back to article Cornish pasties awarded protected status

Aficionados of the Cornish pasty will in future be assured that their pasty is the real deal, following a European Commission ruling that only pasties prepared in Cornwall in the traditonal way can be labelled "Cornish". Cornish maiden bearing platter of genuine Cornish pasties. Photo: Cornish Pasty Association The …

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  1. Robert E A Harvey
    Thumb Up

    Hurrah!

    The Stilton listing has done nothing but good, with other cheeses being sold as 'British blue' or (better yet) finding their own identity, like the superb Blackstones.

    We already have the 'west country' company selling generic pasties, and no doubt someone will come up with a Somerset name soon, like 'Somerset duffs'

    This is good news, except for Ivor Dewdney, although I just checked their web site, and they already comply.

    1. SuperTim

      Traditional, Farmhouse, homemade....

      All generic terms that can be applied in place of "cornish" to denote a pasty with "stuff" in it.

      While i appreciate the sentiment, there is nothing special about a cornish pasty, it is just something we are accustomed to associate with pasties.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Still not going to improve Ginsters

    Since they already Cornwall based.

    Though how the Proper Pasty Company in Sheffield will fare?

  3. John Ruddy
    FAIL

    More EU lies!

    But doesnt the pasty originally come from Devon?

    1. Marvin the Martian
      Dead Vulture

      Thanks for saving the article

      The article seriously lacks in the official editorial stance, i.e., pervasive anti-EU vitriol. You sir keep up the good work!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Pasty is Cornish

      The pasty is a miner's food tradionally. Not so many mines in Devon as Cornwall!

      1. Kernow
        Thumb Up

        Pasties

        Should be policed better to prevent rubbish ingredients.

        1. John Bailey
          Boffin

          Which is...

          Kind of the idea. Specific ingredients, specific shape, specific place. And the permission to label your pastie as a Cornish one is not handed out for just setting up a packing plant in Cornwall.

    3. Libertarian
      Go

      Devon pasty

      Not only did the pasty originate in Devon (where the crimped edge allowed arsenic miners to grip it by the discardable pastry edge whilst eating to avoid (minimise?) excessive arsenic intake), but also the commonest "meat" ingredient was mackerel, which was cheap and locally abundant.

      Still, nothing to stop an enterprising entrepreneur from selling "Devon pasties".

      The "traditional" Cornish pasty is simply a myth, and usually underseasoned due to the current hyponatraemia-risking obsession with eliminating the consumption of salt.

  4. Dayjo
    Thumb Up

    Great news

    I'm fed up of getting disappointed with all these crap so called 'Cornish' pasties. I had a couple shipped up to me last week from Philps in Hayle... just delicious!

    1. Robert E A Harvey
      Thumb Up

      You can still make yer own.

      Under the new legislation I'd better call these 'YellowBelly pasties'

      Case:

      150g lard

      100g beef suet, finely grated

      450g strong plain flour, perhaps a touch more

      30ml cold beer (Batemans?)

      rosemary leaves, chopped

      chive leaves, chopped

      Filling:

      400g beef skirt

      medium onion

      half a swede

      600g main-crop potatoes

      small garlic clove

      1 egg whisked with splash of milk

      Butter

      fresh lime

      salt, black pepper, dried ginger

      Dice the vegetables into bits about 4mm cubed. Crush the garlic and mix in. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

      Cut the meat into similar size bits

      Sift flour,salt,ginger into a mixing bowl.

      dust the meat in the flour and remove.

      Finely chop the lard and mix roughly into the flour. Add the suet, and work into a pastry with the beer. Work in the chives and rosemary. if too wet, add a little more flour

      Divide into 6 pieces and roll each out into a circle, on a floury board. You can scrub the beer bottle to use as a rolling pin.

      Put a layer of onion and swede bits onto one side of each circle. Then a layer of the meat, then a layer of potato. put a few tiny knobs of butter around the top. squeeze a little lime juice over each one.

      brush some beer glue round the edge, fold the top over and crimp it down. Use a fork or something to make a pattern. I use my wedding ring.

      make a tiny hole in the top for the worst of the steam to escape - not too big as you want to steam the veggies, this is just a pressure relief valve.

      Glaze the outside with egg/milk. If you want a pattern, score the pastry surface slightly.

      Put on a greased tray and put in a preheated oven for 15 minutes at gas 6/200C then reduce to gas 2 for about 40 mins. Fan ovens should have a small bowl of water and the pastry covered until the last 15 mins.

      Variations:

      Paprika or Nutmeg instead of ginger.

      Oysters in the beef.

      Venison. Omit the garlic, marinade in red wine & olive oil. Dry off before dusting with flour

    2. Chris Parsons

      Pedant alert

      Fed up WITH, not of....

      1. Spot the Cat
        Headmaster

        Pedant alert ll

        Well said, sir! And it cannot be said too many times. And the same applies to bored.

  5. Peter Ford

    Devonshire Pasties FTW

    I seem to recall that one of the most famous brands of pasty (Ginsters) is actually based in Devon. Time for a new manufacturing facility across the Tamar, perhaps?

    1. Marvin the Martian
      IT Angle

      Or transport a lorry load of cornish soil to present factory?

      That's the technique Dracula follows: import a load of soil from the motherland... so suddenly Ginsters could be Cornish pasties, no need for a ferry cross the M..Tamar.

    2. Kernow
      Thumb Down

      Pasties

      Ginsters should be in Devon but sadly not. Just sneaked in over the border and put mushy filling in pasties!

    3. Libertarian
      FAIL

      Ginsters location

      Callington, Cornwall!

  6. lglethal Silver badge
    WTF?

    Honestly...

    Would someone please stop the world, I'd like to get off...

  7. Tegne
    IT Angle

    Well done you authentic pasty makers.

    Except Ginsters which although officially made in Cornwall taste like mechanically reclaimed mush. Give me a cornish 'style' pasty from my local bakers in the midlands any day.

    1. MJI Silver badge
      Alien

      Still better than a lot

      Of the mass market, mass produced pasties I am afraid that Ginsters is the best you will get.

      If you don't believe me try a Pork Farms.

      Alien as I think Pork Farms make pasties out of them.

      1. DrXym

        Pork Farms?

        I how Pork Farms also do beef.

        1. MJI Silver badge

          Pork Farms Pasties

          They are just disgusting hence my Alien quip!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        re: Ginsters is the best you will get

        Ginsters steak pasties aren't bad, ASDA also do some reasonable cheap ones. But why worry when real ones are easy to make anyway?

      3. Libertarian
        Alien

        Unusual ingredients

        I seem to recollect that Ginsters was fined £20,000 a few years ago for putting a whole mouse in one of their pasties (accidentally, I am sure!). Grinding the contents to a slurry might have solved such accidents.

  8. Danny 14

    I thought

    I thought they were welsh. I bet pretty much ANY mining town had the rolled pastry grip to throw away.

  9. Tom Mason
    FAIL

    That's rubbish

    I don't think this is a good idea. This protected status makes sense for things which have long shelf lives and travel well, but a good cornish pasty has to be freshly baked, which makes it impractical to even buy one outside of cornwall, except for the crap mass produced ones. In this case protected status will reduce peoples experience of cornish pasties to the dross, and harm the image of the cornish pasty in general.

    1. Uncle Slacky Silver badge
      Stop

      Frozen...

      ...and *carefully* warmed through (so that they don't go soggy on the bottom), they're still OK.

      BTW, agree with commenters elsewhere - Ginsters are evil, and should in no way be seen to be representing a typical pasty. They're (only just) Cornish based (about 5 miles from the border) and I used to have to drive past their factory every day - God it stank!

      Give me a Philps, Rowe or Lavender's pasty any day! Damn, I'm hungry now, and it's not only not lunchtime, but I'm a long way from Cornwall or the nearest pasty shop (about 600 miles)!

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Rowes are nice

        Had a lot last holiday.

        How about relative made pasties?

        Or Cornish owned chain bakers like the late lamented Falmouth Pasty Co?

      2. Kerry Hoskin
        Thumb Up

        mmmmmm

        I think I might have to have a Rowes for my lunch, trouble is I have already had one this week, but I can feel a large steak coming on!

        1. MJI Silver badge

          Don't depress me

          Not down to Falmouth until end of May.

    2. Mike Tree
      Thumb Up

      @ Tom Mason

      No so...

      I recently purchased some fine Cornish Pasties from Morrisons in Bridlington (East Yorks), produced in Crantock.

      The annoying thing is they were significantly cheaper than the ones I bought direct from the bakery in Cranock a few months earlier.

      As a person of Cornish decent, I must approve of the ruling.

      1. Libertarian
        Thumb Up

        Supermarket pasties

        Lidl's are up there with any supermarket (ie: slurry as opposed to lumpy ingredients-filled) pasty.

  10. Debe
    Thumb Up

    Yay

    Thank god, I bought a “Cornish” pasty in London the other day… tasted like god damned ash in my mouth. I went back and complained and was promptly told it was genuine Cornish. I pity people from the capital if they think that is what a pasty should taste like… blegh!

    I realise that London is not Cornwall but surely even people in London can tell the difference between a Cornish Pasty and brick dust wrapped in pastry.

    I left the “genuine” pasty on the counter. It was an offence against my taste buds.

  11. Matt 21

    Seems a little too late

    I've been buying Cornish Pasties made outside of Cornwall since the 70s. How can they reverse that now? Seems a stupid decision to me, far too late to change now.

    In my experience the best pasties do come from Cornwall or Devon but to put a law in place like this is about as sensible as deciding Pizzas can only be called Pizzas if they come from Italy!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      re: How can they reverse that now?

      Easy - make it illegal to call a pasty "Cornish" unless it is. What's that, they have already? Job done then. I look forward to the first prosecution of a purveyor of disgusting mush in a pastry pocket.

      1. Some Beggar
        Thumb Down

        Except the nation's most infamous and ubuiquitous purveyor of disgusting mush

        is based in Cornwall and will still be able to purvey its disgusting mush with the "Cornish" label.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          re: Except

          They may be infamous and ubiquitous but they're far from the worst offenders when it comes to purveying inedible crap that is purportedly a Cornish pasty. When I eat Ginsters I know it's not a patch on real pasties, but at least I don't want to puke.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Thumb Down

            Except

            You were obviously not the customer who bit into a whole mouse inside one a few years ago!

      2. Piri Piri Chicken
        Coat

        I couldn't agree more, but..

        The only thing that sprang to mind after reading your post, was using the last bit as a euphemism.

        "I dumped my disgusting mush in your pastry pocket".

        It's just got a fantastic ring to it.

  12. Some Beggar
    Troll

    Am I allowed to become a Cornish Nationalist if I'm not Cornish?

    Only they're clearly desperately unhappy and insecure down there. We should give the poor souls a break and let them sulk in their own little country.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  13. Conrad Longmore
    Thumb Up

    Except..

    Except a lot of the pasties actually eaten in Cornwall are nothing like like.. from veggie versions to Chicken Tikka and everything in between.

    BTW, IMO the best pasties are from Phelps in Hayle. None of this Ginsters rubbish.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      everything in between

      A bakery in Truro, the name of which escapes me, used to do fish pasties on Friday - most excellent they were too.

      1. Kernow

        Pasties in Truro

        Could you be thinking of Blewetts?

  14. MrWibble
    Thumb Down

    why?

    What difference does it make where something is made? Surely quality is a better thing to be protecting that some arbitrary geographical boundaries.

    1. Some Beggar

      Absolutely.

      It's farcical regional protectionism. It does precisely nothing to protect the quality of the product as all the Ginsters comments demonstrate.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      re: What difference does it make

      Nobody is stopping people from making excellent pasties anywhere they want, any more than the Harris Tweed people are stopping anyone else from weaving woollen fabric. Why do you want to call them "Cornish" if they're not?

      1. Some Beggar

        Because it's a commonly understood term

        that describes (however broadly) a type of pasty. It has almost precisely bugger all to do with the geographic origins of the pasty.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          re: it's a commonly understood term

          But what other sorts of pasty are there that might cause confusion?

          1. lglethal Silver badge
            Go

            @AC

            A cornish pasty is defined as being a pasty filled with Beef, Onion, sliced (or diced) Potato and Swede (rutabaga). There are plenty of other pasty varieties available (steak and ale being my personal fav), just like you can get all sorts of different pies. But a Cornish Pasty is specifically the one filled with the ingredients listed above.

            Beef, Onion, Potato and Swede Pasty doesnt quite have the same ring ot it that Cornish Pasty does, does it?

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