Celebrating Cornish Pasty Week

28/02/2019 Posted in: News

It’s Cornish Pasty Week! It’s been a busy week for Cornish Pasty producers and Ginsters has been highlighting its new Handcrafted range.

Developed by Ginsters’ development chefs in collaboration with award-winning Cornish head chef Chris Eden, there are two pasties in the range which launches in May: The Cornish Handcrafted Cornish Pasty and the Cornish Handcrafted Chicken, Chorizo and Cornish Gouda Pasty. Crimping is the traditional finish for a Cornish pasty, an art passed down through the generations – and this new range is hand crimped by the Ginsters’ bakery team.

 5 Things You Have to Know About the Cornish Pasty

1. The pasty is thought to have been part of Britain’s diet since the 14^th Century when it was favoured by the wealthy upper classes and royalty.
2. It was the Cornish tin mining industry in the 19^thCentury that really catapulted the Cornish pasty to fame – adults and children alike took pasties down the mines for a mid-morning snack. The distinctive D shape is said to have come about because the miners used the crust as a handle to prevent contaminating the food.
3. The filling in a genuine Cornish pasty is beef with onion, potato and swede, which cook together to create a delicious, rich gravy.  Nothing is cooked before going into the pastry.
4. The Cornish Pasty Association (of which Ginsters is a founding member) achieved Protected Geographic Indication (PGI) status for the Cornish Pasty, which means that in order to call a pasty a Cornish Pasty it has to be made in Cornwall to the approved recipe.
5. The saying ‘oggie, oggie, oggie’has its roots in the Cornish tin mines as the word oggie from Hoggan, the Cornish word for pasty. Some mines had stoves to warm up the pasties, and Hoggan was shouted down the mine when they were ready for eating. In reply the miners would shout ‘oi, oi, oi!’