Our Incredible Family Cornish Pasty Recipe - Operation $40K (2024)

Our Incredible Family Cornish Pasty Recipe

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Winter always makes me crave these – let’s face it; a good Cornish Pasty recipe makes you feel like you are eating pot roast in a pie shell. When I had the restaurant, Thursday used to be our pasty making day. We would make a ton of these and sell out pretty quickly -people even drove up to our little Wisconsin town from Chicago for a few dozen to take back and enjoy.

History of the Cornish Pasty

The Cornish were the first settlers from the British Isles to arrive in Wisconsin. Calling themselves Cornish rather than English, they came from Cornwall County in England where they worked in lead and tin mining. The opening of mines in Illinois and Wisconsin brought a stream of Cornish settlers between 1830 and 1850.

In 1850, roughly 7,000 of the approximately 28,000 English settlers in the lead region were Cornish. The lure of gold in the west and the decline of the lead industry in Wisconsin led many Cornish to leave Wisconsin in the mid-19th century.

The easiest food to take down into the mines? Pasties! They stayed warm, were easy to eat, and filled them up enough to go back to theri grueling work. It is a handheld gem that we now pop onto a plate and grave with either ketchup or beef gravy.

Our Wisconsin pasties are different than Michigan pasties… but here is a quick video of 18th century cooking, that actually features pasties! It gives you a little more history on these babies.

Now, I stage my prep work for this recipe as making pasties can be labor-intensive…but they are SOOOO worth it! You can pre-dice your carrots, potatoes, rutabaga, etc, and cover with water to freeze. Just thaw out when you are ready to assemble your cornish pasty recipe.

This is a very easy recipe to make a double or triple batch of, and we do it often as this Cornish pasty recipe makes about fifteen pasties. We wrap them individually in Saran wrap and freeze them for later enjoyment. Filling the freezer with bulk cooking is always a great way to save both time and money. I hope you enjoy these as much as we do – I still can’t figure out if I like them better with beef gravy or ketchup.

Our Incredible Family Cornish Pasty Recipe

Cornish Pasty Ingredients:

• 1 pound carrots
• 2.5 pounds potatoes
• 1/2 rutabaga
• 1 medium oniom
• 3 pounds ground sirloin
• 2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 TBSP Legout Au Jus Base (or other beef soup base)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 TBSP pepper
• 1/3 cup sugar
• pie crust
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup water

How to make our Cornish Pasty Recipe:

Dice your carrots, potatoes, rutabaga, and onion and place in a large bowl. Add your ground sirloin and sharp cheddar cheese, mixing them all together. In a small bowl, stir together your seasoning: 1/2 cup warm water, Au Jus Base, garlic powder, and curry powder. Pour over items in a large bowl. Sift over that flour, pepper, and sugar. Now, get in there with your hands and really blend it together.

Make pie crust — but add a little more flour and water — overwork the dough (I let it go for a bit in my kitchen aid). If you buy your crust, just work it a bit to toughen it up. I know, I know, it goes against everything we learn about making a light and flaky pie crust – but this isn’t for pie – and you want it a bit more durable.

Roll out to dough into 9″ circles. Place 1 cup of your pasty filling in the center, fold over the dough and crimp edges. Place on a baking sheet cut vent slits in the top. Scramble the eggs with that 1/4 cup of water and use that “egg wash” to paint the hand pies.

Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes, until golden brown. Let them cool if you want to wrap them to freeze. As I said, they freeze beautifully if you wrap them individually. You can actually zap them in the microwave for about two minutes and they are ready to serve.

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• 1000 Recipes For Meal Planning
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Print our Cornish Pasty recipe here: