Recipe for the best traditional steak pasty...in our opinion

The recipe for a traditional steak pasty is not complicated, it was created by poor, hungry, Cornish folk who needed simple, tasty sustenance. The sucess of the pasty owes much to the pastry and the balance of seasoning; the Cornish like their pasties with a generous helping of pepper.

Here is our recipe in full, we hope you enjoy making them and crimp however you wish.

Short crust pastry

Potatoe

swede

onion

beef skirt

Good pastry is the key to a top quality pasty and short crust pastry is our preferred choice.

Short crust pastry is made using 500 grams of strong plain flour and 250 grams of lard. The fat is rubbed into the flour very roughly you do not want fine bread crumbs. By leaving it a little lumpy in places you end up with a slightly flaky short crust pastry. add approx 250 ml of cold water to bind the pastry together, handle the pstry as little as possible, as soon as it comes together stop.

Chill the pastry for at least and hour then roll out till the pastry is about 4mm thick. We use a tea plate to cut around , this will produce a pasty about 8 to 9 inches in size

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Now to layer you vegetables.

First add a layer of finely chopped potato, about half a cup full.

 

 

Add a half a cup of swede

Next comes the onion, a liberal layer.

Next add a generous layer of beef skirt and season well with salt and black pepper. we use half a level teaspoon of salt and  quarter of a teaspoon of pepper.

 

Gather the pastry from both sides and seal well at the top. 

lastly, crimp the pastry, over the top, or orund the side if you prefer, by pinching then folding the pastry in .

Glaze the pasty with egg and place of a well greased tray of silicon baking sheet.

cook for 15 mins in an oven that has been pre-heated to 210 degrees celsius.

Reduce temperature to 175 degrees celsius and cook for further 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and let the pasty cool and rest for ten minutes, this takes will power but its worth the wait as they taste better when slightly cooler.

Eat and enjoy!