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Cornish Pasties

A pastry filled with minced mutton, potatoes, onion, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Cornish Pasties

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Finely mince the mutton.

  2. Chop the onion and dice the potatoes.

  3. Combine the meat, onion, and potatoes in a bowl.

  4. Season with pepper, salt, thyme, and parsley.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the pie crust and cut it into small squares.

  2. Place a tablespoon of the filling in the center of each square.

  3. Press the corners together to seal and place on a greased baking sheet.

  4. Make a small hole in the top of each pasty before baking.

  5. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the rich, savory meat filling that forms the body of the pasty.
Potatoes
Add starchy bulk and moisture to the filling, keeping it tender as it bakes.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and flavor depth to the filling as it cooks.
Pie crust dough
Forms the sealed wrapper that holds the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Make a small hole in the top of each pasty before baking. The vent lets steam escape during baking, so pressure does not build inside and burst the seal or make the crust soggy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, potato, pepper, thyme, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, potato, pepper, thyme, parsley. 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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