Conference turris::cooks

    I saw this being made on the television cooking show - Marcia Adams 
    - 'Heartland Cooking' and it looked SO good.  Very interesting story 
    behind it.
    
    She said that the dough is cut by placing a plate upside down on
    it and cutting around the plate.  Put the meat filling in line
    (on one side) fold over (it is shaped like a half-moon) and
    seal.  Bake in a 350 oven for an hour.
    
    She said in the OLD days - the coal miners wives would make a
    meat filing and seal - the middle would have a potatoe filling
    and seal and the third part would be either apple, peach or
    blueberry filling.  A complete (whole) meal.  She also said that
    they would take the pasties and put them in a pouch -hang them
    around their necks - which kept the food warm until lunch.
    
    Unfortunately - I didn't write the recipe down.  Remembered the
    story, however.    ;^)
    
    I watch her show religiously so if I happen to see it again I 
    will write it down and enter it in here for you.  Perhaps someone
    has her book and can look it up for you.
    

    I make them all the time to bring to work and put in the microwave.
    I use left over pizza dough.
    I make my own pizza dough and make extra to use for Pasties.
    never called them pasties though.
    I put a recipe for the pizza dough in note 2864.41.
    Just copy that.
    Only difference is let the dough rize the first time in the bowl and
    your ready to make the pasties.
    Dont have to rize it a second time.
    Also I use the dry quick rizing yeast now rather than the cubed brewers
    yeast that I put in that note.
    
    I fill them with a hamburger mixture or you can use tuna and cheese.
    Or the steak one.
    
    I put in the filling, fold, pinch the edges together and fold them over
    a little so they wont open.
    Then I spread a little olive oil on the top and bake till slightly
    browned.
    good luck.
    

    I grew up in a mining town where Cornish pasties were commonly made.
    
    	The dough was the same as you make for a regular pie.
    	A plate was used to cut out the dough...dinner plate for
    	  family meals, bread plate or saucer for individual pies.
    	They were shaped into half moon with 2 or 3 vents cut in the top.
    	Our pasties had meat, potatoes, onions, a pat of butter,
    	  salt and pepper. (Some people also added carrot but not many)
    
        There were a couple of variations:
    
    		One featured ground beef, grated pototoes and
    		finely minced onion.
    
    		The other had chunks of beef, chunks of potatoes
    		and larger pieces of onion.
    
    The only differences I could ever find was ease of eating and time it
    took for them to cook.
    
    I would also advise cooking these on a foil-lined pan as they make a 
    mess of the pan otherwise.
    
    
    Judy
         

    I haven't made these in a long time - we put carrots in them, though. 
    Sort of a stew in a piecrust.  I never actually tried putting fruit in
    one end.  My ex-mother-in-law also made a variation that was basically
    a hamburger-and-mashed-potato pie, with a bit of cinnamon and cloves in
    it (and fried onions, of course) - I expect that is the French Canadian
    variation.  It is good "grandmother" food.
    
    /Charlotte

on a "we aren't as different as we think we are" note:

the Texas-Mexican variety of these is called an Empanada.  They are generally
stuffed with a seasoned meat mixture, or with fruit.  The fruit-filled
ones are memories of my childhood.  Stew dried apricots with enough water
to barely cover, and enough sugar to please you.  Once they are soft, break
up the big pieces with a fork, and stir in some almond slivers.  Make small
rounds of pie dough...approx. the size of a working man's palm (my mother's
sizing instruction) and put approx. a tablespoon of filling on each round.
fold into a half-moon shape and seal the edges by pressing with a fork. Poke
one with a fork.

Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven until golden brown.  Cool until just
warm.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with hot chocolate (Mexican
chocolate with cinnamon, of course)....or vanilla ice cream...

I just gained 2 pounds thinking about this...

    They make 'em in the Caribbean under different names.  Can anyone tell
    us what fillings are used?

    In the islands they are called "patties"  They are filled with a spicy
    curried meat mixture, usually ground beef, but pork, and lobster are
    not uncommon.
    
    I've reverse engineered a Jamician beef pattie:
    
    The dough is a pie/pastry  crust with curry or tumeric added to give
    it a yellow color.  The filling is roughly  (from memory) 2 lbs ground
    beef, 1 lb fresh bread crumbs, 1 cup water, 4 scallions, 2 very hot
    peppers (scotch bonnets), 2 tbl curry powder, 2 onions, 1 tsp Thyme.
    
    Make a paste of the peppers, onions and scallions mix with the beef and
    brown. Add everything but the water and mnix well.  Add water and
    simmier 20-25 minutes covered.  The mixture should be neither dry nor
    runny.  Cool and fill
    
    My daughter, now 5 has declared this one of here favorite forms of
    food. She's been in love with them for almost 2 years.
    
    Makes 18-24.
    

    The recipe for authentic (I actually brought it back from Jamaica)
    patties is in note 2240.4.  They are *wonderful*!

    L.

All of the varients listed in .1-.8 are certainly interesting, but I think
some of the fruit ones or yeast-dough ones are really stretching the
definition of a Cornish Pastie.  From my view it can only be something with
meat, potatoes, (& maybe some veggies) and a pie dough (*not* yeast dough -
BIG difference!). Anything other than that just isn't a Cornish Pastie.

The fruit ones are more dessert than anything, while the venerable Pastie
is a very filling main meal.

My 2 cents worth -

	Al - author of .0

    I'm told that in the days 'way-back-when' Yorkshire miners traditional
    pasties had a savoury filling at one end and a sweet filling at the
    other. The thick crust at one edge was used to hold the pasty but was
    never eaten because the miners hands were so dirty.
    
    Not sure if the Cornish miners carried out the same tradition though!
    
    Jackie