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Pasties, Cornish

A baked pastry filled with chopped meat, potato, and onion, seasoned with pepper and salt.

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 ↓

Pasties, Cornish

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine flour and a pinch of salt.

  2. Rub in the fat until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

  3. Add baking powder and mix to a stiff dough with water.

  4. Knead lightly, then divide into six pieces and roll into rounds.

Make the filling

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the chopped meat, potato, onion, pepper, and salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place some filling on each pastry round, moisten the edges, and pinch to seal.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes.

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the dough's structure once mixed with water and fat.
Fat
Rubbed into the flour to tenderise the pastry and keep it flaky.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping it rise and lighten during baking.
Meat
Forms the main filling, providing savoury flavour and richness.
Potato
Adds moisture and body to the filling as it cooks.

The step that matters

Rubbing in the fat. If the fat is overworked or too warm, it blends fully into the flour and the pastry turns tough instead of short and flaky. Stop once the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, pepper, flour. 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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