What is Cornish Pasty and Why is it Beloved?

Traveling around Cornwall, you will notice one of the local delicacies is the humble pasty.

These pastries can be stuffed with all manner of ingredients, traditionally beef, potato, onion and swede; but, these days, there are all sorts of variations available.

What started as a meal for the upper classes in the 13th century — stuffed with venison, lamb or seafood — became a filling meal for the working classes in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The appeal of the pasty endures as an all-in-one meal that can be taken anywhere and eaten hot or cold. A thick pastry crust might add some bulk to the meal today, but it used to be an essential covering that prevented the filling being contaminated in dirty mines and farmyards. This was particularly important for tin miners who worked with poisonous arsenic.

In some cases a savory filling would be cooked at one end, with a sweet one at the other for a dessert course. The cook would mark each end so things wouldn’t get mixed up. In the olden days you might also have initials marked on each pasty so workers could save some for later without eating their colleagues’ food, but these days they are better off eaten hot and fresh from a local bakery.