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Cornish Pasties

A pastry filled with beef, potatoes, onion, herbs, and gravy, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

8 pasties
Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the beef, potatoes, onion, herbs, salt, pepper, and gravy. Mix well.

Make the dough

  1. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. Rub in the fat until crumbly.

  2. Add enough water to form a dough, being careful not to make it too moist.

  3. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions and roll each into a round shape.

Shape and bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the meat mixture in the center of each round, wet the edges, and fold to seal, creating a frill on top.

  3. Prick each pasty 2 or 3 times with a fork and bake for about 1 hour.

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

All-purpose flour
Forms the dough's structure once mixed with water and fat.
Fat (butter or lard)
Rubbed into flour to make the pastry short and tender.
Beef
Provides the savoury meat filling that the pasty is built around.
Parboiled potato
Adds bulk and moisture to the filling as it cooks inside the pastry.
Baking powder
Releases gas to give the pastry a light rise.

The step that matters

Adding the water to the dough. Too much water makes the dough sticky and tough, because extra moisture develops gluten. Add it gradually until the dough just holds together.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, beef, potato, 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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