Cornish Pasty

A Cornish pasty is beef, potato, swede and onion sealed inside a thick shortcrust pastry and crimped along one edge. It was a miner's lunch designed to be eaten with dirty hands and no plate, the thick crimped edge doubling as a handle to hold while the rest disappeared.

What it really is

Raw diced beef, potato, swede — a root vegetable close to turnip — and onion go straight into a circle of shortcrust pastry uncooked, folded over into a half-moon and crimped tightly along the curved edge before the whole thing bakes slowly enough for the raw filling to cook through fully inside its sealed case. The pastry has to be thick and sturdy enough to hold everything in without splitting, since there's no dish or wrapper underneath it.

The crimped edge was originally a handle, not decoration. Cornish miners held a pasty by that thick, twisted seam and ate down from the other end, discarding the crimped edge itself if their hands had picked up arsenic dust underground — the crimp let them eat safely without touching the filling directly.

How it is served

• Whole, wrapped in paper, eaten by hand.
• Hot or at room temperature, both traditional depending on the setting.
• As a portable lunch, rarely plated with cutlery in its traditional form.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the wheat in the pastry and the dairy if butter is used in the dough.
• Say if it's a genuine Cornish pasty with swede and beef, since the name is protected and other fillings are a different thing entirely.
• Note that it's meant to be eaten by hand, since some guests expect it plated and cut.