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Cornish Pasties

A pastry filled with diced 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

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. Cut the meat and potatoes into dice.

  2. Add the onion, herbs, salt, pepper, and gravy, and mix well.

Make the pastry

  1. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together.

  2. Rub in the fat lightly, then add water until the dough is moist but not sticky.

  3. Divide the dough into eight equal portions and roll them out into rounds.

Shape and bake

  1. Place the mixture in the center of each round, wet the edges, and fold to form a frill.

  2. Prick the pasties two or three times with a fork.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 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. 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.
Fat
Shortens the dough, making it tender and flaky by coating flour particles.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, lifting the pastry so it is lighter.
Tinned beef
Provides the main savoury filling and rich flavour.
Parboiled potatoes
Add bulk and moisture to the filling, keeping it soft after baking.

The step that matters

Rub in the fat lightly, then add water until the dough is moist but not sticky.. Overworking the fat or adding too much water makes the pastry tough and sticky, while cool, lightly handled fat keeps it tender and easy to roll.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, 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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