Cornish Pasties

From the Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library, International Favorites, Card #14, Cornish Pasties

I was curious about the origins of the Cornish pasty and this delightful article offered great insights:

https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Cornish-Pasty/

If you aren't inclined to read the whole article, highlights include:
•the shape of the pasty was useful for avoiding arsenic poisoning and
•initials were carved into the dough so when the crusts were left for the "Knockers," spritely folk, they would know who left food offerings and who didn't.

I didn't carve out initials into my dough, but I would have, had I read the above article sooner. The instructions say to poke holes in the pastry dough for ventilation, so there would be a practical reason for carving them, too. About the dough: the recipe calls for the ready-made Betty Crocker brand pie crust mix. Wondering if it was even still manufactured, I poked around the internet a bit. I found that long-time users of the product were unhappy with a relatively recent recipe change. I didn't even know boxed pie crust mixes existed, having only ever purchased the pre-made frozen crusts. So...It seemed logical enough that since I had never made pie crusts at all and the box mix was apparently unsatisfactory, I should definitely make a crust from scratch. Good, sound logic.

In wanting to keep with the Betty Crocker tradition, I went to the Betty Crocker website and found the recipe for pie crust dough. You can find that here:
https://www.bettycrocker.com/how-to/tipslibrary/baking-tips/how-to-make-pie-crust#02
scroll down to the 2-Crust Pie and if using it for the Cornish Pasties recipe, double it

My mom, in pre-pandemic years, loved to peruse the sale aisles of the grocery/super store. I am often the recipient of many "good deals" including kabob skewers which were purchased for a quarter, reduced price printer paper, discounted paring knives and more. One such bargain was a pastry blender. I vaguely recall using this once before, although I couldn't tell you what for. At any rate, it sits unused most of the time, so I imagine when I dug it out from the depths of the baking drawer, it felt like it had been called down as a contestant on the Price is Right. The rolling pin must have felt this way, too. It lives in the dank, bottom drawer for miscellaneous "big" things. Remember when contestants on the Price is Right would get so giddy with excitement they would freeze at bidding time and Bob Barker would scold them? That was the rolling pin.

Having my rarely used kitchen tools in hand and having wiped the counters thoroughly, the dough making began. Dough making is not for the weak. I mean this in the most literal way. Strong hands required. Strong forearms helpful. Do not cry, I told myself. This was your choice, I told myself. When the recipe calls for salt, it doesn't mean the salt of your tears, I told myself.

Once the dough has been made, the recipe says to let it rest. I understood this to mean let myself rest for 45 minutes, too.

Upon returning to the dough, it was time to roll it out into twelve inch rounds, and try as my weak little hands would allow, I could not get twelve inch rounds. This mattered only because there was filling leftover after the rounds had been stuffed. It's fine to just put those leftovers in the Betty Crocker Beef Stew which I planned on making next, anyway. In making this recipe vegetarian friendly, I used some Boca protein crumbles and button mushrooms in place of the beef. I typically prefer foods like this veg heavy rather than meat substitute heavy. I would have left the crumbles out entirely if I hadn't already had a little bit left in the freezer. I was skeptical about serving this with pickles as the photo shows, but the pickles add a nice contrast of cool, crispness to the hot, baked pasty. The recipe also says you can serve it with chili sauce, but it doesn't give a recipe for that. I made an aioli by combining mayo and sriracha. I put a dollop on top and then spread it out while eating. I think it would be perfectly fine without the sauce. Maybe, for variety, just a couple sprinkles of Frank's hot sauce would be nice. Frank's hot sauce enhances so many foods.

Not a great photo of the inside. I almost completely forgot to take a pic of the inside, though, so this is it.

Cornish pasties are a lot of work in terms of prepartion, and I need to work on my dough fluting skills, but overall rating:
4 Red Spoons. Tasty, but labor intensive.