by Billy Deakin
If using good quality ingredients is half of “the secret” to making a great pasty, then the other half has to be passion, and you can't be passionate if you're stressed. Putting care, attention, and love into your cooking will more than make up for any substituted ingredients.
“Keep it simple in the kitchen. If you use quality ingredients, you don't need anything fancy to make food delicious”
- Curtis Stone
The Crimp
If there is a defining feature of a Cornish pasty, it has to be the crimp. It's what separates a pasty from a pie, or a turnover. Quite simply, take away the crimp and it's no longer a pasty!
Like the debate over whether to use the word turnip or swede, the debate about how to crimp a Cornish pasty can get rather lively! Do you crimp down the side, or over the top? Left to right (hen) or right to left (cock)? Should the crimp by big enough to use as a handle, or small and elegant?
Topside
The PGI specifications laid down by the CPA state that Cornish pasties must be crimped “to one side, and never on top”. While it's true that the vast majority of pasties produced and sold in Cornwall are crimped that way, was that always the case?
Traditionally, crimping on the side or over the top would have been a matter of personal taste. Most likely, your choice of crimp would have depended on the way you were taught by your mother, and so some families would use a top crimp, and others a side crimp. Even today, there are plenty of people top crimping their pasties at home in Cornwall, and there are some pasty shops selling top-crimped pasties. Why then, does the PGI specification insist that a Cornish pasty must be side crimped?
The reason appears to be largely commercial. By trying to keep all Cornish pasties looking more or less the same, it adds a certain amount of 'branding' to the shape. There could also be a production consideration for the bigger businesses in the CPA – I believe it's easier for side crimping to be done by machine, than top crimping (and the PGI specification clearly allows for crimping by machine, where it states that Cornish pasties must be “crimped either by hand or mechanically to one side, and never on top”)
But to me, if pasties have been both side crimped and top crimped in Cornwall for hundreds of years, it seems ridiculous that either one or the other method should be chosen arbitrarily. Surely, if a pasty producer has been crimping on top for generations they should continue to do so – in fact, protecting their right to crimp in the traditional way their family has been using for generations would do more to protect the heritage of the Cornish pasty than forcing all producers to use a side crimp! Unfortunately though, the PGI specification does require a side crimp on all products labelled and sold as “Cornish Pasties”, and so any pasty makers in Cornwall who crimp on top must now either change to a side crimp, or no longer call their products “Cornish pasties”!
Cock or Hen?
Whether a pasty is crimped from left to right, or right to left depends on the crimper, or more specifically whether the crimper is left handed or right handed.
A right handed crimper will tend to crimp from left to right, creating a hen pasty. A left handed crimper will of course go the other way, right to left, creating a cock pasty. Of course, there are many more right handed people than left handed (roughly 9:1) and so the vast majority of pasties are hens, just as you'd have a single rooster to a dozen or so hens in a chicken shed. So next time you're eating a pasty, take a look at which way the crimp is going – if it's going right to left you're eating a rare pasty!!
Mythology of the Crimp
There are whole plethora of stories about the pasty, and in particular about the crimp. Like most stories, they appear to be grounded in truth, but over the years they have become myths and as such should be taken with a rather large pinch of salt.
The first one being that the purpose of the crimp is as a “handle” for miners to hold their pasties by while eating them, so that their dirty hands wouldn't touch the part of the pasty they are eating (since they would throw the crimp away – more on that in a minute).
Well, lets take a closer look at this idea and see if it holds up. On the face of it, it seems very logical. Miners hands are going to be dirty, and you don't want dirt on your food do you? In fact, worse than “dirt” is arsenic which is notoriously toxic and as a by product of tin and copper mining would have been on the miner's hands a lot of the time (in the late nineteenth century, Cornish mines were producing more than 50% of the World's arsenic!), so avoiding arsenic contamination of their food would have been important.
However, the typical way of carrying a pasty was to have it wrapped in linen, so surely it would be easier and cleaner to simply hold the pasty using the linen wrap, in the same way that one might eat a modern pasty from a paper bag? It seems to me, that would be far more hygienic than trying to hold a pasty by the crimp while avoiding contamination of the rest of the pasty.
There's another reason that I'm skeptical about the crimp-handle theory. If I spend the morning out in the garden, digging over the herb patch for example, by lunchtime I'm ravenous. If I then have a pasty for my lunch, there's no way I'm going to be leaving a single mouthful, let alone the entire crimp. Now I've never worked in a tin mine, but I'm pretty sure that if I did I would be even more hungry at lunchtime than after a morning of pottering about in the garden, so I just can't imagine that miners would have wanted to throw away a portion of their lunch every day just to avoid a little dirt, not when there is a simpler and more efficient way of doing it with the linen wrapper.
Of course, there are arguments the other way. Wheat was expensive and so traditionally pasty crusts would have normally been made with barley flour, which does produce a very tough pastry. I suspect it's more than likely that the crimp was often left until last, and if they were full before eating the whole thing, the remaining crimp would indeed have been thrown away, but suggesting that it was always done, or indeed that the pasty was “designed” with the intention of leaving the crimp in the sake of cleanliness seems a little far fetched to me.
Knockers
We'll never know quite how common it was for miners to throw away the crimp, or part of the crimp, of their pasties but we can be pretty sure it would have happened at least some of the time. And that of course led to another myth – the knockers!
It seems that every culture around the World has invented mythological creatures or figures to try and rationalise the unexplained. The Irish have leprechauns, the Scottish have brownies, and the Cornish have knockers! (There's even a really far fetched but rather famous myth about a man whose mother was a virgin, who was able to turn water into wine and walk on water, and who rose from the dead – amazingly, some people still believe that to this day!)
It's believed that the name comes from the knocking sounds miners would hear on the mine walls before a cave in, a sound of course we now know to be a product of the creaking earth and timbers before giving way. Some miners believed that malevolent spirits lived down the mines and the knocking was the sound of them hammering on the walls, attempting to cause a cave in. Others believed they were the ghosts of miners who had died in previous accidents, and their knocking was a warning.
Either way, a tradition of throwing the final bite of the crimp down into the mine to appease or thank the knockers formed, and this is quite likely to be in some way related to the idea of miners throwing away the crimp to avoid eating food that had been contaminated from holding it with dirty hands.
Just The Facts
As interesting as the colourful stories might be, the simple fact is that the practical reason for the crimp is to seal the pasty. Get the crimp wrong, and the pasty will split and leak juices while baking, and of course there's no denying that the crimp is one of the defining features of the Cornish pasty, so if you're going to be making your own pasties you'll want to get it right!
Crimping Methods
Pasty crimps are a little bit like fingerprints, in fact it's often possible to tell what pasty shop a pasty was bo
ught from purely by looking at the crimp. While the process is rather simple (pinch, pull, fold and tuck) it's surprising how much variety can be achieved.
Unfortunately the only way to get good at crimping is to practice, but on the plus side every time you practice you get to eat another pasty! Here I'll give you two methods to try, my own one handed crimp and a more traditional two handed approach – try them both and see which you prefer, and over time you'll find what works best for you. I don't give a method for top crimping simply because I have always crimped my pasties on the side.
Traditional (Side) Crimp
With the filling on top of the pastry circle, dampen the exposed edge of the pastry with a little water (don't believe people who say you need to use egg wash, that's pure nonsense!)
Gently lift half of the pastry up and over, forming a D shape and bringing the pastry edges together. Press these edges all the way along to seal them, and make sure that the pasty is turned so that the sealed edge is along the top (away from you).
Starting at the left (go the opposite way if you're left handed!) take hold of the edge at the far left with the index finger and thumb of both hands. The left hand pinches and pulls a crimp forward and slightly over the tip of the right thumb. The left thumb then moves to where the left index finger is, as the right hand pulls the start of the next fold over the left thumb tip and feeds it into the left grip, as the left thumb tucks the previous crimp in. This is repeated to the end, where the final crimp is either folded over the top, or tucked underneath depending on personal preference.
It sounds complicated in writing, but follow the illustration and give it a try – with a little practice you'll get there!
Most pasty makers agree that the number of turns should be somewhere between about 17 and 21 or so.
One Handed (Side) Crimp
Starting in the same way as the traditional crimp, dampen the pastry edge, fold over and press to seal. At this point, I dampen my right index finger and run this quickly along the top edge of the sealed pastry once again (I find this helps the crimp to stay in place).
Starting at the left edge, hold the end of the sealed edge in the right finger and thumb (thumb on top), fold it over onto the sealed edge and push down firmly with the finger. Move to the next section of edge, fold in the same way and repeat all the way to the end. Rather than fold the last crimp over or tuck it under, I fold it onto itself and squeeze it gently with the finger and thumb of both hands to form a small “knob”. I normally crimp around 18 turns on my pasties.
A couple of examples of traditionally crimped pasties.
My “one handed” side crimp, on both a raw and cooked pasty. This tends to produce a slightly smaller crimp than is traditional.
An Award Winning Cornish Pasty
This is the exact recipe which won the Amateur Cornish Pasty World Championship title 2 years in a row. As you can see, there are no secret ingredients! Just use good quality ingredients and pay attention to the seasoning (tip – you probably want to use more pepper than you think!) and your pasties should turn out just fine.
Makes 4 pasties
For the pastry
525g (18½oz) plain flour
225g (8oz) vegetable shortening (I use Trex)
2 tsp salt
Cold water (Tip - keep a bottle of tap water in the fridge to use for pastry)
1 egg (for washing)
For the filling
500g (18oz) beef skirt
2 medium potatoes
2 medium onion
½ small swede
Knob of butter
Salt and pepper
To make the pastry
Place the flour (no need to sift) into a large mixing bowl with the salt and shortening. Rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, and there are no lumps. Now slowly add a little cold water at a time and bring the mixture together until it binds and forms a dough. It's impossible to give an exact amount of water as it will depend slightly on the flour you use, just go slowly and stop when the mixture binds (too much water will make the pastry tough) When a dough forms, knead it briefly for a minute or so, then wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes while you prepare the filling.
To make the pasties
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
Dice the potatoes, swede, and onions and place them into the mixing bowl you used for the pastry. Add a good pinch of salt, a little shake of white pepper, and a good amount of freshly ground black pepper (really go for it, you'll be surprised how much pepper it needs!) and give it a good mix up with your hands. Trim any excess fat from the beef, then dice it and set aside in 4 equal piles.
Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out into circles, using a dinner plate as a template. The amount of pastry should be just enough to cut 4 rounds at the right thickness with just a small amount of trimmings.
On each circle place a good handful of the vegetables, then the beef. Add a knob of butter, a pinch of flour (which absorbs excess moisture and thickens the juices) and a little extra salt and pepper since we didn't season the beef.
Now wet along one edge of the pastry with a finger dipped in water, and fold the other side over to encase the filling. Gently press all the way along to form a seal, while gently squeezing out any excess air. Now, crimp the edge all the way along. Personally I always start on the left, and make about 18 crimps finishing in a small knob of pastry on the right.
Crack the egg into a cup with a dash of cold water and a pinch of salt, beat with a fork and brush this all over the pasties (if you want to add initials, now is the time to do so!). Make a steam hold in the middle of each with a sharp knife, and transfer them to greased baking sheets. Bake in the oven for around 50 minutes until they are golden brown, and smelling 'ansome!
Pasty Pie
I very often make a pasty pie to use up any left over pastry, if I have a little left over but not quite enough to make a pasty. Sometimes I make them from scratch though as a quick and easy, and slightly lighter option than a proper pasty. Since you only have a pastry top, they are a bit healthier (which I think means you can eat more!) but just as tasty.
Here's my recipe for making pasty pie from scratch, which was originally published in The Guardian prior to the 2013 World Pasty Championships - almost as tasty as a proper pasty but a little lighter and incredibly quick and easy to make!
Serves 2
For the pastry
175g (6oz) plain flour
75g (2½oz) vegetable shortening
1 tsp salt
Cold water
1 egg
For the filling
200g (7oz) beef skirt
1 medium potato
1 medium onion
½ small swede
Knob of butter
Salt and pepper
In a large bowl, combine the salt and flour, then rub in the fat until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Then bring together using just enough cold water to bind. Wrap in cling film, and refrigerate for 30 mins.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
Dice the beef, potato, swede and onion and mix together in a bowl with plenty of salt and pepper. Place the mixture into a pie dish, and add a knob of butter and a light sprinkling of flour.
Roll out the pastry to approximately 3mm thickness, lay over the top of the pie dish, pinch around the edges and trim off the excess. Beat the egg with a little water and a pinch of salt, and brush all over the pastry. Make a couple of small holes for the steam to escape, and bake in the oven for approximately 45 minutes until golden brown.
Pastry Options
For me, a “proper pasty” has to be made with shortcrust pastry. Many will agree with me, though many more won't. In fact, discussions about what sort of pastry is best can get almost as heated as those about what to call a swede!
Visit some of the best pasty makers in Cornwall and you'll find quite a selection of pastries. The Chough Bakery in Padstow, who have won
many awards for their delicious pasties use a shortcrust (which of course I heartily agree with!), but there are other very popular and very successful producers using rough puff, or flakey. Some, such as the Horse and Jockey in Porthleven even offer a choice (want a medium flakey and a large shortcrust? No problem!)
Many pasty shops also offer different pastries for different fillings, with a common option being a wholemeal veg (vegetarian pasty in a wholemeal pastry). Now, I realise that this is done for commercial reasons (they obviously figured out that vegetarians are more likely to want a wholemeal crust, while us carnivores tend to prefer our flour lily white) but I would love for that to change. I'd love to be able to buy a wholemeal steak pasty now and then, and I'm sure there are veggies who like a plain white crust... pasty shops, are you listening?
As a side note, a quick warning to the veggies and vegans reading this – just because a pasty shop sells a “vegetable pasty” don't automatically assume that it's suitable for vegetarians. I know of at least one pasty shop here in Cornwall (one that makes damn good pasties by the way!) that sells a “vegetable pasty” and uses lard in the pastry! I'm not going to name any names, but you have been warned!
