Cornish pasties

Ingredients:

(Dough)

4 cup bread flour

4 tbsp cold butter

6-8 tbsp cold lard (or duck fat)

1.5 tsp salt

3/4 to 1 cup cold water

(Filling)

1 lb beef skirt steak cubed

1/2 yellow onion coarsely diced

1 garlic clove finely chopped (optional)

1 small-medium sized yukon yellow potato cubed

1/2 turnip cubed

1.5 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 tbsp butter

(Egg wash)

1 egg

1 tsp water

Directions:

This dish was invented in England. Cornwall specifically so shouldn't it be called a Cornwallish pasty? It was a main staple for miners. The workers did not have the luxury of time to come up the shaft for lunch and then go back down to work afterwards. To save time they ate lunch down in the mines. I can't imagine how terrible that must have been. The miners often carried their Cornish pasties in their pockets so it had to be quite durable. This is why the pastry part of the recipe require a bit of kneading, which runs counter to how pastry dough for pies are traditionally made.

Mix dough ingredients except the water together with your hands until everything is crumbly.  You may want to wear gloves due to the lard and butter. In my first attempt I thought it could have used a bit more lard or butter so I upped the lard to 8 tablespoons instead of 6. Alternatively I think it would have been okay to increase the butter. Slowly add water (about 1/2 cup) and knead together. Continue to add water until the dough feels stiff as we will roll it out later. Place dough in a zip lock bag and chill overnight in the refrigerator. The use of bread flour instead of all-purpose is to increase the gluten content. Gluten produces longer molecular strands and when baked keeps the pastry from falling apart in the pocket. In our more urban setting, it probably is okay to use all-purpose flour since the pasty will likely never set foot inside someone's trousers. Though I imagine munching on a cornish pasty high atop a mountain after a grueling hike would hit the spot. Your hiking friends would definitely look at you oddly as you pull out the pasty from your pocket.

Assemble all filling ingredients together except the butter. You will add slices of butter when constructing the pasties.

Once the dough has chilled thoroughly in the refrigerator, split into 4 equal portions. Roll each portion into a round ball. With a rolling pin, roll each one into a flat circular disc. Place a generous portion of filling in the middle of the disc and top off with some butter. The butter is supposed to keep the filling moist and prevent it getting too dry in the baking process. With your finger, apply water on the edge of the dough and fold together to close. Pinch and fold the edges over itself to ensure your filling doesn't spill out during baking. Apply egg wash over the surface of your pasties. Finally poke a hole on the top of your pasty to allow steam to escape during baking.

Preheat oven to 350F. Place your pasties on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 1 hour until golden brown. 

Some observations. Do not substitute shank for skirt as I did. I couldn't find any skirt steak in the meat section of the grocery store so I thought I could use shank as that cut is next to the skirt on a cow. Much to my dismay it is extremely sinewy and tough. Absolutely avoid it at all costs. It was a nightmare to remove the connective tissues from the meat. I should have gone with something more familiar like sirloin. However I view it as a good lesson and helps to build up my culinary knowledge. I also know that I'm not cut out to be a pie maker. It was hell rolling out the dough. I will happily reach in the freezer section of my grocery store for a pre made pie shell. When cutting the turnips and potatoes into cubes, it's probably better to err on the side of smaller cubes. This way you will be assured the root vegetables will fully cook. If they are larger, they may still be raw. I thought I would try this recipe as it seemed to be easy to prepare. The filling was all raw and no pre-cooking or frying was needed prior to putting in the oven. However it was the dough that consumed the most time. 

I think I would opt for all-purpose flour instead of bread flour to make the dough more flakey as I would not be carrying this around in my pocket down a mineshaft. The proportion of dough makes for four pasties that are 12" in diameter. Each pasty is huge and not something I would eat with my hands anyways. Perhaps half bread flour and half all-purpose might be a good compromise. I would definitely use more lard and/or butter. The other change would be to add gravy to the filling as it was a bit dry to my liking. I will definitely be making this again though I would like to experiment with different ingredients for the filling. This dish reminded me of those frozen pizza pops you toss in the microwave so maybe an Italian filling for the next round? Lastly, I would not fold the edges as it made it too thick. Next time, I will use a fork to press the edges together like the edges of a pie crust.  

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