Best way to cook my pasties please

JennyW_2

just a little advice on how best to cook/store my Cornish pasties.

After reading all the lovely recipes on this site, I decided to make my own.

I cooked all my ingredients first (potato/carrot/suede /onions and mince) then placed it all in the pastry, folded over and sealed. I then brushed with milk and baked them in the oven for about 45 minutes. They were really lovely, I was so chuffed with myself . Anyway I ate one that night then put the others in the fridge. The following night my husband had one so I didn’t want to reheat in the microwave as it would go soggy so I baked again - not sure if that was the correct thing or it was too long - about 35 minutes - anyway, the pastry was pretty hard by now .

In future, should I do as before (cook all the ingredients and make up the pasties) but then freeze and not bake? Then when I want a pasty I can bake it when I need to - do you think this is the best way?

pol

Both ways work well, it all depends how you want to warm them up.

For fresh crisp pastry, freeze uncooked.
If you want to freeze them already cooked I find the best way to heat them is to microwave them till hot all through then blast them for five minutes in a hot oven to crisp up the pastry without it going hard.
HTH

pol

v8monkeyboy

You can not bake and freeze, or bake and freeze - I've done both, and it's not made a difference, apart from the re-heating time.

However, if you had wrapped the cooked pasty in foil when you heated it the next day, the pastry would have stayed crisp and not gone hard at all

I often make calzone to take to work and always bake then freeze them. I defrost them overnight, then heat in either a microwave (soggy) or in an oven.

Hope this helps.

T x

tiamaria

Carrots? In a cornish pasty? You'd likely be done for treason down here:eek::eek:


The suggestion of using peas is also likely to upset a cornishman;)

kittyscarlett

Well yes, have to agree, no offence to the OP but that is *not* a pasty of the kind made in Cornwall. ( where oddly enough they are known as just pasties not Cornish pasties ) There they are made with chopped ( not minced ) RAW meat, potatoes, swede and onion, salt & pepper, and that's it. And well made, properly tasty they are too.

Its fine to make pasties from leftover cooked meat or meat scraps, its a thrifty way oft used in WWII, but they ain't Cornish pasties... you can reheat defrosted cooked pies/pasties in the oven but shouldn't take more than 20 mins, no wonder the pastry was hard - good luck

ariba10

In my experience of "Genuine" Cornish pasties as sold in Cornwall is that the main ingredient appears to be pepper.

Mel2

Don't cook all the ingredients first. Just put them in chopped quite small and raw. That's how they're done traditionally and how I always make them. I use potato, swede, onion, beef(skirt) and salt and lots of pepper. Put it all in the pastry with a knob of butter on top then seal and brush with beaten egg. Delicious!!!!

tiamaria

That's right though we have turnip not swede, occasionally we add a bit of parsley too, but that's as far as we stray from tradition;)

Proper job:D:T

kittyscarlett

There is a brilliant book on pasties ( called, oddly enough The Pasty Book ) by Hetty Merrick, the lady who used to run the Lizard pasty shop ( now run by her daughter Ann ) It is a slim volume but full of wise and warm chatty anecdotes re pasties and some recipes !

tiamaria

I've got that book too! The lady on page 10 with the donkey and cart was my OH's great granny (or something like that)!