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writes:
>My husband and I spent the weekend in Nevada City and enjoyed some
>cornish pasties at a little shop. As we walked through the town and the
>nearby town of Grass Valley we looked in all the bookshops and kitchen
>shops for local cookbooks that would have a recipe. Not much luck.
>Recipes found said things like "make a less rich pastry dough, roll it
>out and top with fillings. Make sure potatoes drip into meat. Bake."
>
>Great if you have an idea what to do. Not so great for us. When we
>asked at one kitchen store the owner said you didn't need a recipe
>because you just made a less rich pastry dough etc. :-)
>
>Does anyone have a more detailed recipe they would be willing to share?

My dad grew up in the UP of Michigan and since he also comes from a
mining background, pasties are in our blood. I've been eating pasties
ever since I had enough teeth to chew them. Therefore I am compelled
probably by the spirit of my grandma to add my two cents worth here.

The recipes already posted are fine but you should resist the temptation
to get fancy with pasties - they require no seasoning other than salt and
pepper, and gravy or ketchup or something like that (someone mentioned
chutney) are all you need to serve with them. My terrible food secret
is that I love ketchup on my pasties. Ketchup right out of the fridge
does a great job of cooling down a piping hot pasty so it won't burn
your mouth off.

You might run into purists who insist rutabagas or turnips are essential
to the pasty paradigm. I would argue that the minimal pasty which can
be identified as a pasty contains only meat and potatoes. Everthing
else is extra. I've never put rutabagas or turnips in my pasties.
Just potatoes, onions, carrots, and some lean beef. Of course you can
put whatever you like in your pasties. Personally though I have what
you might call an irrational intolerance for elegant pasty variations.
The pasty is a humble food. You should never find a pasty on the menu
of a fancy restaurant.

The crust is important. That's the hard part - unless you cheat and
use never fail pie crust. Never fail pie crust holds together better
and that makes it easier to handle, so it might actually be a good one
to start with. Here's a recipe:

http://www.recipesource.com/baked-go...1/rec1101.html