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Cornish Pasties

A pastry filled with steak, potatoes, onion, and seasonings, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cornish Pasties

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the steak into small pieces.

  2. Wash and peel the potatoes, then cut them into small pieces.

  3. Peel and finely chop the onion.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine the flour, a little salt, and baking powder.

  2. Rub the dripping into the flour until well mixed.

  3. Add enough cold water to form a stiff dough.

  4. Flour a board and turn the dough onto it.

  5. Roll the dough into a thin sheet, about ¼ inch thick.

  6. Cut the dough into squares, approximately 6 or 7 inches.

Fill, shape and bake

  1. Place a little meat and potato in the center of each square, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a bit of onion.

  2. Fold the dough over the filling and press the edges to seal.

  3. Grease a baking tin and place the pasties on it.

  4. Bake in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes.

  5. Serve the pasties on a dish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the dough structure that holds the filling and bakes into a sturdy casing.
Dripping
Rubbed into the flour to add fat, giving the pastry a tender, short texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to lighten the pastry slightly.
Buttock steak
Provides the main meat filling, which cooks through inside the sealed pastry.
Potatoes
Add bulk and moisture to the filling as they cook inside the pastry.

The step that matters

Press the edges to seal. A tight seal keeps juices and steam inside the pasty while it bakes. A weak seal lets filling leak out and can leave the filling dry or the pastry soggy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, flour, pepper):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, flour, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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