The fierce battle between pasty lovers in the English counties of Devon and Cornwall over who has legitimacy over the origins of the ‘Cornish’ pasty has been reignited by a European Union decision granting geographical indication rights to the Cornish. From now on, only pasties actually made in Cornwall will be entitled to the name Cornish Pasty.
The first response to this announcement from a Devonshire pasty maker was, “Go to hell!”
Many of the pasties sold throughout the United Kingdom will be required to change their branding, becoming simple pasties, not Cornish Pasties, much to the joy of Cornwall’s many pasty fans and staunch regionalists everywhere.
Devon’s pasty adherents do not even have the option of the original name for this meat and vegetable filled pastry, which was once known throughout the south west as a tiddy oggy, or tidden oggy. The term is from the ancient West Cornwall dialect that is linked to early Celtish language, which may have been universal in both Devon and Cornwall in the days of ancient Britain.
The new regulations require the Cornish Pasty to include meat and vegetables in a flaky pastry envelope that has been crimped closed into a half moon shape.
In 2006 a Devonshire researcher claimed to have documentary evidence that the first tiddy oggy was indeed produced in Devon, in the town of Plymouth. The Cornish response was that before then it was being made by illiterate Cornish housewives who never recorded that they were making oggies, so natural was the process to them.
Cornish Pasty joins that other regional speciality on the EU’s restricted GI list, Cornish Clotted Cream, which is an essential component in a genuine Devonshire Tea.
The new rules declare that a genuine Cornish pasty has to be formed into a half moon shape and be crimped on one side. The texture of the filling is to be chunky, made up of uncooked minced or roughly cut chunks of beef (not less than 12.5%), swede, potato, and onion with a light seasoning.
If it has peas or carrots, it is not a Cornish Pasty, nor should it be called such.
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