The pasty fed the tin and copper miners of Cornwall, who carried it underground as a complete meal in a pastry case thick enough to survive the journey. Its thick crimped edge, the story goes, served as a handle for dirty fingers and was then thrown away, though no Cornish person we have met would waste a crust. Since 2011 a Cornish pasty sold as such must be made in Cornwall to a protected recipe: beef, potato, swede and onion, nothing else, all raw when the pastry is sealed and seasoned with salt and plenty of pepper.

Made at home, wherever home is, it remains the finest portable lunch in Britain and a classic of race day hampers. Everything cooks inside the sealed pastry, so the beef and vegetables steam in their own juices and make a little gravy all by themselves.

The pastry

Ingredients

• 3 3/4 cups (480 g) strong bread flour
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 cup (115 g) cold unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup (115 g) cold lard
• about 3/4 cup (175 ml) ice cold water

Method

1. Stir the flour and salt in the large bowl. Add the butter and lard. Rub them into the flour with your fingertips, lifting the mixture and letting it fall back into the bowl, for 4 to 5 minutes. Work quickly so the fat stays cold.
2. Sprinkle in the cold water a few tablespoons at a time, stirring with a knife blade, until the dough clumps together. Then gather it into a ball with your hand and knead it on the counter for 2 to 3 minutes until smooth. This pastry is kneaded more than most, to make it strong.
3. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

The filling

Ingredients

• 14 oz (400 g) beef skirt
• 14 oz (400 g) waxy potatoes
• 12 oz (340 g) swede (rutabaga)
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 2 teaspoons fine salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper

Method

1. Cut the beef across the grain into small pieces about 1/2 inch (1 cm). Keep them in a bowl in the fridge.
2. Cut the potatoes and swede into thin, irregular slivers about 1/2 inch (1 cm) across, by holding the vegetable and shaving small pieces off with the knife, or simply cut into thin dice. Finely chop the onion. Keep each vegetable in a separate pile.

Assembling and baking

Ingredients

• 1 large egg

Method

1. Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and line the baking sheets with parchment. Cut the pastry into 6 equal pieces. On a floured counter, roll each into a circle a little larger than the plate, about 1/8 inch (3 to 4 mm) thick, then cut around the plate to make an 8 inch (20 cm) circle.
2. On one half of each circle, leaving a 3/4 inch (2 cm) border, layer the filling in this order: a layer of swede and a pinch of salt and pepper, then half the potato, then the onion, then the beef with another good pinch of salt and pepper, then the rest of the potato. Divide everything evenly between the six.
3. Brush the border with a little egg. Fold the empty half over the filling and press the edges together firmly to make a half moon, pushing out any air.
4. Starting at one corner, press the edge flat with your thumb, then fold a small piece of the edge over onto itself diagonally and press. Move along a little and repeat, all the way round, to make a rope like twist. If this is too fiddly, press firmly with a fork instead.
5. Place the pasties on the sheets, brush all over with egg and cut a small slit in the top of each. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the oven to 340°F (170°C) and bake for 35 to 40 minutes more.
6. Let them rest on the sheet for 10 minutes; the filling inside is very hot.

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