead of four as I do.

Also in Cornwall, they use coarsely chopped steak instead of hamburger. I have occasionally used what some butchers call chili beef which is a more coarsely chopped hamburger and it gives them a nicer texture. Not easy to find however.

Also, I was thinking of Italian calzones, another handheld meal in a crust!!

Here is still another "handheld meal in a crust": Indian samosas.

I live in an area that has a large immigrant - and descendent of immigrant - population of people from India. In fact, the largest gathering/festival/celebration of Indians (not native Americans, but rather Indians from India) of Indian people in the world (outside of India) occurs here each year (check out the photo in the linked article - this photo was taken in Yuba City, Ca. - although it looks like it was taken in India!):

http://www.seecalifornia.com/festivals/yuba-city-sikh-festival.html

The festival is downright amazing, all the fabulous delicious food at the festival is FREE (it is partially a religious festival) beautiful items for sale - from clothing to blankets to furniture - that you would never see for sale anywhere else. Literally tens of thousands of people come to this festival, travelling here from all over the world. Yuba City - basically a small town - comes to a total and complete stop for the three days of the festival, due to the extremely heavy volume of vehicle traffic.

But! No one seems to mind, everyone seems happy.

Before I retired, several of my co-workers were Indian indians, either immigrants or children of immigrants. Wonderful people, I am still friendly with several even after being gone from the office and retired for several years. Once in a while, especially on potluck day at the office, someone would bring in Indian samosas, which sound similar to a Cornish pastie - except samosas are vegetarian (they have no meat - mostly spices, peas, potatoes, vegetables) are deep fried, and are very hot and spicy!

Although I have never had a Cornish pastie (after this discussion, I will definitely try one next time I get over to Grass Valley!), I have often had samosas.

Once I got over the spicy "hotness factor", I found samosas to be delicious. There are also a great many India indian restaurants in my area as well. The food is very different from what I grew up with - to the point of "I don't know what that is, but it sure smells good!" - and also very, very yummy.

Anne