A LITTLE HISTORY ON THE PASTIE

The Cornish pastie  (pasty) began its life around the 14th century and it was strictly vegetarian .
Swede , onion ,and potato were boiled and become the filling .
The meat was added much later in a shredded form , about the time that pasties were served as a two course meal , meat in one end and a jam or dried fruit in the other .
It was the perfect staple meal of the tin miners in Cornwall.
A traditional Cornwall pastie is D shaped and has a crimped edge , the crimped edge is believed to have served a life saving purpose .
Tin mines contained arsenic , which would make its way on to the miners` hands , the crimped edge allowed the miners to use it as a handle / edge  , and then they could throw it away when they had eaten the rest of the pastie .
therefore a traditional Cornish pastie must be crimped at the edge and not on the top.