Cornish pasties

This is as close as I can remember my grandmother’s words. Chop any old raw beef into small pieces the size of the end of your pinky finger. Chop and add the parsley. (Or something else green with little taste.) Chop one onion into about the same size pieces. Mix in. Salt and pepper to taste. (Yours not theirs, can’t please everybody.). You can do this the day before…. Or several.

Peel and cut a potato into small pieces. Put pieces in salted water until ready to use. Otherwise it will turn black.

Make the dough. Put flour and salt in a bowl and cut the butter into it until it is small pebble size pieces. Add water and toss with a fork. Add a beaten egg and vinegar and stir gently. Add more water a drop at a time only until it holds together as a ball.

Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Cut the ball into six pieces and gently form those each into a ball. Roll each ball out until it is the thickness of a piecrust.

This step can be done on the baking sheet so that the pasty does not have to be moved. On one half of the dough put a pile of beef and top that with a handful of potatoes and a pat of butter. (or lard, or whatever you have, butter is better). You judge how much to put since it has to fit on the pie crust. Eyeball it! Fold the other half of the dough carefully over the top and seal the edges firmly by folding the dough over and pressing down. Wet with a little potato water if needed and if you have saved it. Cut a slit in the top.

Do the next one. The pasties should not touch each other on the baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes in a 400° oven. Lower the temperature to 375 and bake until they are brown and juice is bubbling out the top. About 25 more minutes, sometimes more. As long as they don’t burn, you’re good.

Serve and make the slit bigger to add chili sauce, butter, or catchup, and have a good fight about which one is better! This controversy is a modern addition; the miners just ate it.