Cornish Pasty with Slow-Cooked Brisket Filling

Ingredients

• 500g strong white bread flour
• 125g cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 125g beef dripping or lard, cold and cubed
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 175ml ice-cold water
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp milk (for egg wash)
• 600g beef skirt or chuck, cut into 1cm cubes (not minced)
• 400g floury potato (Maris Piper), peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
• 300g swede, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper (yes, that much)
• 1½ tsp fine sea salt
• 30g cold butter, cut into 4 small knobs

Method

1. Make the pastry first so it can rest properly. Tip the flour and salt into a large bowl, add the cold butter and dripping, and rub through with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs with a few pea-sized lumps still showing — those lumps are what make the pastry flaky and sturdy enough to hold a heavy filling without splitting.
2. Add the ice-cold water a splash at a time, mixing with a butter knife, until the dough just comes together. Don't knead it — squash it into a flat disc, wrap in cling film, and rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour (2 is better). Cold pastry holds its crimp; warm pastry slumps.
3. While the pastry rests, prep the filling. Cube the skirt by hand into rough 1cm pieces — a Cornish pasty is NOT made with mince, the texture of small cubes against the diced veg is the whole point. Dice the potato and swede to roughly the same size so they cook at the same rate.
4. In a large bowl, combine the beef, potato, swede, and onion. Add the salt and that full 2 tsp of black pepper. Mix thoroughly with your hands — the seasoning needs to coat every cube because nothing gets added later. It will look heavily peppered and that's correct; it mellows hugely over the long bake.
5. Heat the oven to 200°C fan / 220°C conventional. Divide the rested pastry into 4 equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece into a circle about 22cm across and 3-4mm thick — too thin and it'll burst, too thick and it goes claggy.
6. Pile a quarter of the filling into a long mound down the centre of each circle, leaving a 2cm border. Top each pile with a knob of cold butter — that butter melts into the filling during the bake and creates the gravy that defines a proper pasty.
7. Brush the pastry border with egg wash. Bring the two sides up to meet over the top of the filling and pinch together to seal — the seam runs along the TOP edge, not across the middle. This is the Cornish way.
8. Now crimp. Starting at one end, fold the corner of the sealed edge over itself at a slight angle, press, then fold the next section over that, working along the seam. You're making a rope-like twist along the top. Don't rush it — a loose crimp lets steam out and the filling dries; a tight crimp traps the juices and gives you that gravy.
9. Lift each pasty carefully onto a baking sheet lined with greaseproof. Brush all over generously with egg wash — twice if you want that deep mahogany shine. Cut a small slit in the side of each (not the top) to vent.
10. Bake at 200°C for 50 minutes until the pastry is properly golden and set. Now drop the oven to 160°C fan / 170°C conventional and bake for a further 1 hour. This long, low second stage is what slow-cooks the cubed skirt inside its own pastry case until it's tender — rush this and you get tough beef in cooked pastry.
11. Rest the pasties on the tray for 15 minutes before eating. They'll be molten inside straight from the oven, and the resting lets the gravy thicken and the filling settle so it doesn't all run out at the first bite.