There is something very comforting about getting a waft of a rich, buttery pastie shell. I’m not even talking about smelling the filling. Just holding your nose to the dough part of a pastie gives you this incredible nostalgic feeling, as if you could picture your grandmother handmaking the pasty. I’m not even going to pretend to know what goes into the dough (probably tons of butter), but all I know is that the smell of it can lure you to the nearest pasty stand.
Pronounced as “past-tee,” it has a really interesting history. Back in the day when coal miners went deep under the Earth, they wouldn’t be able to surface to eat lunch. Thus, the women invented the pasty which is a flaky/buttery crust that encrusts a “meal” that can include anything from meat/onions to corn to potatoes to cheese. The miners would only eat the inside because the pasty was meant to be the insulator and the part that could get dirty. It got so complex that sometimes, they would have “walls” within the pasty to include several meals. Once a miner hit a wall, which was also made of the same dough, they would stop and save the rest for another meal.
But the pasty has evolved now into a whole new type of food. The two most major chains that sell them are West Cornwall Pasty Pasty Co. and Cornish Pasty Bakehouse. They’re all around London and the UK. In fact, when I found Cornish Pasty Bakehouse in Bath, it was about 20% cheaper than the ones in London.
There are many other places that sell pasties. So there’s really no excuse not the get one.
You should also check out:
- West Cornwall Pasty Co.
- Cornish Bakehouse
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