[Sca-cooks] Cornish Pasties Was Meat Mixtures

[Terry Decker]

I find this tale highly suspect.  The tin mines of Cornwall were worked for 
around 4,000 years, most of that without modern safety equipment.  A miner 
was in more danger from the dust in the air than anything on his hands.  The 
tin, by the way, is not particularly poisonous.  The primary poisons are 
trace elements in the ore, such as arsenic.  The most lethal killers are the 
mica and silica in the matrix rock.  The diseases that afflicted the Cornish 
miners were bronchitis, silicosis, TB, and rheumatism.  They went into the 
mines at 12 and were dying at 40 if they hadn't been killed or maimed in an 
accident.

The pasty has a thick crimped edge is because the dough is a thick heavy 
dough which is doubled and crimped to keep the contents sealed in and resist 
breaking.  The crimped edge is not very edible, so why not throw it away?  I 
will admit it makes a good handle if you don't want to get your dirty hands 
on what you're eating, but creating the thick crimped edge specifically to 
help prevent poisoning?

Bear

> I was watching "Globe Trekker" the other night and they were in Cornwall 
> and
> ordered pasties. They said that the reason they (the pasties) has suh a 
> thick
> crimped edge is so the poisonous tin on the miners' hand did not have to 
> touch
> the food; one would eat down to the edge, then toss the edge away.
>
> Does anyone know if this is true?
>
> (They also had a giant pasty made for them, enough to feed a small 
> village.
> The dough was about 3 feet in diameter before they folded it over.)
>
> Renata