Jump to navigation Jump to search This article is about the quail recipes jamie oliver pie. For the fried pie or pastry, see Pastie. Main ingredientsA pastry case traditionally filled with beef skirt, potato, swede and onion.

British baked pastry, a traditional variety of which is particularly associated with Cornwall, South West England, but has spread all over the British Isles. The origins of the pasty are unclear, though there are many references to them throughout historical documents and fiction. The pasty is now popular worldwide because of the spread of Cornish miners and sailors from across Cornwall, and variations can be found in Australia, Mexico, the United States, Ulster and elsewhere. Despite the modern pasty’s strong association with Cornwall, its origins are unclear. In contrast to its earlier place amongst the wealthy, during the 17th and 18th centuries, the pasty became popular with working people in Cornwall, where tin miners and others adopted it because of its unique shape, forming a complete meal that could be carried easily and eaten without cutlery.

In Cornwall, there is a common practice among those cottagers who bake at home of making little pasties for the dinners of those who may be working at a distance in the fields. They will last the whole week, and are made of any kind of meat or fruit, rolled up in a paste made of flour and suet or lard. A couple of ounces of bacon and half a-pound of raw potatoes, both thinly sliced and slightly seasoned, will be found sufficient for the meal. The Cornish pasty, which so admirably comprises a dinner in itself—meat, potatoes, and other good things well cooked and made up into so portable a form—was a subject of much admiration, and reminded me of the old coaching days, when I secured a pasty at Bodmin in order to take it home to my cook, that it might be dissected and serve as a pattern for Cornish pasties in quite another part of the country. Cornish pasties are very popular with the working classes in this neighbourhood, and have lately been successfully introduced into some parts of Devonshire.