Cornish Pasties

Ingredients

• 500 g strong plain flour
• 120 g shredded suet
• 120 g cold butter, cubed
• 450 g beef skirt or chuck, diced small
• 350 g potatoes, sliced thin
• 200 g swede, diced small
• 1 large onion, chopped
• plenty of black pepper
• 1 egg, beaten

Method

1. Make a strong pastry

   Rub the butter into the flour and suet with a teaspoon of salt, then bring together with about 150 ml cold water. Suet and strong flour make a pastry sturdy enough to hold a heavy raw filling without splitting — shortcrust would collapse.

2. Rest the dough

   Wrap and chill for at least an hour. This dough is worked harder than most and needs the rest to relax, or it fights you and shrinks in the oven.

   1 h

3. Everything raw, cut small

   Mix the beef, potato, swede and onion with a great deal of salt and pepper. Nothing is pre-cooked — the filling steams inside the sealed pastry, which is the entire principle of the pasty. Cut everything small enough to cook in an hour.

4. Fill and crimp

   Roll four circles, pile the filling on one half leaving a clear border, damp the edge, fold over and crimp with a rope twist. Crimp on the side, not the top: a top seam splits and leaks.

5. Glaze and bake

   Brush with egg, cut a small slit, and bake at 200°C for 15 minutes, then 165°C for 45 minutes more. The long slow stretch is what cooks the raw beef and swede through.

   1 h

6. Rest

   Rest 15 minutes before eating. They are as good warm as hot, and were designed to be eaten cold in a pocket.

   15 min