paintermujer

When I lived in Plymouth I never really wanted a pasty because they always smelt and often tasted awful when I bought them.And I rarely made them.

However, the have to make your own type lifestyle we now have I really want to try and recreate the lovely pasties that my mum and nans made.

I know they used chuck steak. What on earth is that cut in Spain?

Any ideas? And what is your idea of a decent pasty "me ansome".

Fred James

Chuck steak is Aguja.

According to Wiki Cornish Pasties were traditionally made from skirt. That is Falda in Spanish.

paintermujer

Thanks.

Yes skirt is the other meat which is used but it was always chuck steak for my nans.

Their pasties were a meal in themselves. Homemade pastry, not always loads of meat.Didnt always use turnip either. But gorgeous with loads of flavour and goodness too.

The rubbish of famous names you get now completely mar what a real pasty is like.

olivia

Hi
Great question. I am interested too.
Originally a cornish pasty would have 2 fillings a savoury meat and potato one at one end and a fruit one at the other. They were made for the lunches of the men going down the mines and offered 2 courses in one pastry case. More commonly now they are all savoury. I can't help with the filling but have experimented with shortcrust pastry in Spain.
You could go to an English shop and buy some Homepride flour [made from American wheat] and some block margarine e.g. Stork and some lard. These are the basic ingredients I would use in the U.K. for shortcrust pastry.
If you want to use Spanish flour it behaves in a very different way. I can find margarine but not block and have never found any lard or a substitute. e.g. dripping?
I have had some success with just using Spanish flour and margarine. It is tricky to handle and needs chilling well before rolling. A little more like a flan pastry.
I am also very interested to know how anyone else is making pastry from Spanish ingredients and avoiding paying over the top at an English shop for the ingredients. Paleta is the Spanish cut equivalent to Chuck steak and is from the shoulder.

agoreira

In that case you won't want to order some Ivor Dewdney's tiddy oggies by post, mi luvver!
http://www.ivordewdney.co.uk/
http://www.cornishpastyassociation.co.uk/pasties.html

Grebo

I have a confession, I make pasties the cheats way.
Ready made pastry from lidls, mix up minced beef or beef & pork, chopped onion, some chopped carrot (the old man doesn't like turnip) Good handful of white pepper & a bit of salt.
Wrap it up in the pastry, what ever shape it falls into wipe over with a drop of milk & bake for 20mins or so.
I would never call them cornish pasties, but they are yummy. & quick to make.

paintermujer

Certainly not. Their pasties are vile.They smell awful and repeat on you for hours after.

Dick Dasterdly

Well if you let us all know when the first batch comes out of the oven, I'm sure there will be plenty of volunteers only too glad to help out, by doing a taste testing session for you.

Rosemary

Totally agree with you about Ivor Dewdney pasties...vile is definitely the word for them.

I grew up in Plymouth and my mother and grandmother always used chuck steak for pasties. My grandson is growing up in Cornwall with a Cornish grandmother living nearby so he says that a pasty must be made with skirt. So I wonder if it is a Devon/Cornwall thing.

Rosemary

paintermujer

Also its the way the pasty is sealed.

Isnt it sealed and crimped on the side in Devon. I do it this way.

In Cornwall they do it along the top.

Fred James

I seem to remember that the reason for the big crimp on a pasty is so that you can hold it with your dirty toxic hands in the mine and eat the pasty then discard the hard crimp.

steviedeluxe

I wonder if that pie chappie in Madrid makes Cornish pasties? I'm not going to post his web link, as the last time he got upset when us lot wondered whether his business would succeed or not.

Fred James

Presumably you are referring to the normal Spanish flour. This is harder than UK flour so it makes reasonable bread. It doesn't make good cakes as it is not self raising flour.

You can now buy self raising flour in Spain - I saw some today in Alcampo under the Harinsa label. The only difference between plain flour and SR flour is that SR flour contains baking powder so you could "make" your own if you want to.

I have bought an equivalent to lard in Spain. It comes in a plastic sausage pack and I can't remember the exact name but it is basically pork fat - Manteca de Cerdo?

angiescarr

Ahh Pastry:-D
I believe Spanish 'dripping' is called Manteca. We can't use it because my husband is vegetarian.
The ready made pastry in Mercadona is rubbish!
Of course you could make a 50% butter 50% oil pastry! Yumm!
Anyone have any pastry recipes that work here?

bil

Manteca blanca, I've heard it called.