Wood-fired!

Of pies and pasties

I’ve already established my love of savory pies. I also have a permanent hunger for the well-made pasty. I grew up in Adelaide which is not only the home of the famous pie floater but also the best pasties in the world¹.

Pasties (or tiddy oggies) are said to have originated in Cornwall as food for tin miners. They spread to various parts of the world as Cornish miners migrated to new mining areas in the 19th Century. A part of this diaspora found itself in South Australia when in 1861 copper traces were seen trailing out of a wombat hole in the north of Yorke Peninsula. The area became known as the copper coast and as “Little Cornwall”. Presumably this is why the pasty is on an equal footing with the Aussie meat pie in South Australia whereas it is just a (poorly made) footnote to fast pastries in the rest of Australia.

For most of the 33 years since I left SA I have been searching for a pasty that can come close to a decent SA pasty such as those made by the Balfours bakery.

I’ve tried pasties in London, Windsor and Winchester in the UK (never got to Cornwall unfortunately). The best of these was made by the West Cornwall Pasty Co. I still have 2 of their paper napkins 6 years on. I told you I am keen on pasties!

I try a pasty at every bakery I pass in the hope that one day I’ll find a local supplier that comes close to the grade. Here are my thoughts on how a pasty should deliver:

Filling: Generally pasties in the rest of Australia are chock-a-block with meat - often to the point where the filling is a solid lump like the filling of a bad sausage roll. This is not right. The essence of a pasty is the dominant flavour of the root vegetables, especially the swede, turnip or parsnip. The filling should be loose with distinct cubes of vegetable. In my opinion the meat should be no more than 20% of the filling. The filling should be moist without any overt gravy. Sometimes a vegetarian filling is offered. When done well these can be the most successful non-SA pasties. Unfortunately the makers often think they must make up for the lack of meat by adding strong flavours and bizarre ingredients such as spinach, corn and/or cheese. Another common failing of the vegetable pasty is when the filling is overcooked and forms a homogenous slush that has a very nasty mouth feel.

Pastry: I’m slightly more open-minded here. The only real offense is greasy pastry that leaves your hands covered in fat. (The pasty should always be eaten from the hand.) Unfortunately this is also relatively common especially with the vegetable version for some reason. The major choice when making a pasty at home is whether the pastry is shortcrust or flaky. The former gives a good hand-feel, is soft and just slightly bready and absorbs the juices of the filling which keeps the pasty managable and improves the flavour of the pastry. Flaky pastry has its own delightful texture and can work equally well. It is just a matter of preference and I like and make both.

Shape: Two choices here. Putting the seam on top makes sure the juices don’t leak out during cooking and produces a wonderfully plump-looking pasty that sits well in the hand. (Interestingly this form seems to be called a ‘Cornish pasty’ in a lot of places even though the original miner’s pasties used a side seam - supposedly the wide seam was used as a handle so the miner could hold the pasty with dirty hands and not contaminate it.)
Putting the seam on the side is easier for the maker and produces the form that is popular in South Australia. Again I have no strong preference and do both.

My late mother made pasties at home when I was young. I don’t have her original recipe nor do I know where she acquired it. I developed my recipe based loosely on what I remember of her pasties. A few years ago it was published along with two of my other recipes in the Canberra newspaper under the name ‘Yorkshire’ pasties to honour the birthplace of both my parents. I don’t know if there is a pasty tradition in Yorkshire but by labelling them as such I hoped to avoid the string of complaints that it was not a traditional recipe. No such luck. I was accosted in the paper, at work and even in the street by people telling me I had it all wrong. The main complaints were that the filling should never be pre-cooked but baked from raw in the pastry, and that mince should never be used - either diced or sliced beef is traditional. I can’t see how you can cook the filling from raw and not overcook a delicate pastry. I’m sure that’s fine when cooking a thick robust pastry for the mines but that isn’t how most people like their pasties these days. I’ve never tried diced or sliced meat but will do some time. I my mind it’s the vegies that are important so it’s not such a big deal. If you like a meaty pasty it would be a more important issue.

All that said here is my way of cooking a grand pasty.

Yorkshire Pasties

• Filling:
  
• 300-400g minced beef
  
• 1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1 onion finely chopped
  
• 2 potatoes
  
• 1 large swede
  
• 2 carrots
  
• 2 parsnips
  
• 2 cloves garlic mashed
  
• 2-3 stalks celery
  
• 2 cups water or stock (vegetable or chicken)
  
• 1 or 2 good slugs of HP sauce (or Worcestershire or other brown sauce)
  
• sea salt
  
• pepper

• Shortcrust pastry:
  
• 200g plain flour
  
• 200g self-raising flour
  
• 100g cooking margarine or butter
  
• 100g lard
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 100ml cold water
  

The celery and garlic are optional. The root vegetables are essential especially the swede though you can substitute turnip if you like. The exact ratios are not critical and can be adjusted to your personal taste. For my taste (and smell) I believe the swede and parsnip flavours should dominate.
Dice the potato, parsnip, swede, carrot and celery to even 6mm (¼”) cubes. An even small dice is important. Chop the onion and garlic finely.
Saute the onion in a good slug of evoo.

Fry meat in a little oil in a heavy pan until well browned, breaking up the mince as much as possible. Add the garlic and then the vegetables (the firmer ones first) and continue to stir over heat so they gain slight colour. Add stock, herbs and brown sauce. Cover and simmer for about 20min making sure the potatoes don’t lose their shape. Mixture should be just moist but not runny. Allow to cool. Season.

Shortcrust pastry
For many years I’ve made pasties using this pastry.
Add flours and salt to a food processor. Add fats and process in bursts until the texture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add 1/2 the water then slowly add the rest, stopping as soon as the pastry begins to clump. Process until the pasty almost forms a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for 20 mins. Divide pastry into manageable pieces (say quarters) and roll out the first leaving the rest wrapped. Roll to about 3mm. Use a saucer to cut circles of about 150mm.

Sour cream pastry
More recently I’ve been using Maggie Beer’s Sour Cream Pastry. I find that I need to use a little cold water to pull the pastry together. This also makes it somewhat more manageable. This technique creates a very passable flaky pastry with no more effort than the shortcrust. The secret is to keep the butter very cold at all times. Process it carefully so that the butter remains in discrete pieces. As long as it doesn’t melt, the fat will flatten into sheets when the pastry is rolled out - giving the pastry its flakiness. Use the butter straight from the fridge and work quickly so it doesn’t have time to soften. Chill the pastry for an hour at least before rolling out. If you shape the pastry into a log before chilling, it is easy to cut off a disk of the right size and just roll it out to about 150mm. Once the disks have been rolled out, put them back into the fridge to cool again before filling.

Pre-heat oven to 180°C for the shortcrust or 200°C for the sour cream pastry.

Making the pasties
Wet the edges of a pastry disc with a small amount of water or egg wash. Pile up about 2 tablespoons of filling on each disk (use as much filling as you can manage - it will depend on the flexibility of the pastry). Fold over and pinch the edges for a side seam. Or for a central seam lift two opposite sides of the disk and press together starting at the top. Then pinch the pastry between thumb and forefinger of each hand and push your hands together to create a tuck. Do this down one side of the seam and then the other. In either style make sure you expel most of the air before finally sealing the pasty.

Place on a floured or oiled baking tray and chill them again for at least 15mins. Brush with a beaten egg after chilling. Bake until pastry is golden, about 25-30 mins.

If you want to serve a sauce with them try HP as this matches the seasoning better than a tomato sauce.

1. Possible controversial statement [↩]

33 comments April 19th, 2009