October 26th Cornish Pastry from the 1880’s, 1908 and 1958
Oxford Michigan
Cornish Pastry
(Upper Peninsula of Michigan)
Cool water for mixing the dough is used. This is important…
For four persons, take a sieve full of flour and work into it at least two pieces of suet the size of an ordinary egg. (A sieve full of flour is equal to four cups.) Grind the suet first and work it into the flour. The suet part is also important.
Add approximately a half-cup of lard and work this into the flour, suet and water, making a smooth dough. Then roll out the dough in the usual way. Take an ordinary pie pan or pie plate and cover the bottom and shoulders of the pie pan with the rolled-out dough.
On half of the dough put the following ingredients:
Five or six potatoes sliced thin or diced
Two pounds of diced or cubed beef, or beef and pork mixed (be sure the beef and/or pork is of good quality)
Add onion and parsley to preference
Salt and pepper to taste
Fold one-half the pastry over the other half, crinkle-out the edges with the fingers, place in a moderately hot oven and bake for fifty to sixty minutes.
Before taking the pastry out of the oven, many people like to add a ball of butter to it by cutting a hole through the dough. The ball of butter should be the size of a large walnut.
This is a FABULOUS recipe…
10-26-58
EAB: LURE Magazine
To see the names of the people who contributed to this cook book and the recipes the added go to this earlier posting from June.
I happen to have just watched a program on Amazon called “Edwardian Farm” in which three archeologists recreate life on a farm at the turn of the Century (1900’s) for a whole year. In one of the episodes the lady is taught how to make a pastry exactly like the recipe for Cornish Pastry that I have in this set of loose papers. As I read the recipe, I pictured the lady making it in the program and it was almost exactly the same, just a few minor differences in the ingredients.
It seems that a lot of the recipes are from her Mother and several of these recipes are very old, and come from a long line of family cooking in Michigan and the old country. From the name of Grandma, McLeod, and her scotch bread, another recipe that is this Cornish pastry, I am betting the “Old Country” is going to be north England and/or Scotland or Ireland. The Pork pie can be traced far back into history with all kinds of raised pies using a hot water crust, and a pasty or Cornish pastry was eaten as a filling lunch by hard working miners and rural workers, again for centuries.
As I read these recipes, I am picturing the ladies who have passed them down through the years, as the hard-working rural families that are the backbone of this country. These people and the history are the whole reason I do this blog!
This next recipe is from the 1880’s, about 80 years before the first recipe; this gives you an idea of how far back it goes.
Andover Hampshire UK 1880’s
Cornish Pastry
For the paste; ½ lb. flour, ½ teaspoon bkg. Powder, pinch of salt, 3 oz lard or dripping, ¼ meat, mutton or beef, ¼ raw potatoes a small piece of onion scalded & finely chopped, salt & pepper. Bake ½ an hour.
(It is a ¼ lb. of meat, mutton or beef even though she does not say that.)
Brighton UK 1908
Cornish Pasties
2/3 potato, 1/3 meat, pastry
Roll our pastry cut in rounds about size of dinner plate. Fold over rolling pin, in half – fill half with potatoes & meat. Sprinkle little water over – press edges firmly together & bake.
Visit my ebay store to find some great kitchen utensils and collectables to go along with these vintage and antique recipes.
https://www.ebay.com/str/ozziesattic720?_trksid=p2047675.l2563
