History Of The Cornish Pasty - Proper Cornish (2024)

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What is the history of the Cornish pasty? ›

The Origins of the Pasty

Pasties date back as far as the 13th century, at which time they were a pie baked without a dish of French origins, with a rich filling of venison, veal, beef, lamb or seafood, gravy and fruit. The name pasty is a mutation of the Medieval French “paste”, for pie.

Women cooking pasties would shout into the mines “Oggie, oggie, oggie”, receiving a reply of “oi, oi, oi” when the miners were ready to eat. It is because of this that the British traditional rhyme came about, which is still used today. Today, there are a wide variety of flavours available across the country.

Use a firm waxy potato such as Maris Peer or Wilja. A floury potato will disintegrate on cooking. Crimping is one of the secrets to a true Cornish pasty. A good hand crimp is usually a sign of a good handmade pasty.

No debate here: carrots are "sacrilege" as the Cornish Pasty Association points out: the swede adds all the sweetness this dish needs. Older recipes tend to be vague on exact details but potatoes should be waxy, as the CPA makes clear, rather than the floury ones Mark Hix uses, so they keep their shape when cooked.

This made for a hearty yet portable meal for the miners. They're still very popular there, and you'll find them in every local bakery and community cookbook! American pasties are the American equivalent to Cornish pasties.

The Cornish pasty has been given protected status by the European Commission so no matter where it is made in order to be called a Cornish pasty it has to contain beef, onion, swede and salt and pepper and be crimped along the side not along the top.

In the Cornish language, a Cornish pasty is known as an “Oggy”. When the Cornish pasties were finished cooking and ready to be eaten, the wives would go to the mineshaft and shout down: “Oggy, oggy, oggy!”, and the men would shout back “Oi, oi, oi!” to let them know the pasties were on their way.

There will always be great debate about the origin of the pasty, but one easy way to detect the Devon pasty from the Cornish is that the Devon pasty has a top-crimp and is oval in shape, whereas the Cornish pasty is semi-circular and side-crimped along the curve.

But what you might not know is just how many calories are in a Cornish pasty. And how other various food groups, healthy or otherwise, match up to that. Apparently a traditional large pasty from the Cornish Pasty Company contains 774 calories and 45g of fat.

What is the best way to eat Cornish pasty? ›

However, another 14 per cent did get it right, as Graham describes, “the traditional way to eat a pasty is with the pasty held in a horizontal position and holding the crimp, starting with the filled pastry and working your way outwards.

A bridie or Forfar bridie is a Scottish meat pasty that originates from Forfar, Scotland.

Miners' wives would prepare for them small hand pies filled with meat and vegetables, which we now know as pasties. The edges of the pasties would be crimped, forming a handle for the miners to hold to with their arsenic-covered hands (via Cornish Pasty Co).

The traditional recipe for the pasty filling is beef with potato, onion and swede, which when cooked together forms a rich gravy, all sealed in its own packet! As meat was much more expensive in the 17th and 18th centuries, its presence was scarce and so pasties traditionally contained much more vegetable than today.

It's a Swede. You call it what you like!! But it will always be a Swede.

As mining boomed in Cornwall, pasties became a go-to meal for the miners' crib breaks; they were an all-in-one meal that could be taken down the mines and eaten without cutlery. The wives of Cornish miners would lovingly prepare these all-in-one meals to provide sustenance for their spouses.

The Oggy!, Oggy!, Oggy! is a traditional shout (which stems from 'hoggan') from the miners' wives or pasty sellers; it is a call to say the pasties are ready. In Cornish slang, Oggy is simply a pasty.