By Rafe Calder
A pasty is a shape, and a shape is not a place. Wikipedia says “pasty” was long a generic word for a filled pastry. A Cornish one, by law, is something narrower.
What the name requires
The Cornish Pasty Association, a trade body, sets out the filling: beef, roughly diced or minced, with potato, swede and onion, and seasoning mainly of salt and pepper. It says no other meat or vegetables may be used, that the whole pasty must hold at least 12.5 per cent beef and 25 per cent vegetables, and that the ingredients must be uncooked when assembled and then slowly baked. The pastry may be savoury shortcrust, rough puff or puff, glazed with egg, milk or both.
Wikipedia says the filling should stay chunky, that the pastry should be golden and hold its shape when cooked and cooled, and that swede is called turnip in Cornwall. Morning Advertiser, a trade newspaper for pubs and restaurants, says the filling is uncooked minced or roughly cut beef, not less than 12.5 per cent, with swede, potato and onion and light seasoning.
The shape and the crimp
All three sources say the pasty is D-shaped. Wikipedia and the Association say the crimp runs along the side. The Association writes, “If it’s not crimped, it’s not Cornish.” Wikipedia adds that top-crimped pasties have been made in Cornwall for generations, though the protected name requires the side crimp. We note that tension and do not resolve it.
The Association also says pasties are “handed”: a cock pasty is left-handed and a hen pasty right-handed. That is the Association’s description of the tradition, and we give no second source.
Where it is made
The Association says it must be produced in Cornwall, west of the Tamar, and that pasties may be baked and packaged there, or prepared there and baked at their final destination. Wikipedia says assembly must happen in Cornwall but baking does not, and that the ingredients need not come from the county. Morning Advertiser says only pasties made in Cornwall to the traditional recipe may use the name.
When it was protected
Here the sources do not line up. Wikipedia says the name received Protected Geographical Indication status from the European Commission on 20 July 2011, after a campaign of nine years by the Association, which it describes as a body of about 50 Cornwall-based makers. The Association says it was registered in 2011. Morning Advertiser’s article is dated 4 March 2011 and says the Commission’s decision came “last week”, which puts it in late February 2011. It calls the pasty the 43rd UK foodstuff to receive the status. Our reading: one date may describe the decision and another its formal registration, but none of the three says so.
Morning Advertiser also records the Association chairman at the time saying the period for pubs and restaurants to comply was likely to be one or two years, though it could be up to five, and that legislation setting the timescale was still awaited. The Association says Great Britain now has its own scheme, which mirrors the European one and continues the protection.
Who checks
The Association describes itself as a Community Interest Company registered in England and Wales. It says membership is not required to sell a Cornish pasty and has no fee, that producers become eligible after certification, and that products are checked by an approved outside body, which it names as Cornwall Council, with periodic re-audits. Wikipedia says the Association polices an authentication stamp on conforming packaging.
Where the pasty came from
Wikipedia says miners in Cornwall and west Devon took up the pasty in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries because it was a portable complete meal that needed no cutlery. It also says the origins are unclear. The earliest Devon or Cornwall mention it gives is in Plymouth records of 1509 to 1510. Earlier references to pasties elsewhere include a 1208 charter of King John for Great Yarmouth, Matthew Paris in the thirteenth century and Le Ménagier de Paris in 1393, and Samuel Pepys mentions them in the mid-seventeenth century. The earliest recorded recipes, it says, used venison and not beef. The Association says pasties “went down the mines, across the fields and out to sea”, with no dates.
Wikipedia dates the earliest Cornish recipe book, Edith Martin’s Cornish Recipes: Ancient and Modern, to 1929, and says it describes eating the pasty end to end as the true Cornish way. It says the first World Pasty Championships were held at the Eden Project on 3 March 2012.
Dates in order
- 1208: King John’s charter for Great Yarmouth mentions pasties, according to Wikipedia.
- 1393: Le Ménagier de Paris, according to Wikipedia.
- 1509 to 1510: the earliest Plymouth record, according to Wikipedia.
- 1600s and 1700s: miners adopt the pasty, according to Wikipedia.
- 1929: Cornish Recipes: Ancient and Modern, according to Wikipedia.
- Late February or 4 March 2011: the decision is reported, according to Morning Advertiser.
- 20 July 2011: PGI status, according to Wikipedia.
- 3 March 2012: the first World Pasty Championships, according to Wikipedia.
Side by side
On the filling, the Association and Morning Advertiser agree on 12.5 per cent beef. Wikipedia’s article quotes a separate figure, a rule that pasties sold in the United Kingdom must contain meat at least 12.75 per cent of the pastry weight, which concerns pasties in general and not the protected name. We keep them apart. On the crimp, the rule says side and Wikipedia says top-crimped pasties are also a Cornish habit. On the date, see above.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia, which anyone can edit; the Cornish Pasty Association, the trade body that polices the name and so speaks for its members; and a trade newspaper’s 2011 report. We read no government register entry and no specification document, so we cannot say what the official text says beyond what these three report.
Questions a buyer would ask
Is the pasty D-shaped and crimped on the side? Was it made in Cornwall, or only baked somewhere else after being prepared there? Is there a certification mark on the packaging? What is in the filling, and is it chunky? The rules allow baking away from Cornwall, so the place of baking alone does not settle the matter. We name no maker and no brand.
What we left out
We left out the figures Wikipedia gives for sales, turnover and jobs, since they are money and workforce numbers. We left out the claim that the name led to a legal change for pubs, which Morning Advertiser reported as still pending in 2011. We left out the generic pasty regulation’s date, since the article gives two different years for it.
Roam first. Shop later.