Pasty Duchy from the Left Hand Side

Photo © Rob Jones

So …

I’ll rattle through this like an express train:

If you go to a Wales Rugby match you will hear…

“Oggy Oggy Oggy! Oi Oi Oi!
Oggy Oggy Oggy! Oi Oi Oi!
Oggy! Oi!
Oggy!Oi!
Oggy Oggy Oggy! Oi Oi Oi!”

You can thank the Welsh comic singer Max Boyce for popularising that one.

Don’t forget the 80’s variant “Maggie, Maggie, Maggie - Out, Out, Out”

Oggy, of course, being the Welsh equivalent of the Cornish Pasty.

But here’s where it gets complicated. It’s origin is steeped in the mists of time.

Either …. Oggy apparently comes from Devonshire sailors, which was used to describe the Cornish pasty sellers outside the Devonport Dockyard. It then got adopted by soldiers, who’d sing the Tiddy Oggy Song at public displays.

Stick with me.

Or … Cornish tin miners’ wives would should ‘Oggy, oggy, oggy’ as they hurled pasties down mineshafts to their husbands …. the husbands shouting ‘Oi, oi, oi,’ back to acknowledge receipt. Interestingly many tin miners from Cornwall moved lock stock and barrel to North Wales to work in the Slate Mines, and South Wales into coal, taking their food culture with them.

Or maybe … it comes from the ‘Cornish Hoggan pastry,’ an 18th century pie. Related to the Welsh Chwiogan Muffin.

Whatever ..

You can’t come to Cornwall and not eat a pasty. Oh ok, if I must.

Don’t ask me why, but at home we’d always make pasties at Christmas and serve them up for tea… as if we hadn’t had enough to eat.

Here’s the real deal…

Shortcrust Pastry, made with lard, Cornish butter.

For the filling: 400g of beef skirt cut into cubes; 300g waxy potatoes; 150g of Turnip; 150g onions; Salt and pepper to taste. Egg for glaze.

20cm pastry circles.

Dice the veg, layer along with the meat, plenty of salt and pepper, don’t skimp - as a rough guide two pinches of salt to one of pepper; Fold up, stick with egg, and crimp along the side. Glaze with egg.

Cook for about an hour in a lowish oven - 160 C.

Or buy an expertly made one in the shop. Loads of place do them by post these days. They freeze well.

R.