[Sca-cooks] Looking for "Celtic" foods, especially "finger foods"

[Susan Fox]

Celtic, eh?

Here are my full notes about CORNISH PASTIES, As seen on THE SECRET LIFE 
OF... PIES

Warning: this is not low calorie, low fat, low carb, low anything except 
possibly low tech!

RECIPE FOR CORNISH PASTIES

CRUST:

4 cups plain flour
1/2 pound chopped suet [about 2-1/2 cups] [Why suet? If you have cheap 
cuts of beef, you probably already have beef fat too. Moderns use butter 
or veg shortening.]
1 Tablespoon salt
water to mix [also varies; can be up to 1 cup]

Mix chopped suet with flour and salt. Mix with hands or electric mixer 
set to lowest setting. Add water, a little at a time, until a pliable 
dough forms. Go ahead, handle it A LOT. This is not supposed to be light 
flaky confection, this is not only part of the “baking pan” for the meat 
and potatoes, it’s also the “lunchbox.” Tensile strength is a plus.

Divide into 6 evenly sized dough-balls and refrigerate for at least one 
hour or overnight. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap; there is more water 
than usual in this dough and the refrigerator will dry it out into 
un-rollable rocks.

FILLING:

2 pounds beef. A nice cheap chuck pot roast is ideal.
2 medium potatoes
2 small turnips
1 onion
1 Tablespoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Pepper.

Cut the beef, potatoes, turnips and onion into small bite-sized bits, 
under 1 inch dice. Mix it all up with the salt and pepper.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:

Roll out the dough balls into rounds about 8 inches in diameter. Wet 
down the edges of each circle with water, about 1-2 inches from the 
edge. Place a goodly handfull of filling into the circle of dough, fold 
over and seal the edges. Fold once, wetting it down some more if you 
have to in order to get a good seal. Crimp decoratively with your 
fingers. Place on an ungreased baking sheet, brush with milk or beaten 
egg for good color, and bake for about one hour at 350 degrees F or 
until well browned.

Authentic options and lore:

Pronounce it PAST-TEE not PASTE-TEE or your English friends will all 
laugh at you. A Pasty Pastie is not at all nice to eat. This is not food 
from the future but from the past-ee!

The question whether the crimped edge should be on the side or on the 
top is an ongoing dispute akin to a religious battle. The top crimp is a 
bit easier to form and make pretty. The crimp on the side provides a 
convenient handle for holding the pasty. Miners’ hands get dirty and 
there are other elements in the Earth that you don’t want in your food; 
arsenic appears in tin mines, for instance. Superstitious miners leave 
the edge crusts for the Cornish mine spirits, called “knockers” to bribe 
the little folk into not making mischief in this dangerous work environment.

The Cornish Pasty could be a full two-course meal with the addition of a 
dollop of jam or fruit in one end and baking it all together. The 
housewife would put the husband’s initials on the fruit end, in order to 
identify it on those occasions when he wanted to save his sweet for later.

A Cornish saying: “The Devil will never cross the River Tamar into 
Cornwall for fear of being made into a pasty!” Almost anything edible 
could and was enrobed in crust and baked in the south-west reach of the 
British Isles. Other favorite fillings include salad-type spring greens, 
mushrooms, cheese and onion, pork and apple.

Although Cornwall is nearly surrounded by the ocean, the Cornish Pasty 
is exclusively a “landlubber’s” food. Sailors consider it unlucky to 
take a pasty aboard ship. There is another dainty dish for seaside 
fisher-folk, however, called “Star Gazey Pie” where whole boned fish are 
laid between layers of dough and baked with their heads and tails 
sticking out. Yum.

Pasties in literature:

 From Chretien de Troyes’ 12th Century “Tales of the Knights” ‘Next 
Guivret opened a chest and took out two pasties. "My friend," said he, 
"Now try a little of these cold pasties ..."‘ Don’t forget, King Arthur 
was from this part of the world; his mother was Ygraine, Queen of Cornwall.

Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor (1600) "come, we have a hot pasty to 
dinner"

Pasties in America:

Eventually the famous tin mines of Cornwall played out, so the miners 
joined the flood of immigration to American in the 1800’s. Pasties are 
well known in Michigan, especially in the Upper Peninsula, and nearly 
unknown outside of there except by Anglophiles and travelling Yoopers 
and their friends. Modern pasty-makers have largely substituted 
vegetable shortening for suet or lard in the crust but the dish has 
remained otherwise unchanged for centuries.

On 3/2/2012 9:23 AM, Raphaella DiContini wrote:
> Greetings,
>        I was asked months ago to organize a pot luck at an upcoming event. While pot lucks are more service and teaching opportunity than an Artistic endevor for me, I'm still hoping to at least provide a couple of things that are reasonably historical, and withing the requested theme / perameters. The event is "Celtic bardic", and for some reason they strongly want to have a "finger foods" potluck for dinner.
>
> I want to represent the culinary arts in the best light possible, and use this as a teachable moment that even with a limited, or even sub-optimal scope that  historical food choices are still no harder or at all less tasty than modern/ new world ones.
>
> Most of the usual historical noshes that I have come to rely on for events where people will not be nessisarily sitting down for a meal are mostly not "Celtic" so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, especially if you could point me at a source that I could go to town on so to speak. I'm not sure what types of cheese, sliced meats, etc. would potentially be appropriate for this.
>
> I was thinking of small meat pies if I can find some Scottish, Irish, or Welsh sources. Perhaps something like oatcakes too, but my other limitations are several people with Wheat/ or Gluten allergies, at least one person with an alergy to ginger&  pork, one Vegetarian, and another who's allergic to black pepper.
>
> It's not "finger food" but I'm also contemplating making Egerdouce for the Barony's main contribution to flesh out the finger foods everyone else is being asked to bring.
>
> In joyous service,
> Raffaella
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