Cornish Cuisine

It’s probably fair to say that British food gets a bad rap. If you don’t believe me, check online – there are dozens, if not hundreds, of articles trashing some of our most cherished snacks and dishes. According to many, our grub is bland, stodgy, beige and unhealthy, and the usual suspects like jellied eels, Marmite, faggots (steady – it’s a kind of meatball made from offal), scotch eggs and haggis all regularly appear on “Worst British food” lists.

As with any cliché, there is an element of truth to it, but British food has enjoyed something of a resurgence over the past few decades thanks to celebrity chefs inspiring the general public to take more interest in ingredients and how they are prepared, and a wave of innovative restaurateurs doing bold new things while also championing British produce and revamping tired old classics.

While many British favourites, including national dishes like fish and chips and chicken tikka masala, are widespread, there are also delicacies specific to certain regions. Think shortbread and world-famous Aberdeen Angus beef from Scotland, delicious Cumberland and Lincolnshire sausages, fresh Cromer crab from Norfolk, the curry dishes of the Balti Triangle in Birmingham, delectable cheeses from Cheddar and Wensleydale, Melton Mowbray pork pies from Leicestershire, and so on. Even a metropolis as cosmopolitan as London still has its traditional dishes like the notorious jellied eels and pie, mash, and liquor from the East End.

Arguably, the English county with the most beloved regional cuisine is Cornwall. Let’s take a closer look at what to eat when you’re in the far southwest of the country…

 

 

Cornish Pasties

All together now: “Oggy, oggy, oggy!” If you responded “Oi, oi, oi!” then chances are you’ve probably been to a football match in the UK over the past few decades. But although the call-and-response chant became a standard on the terraces, it traces its roots to something you might munch on at half-time at some grounds: The Cornish pasty.

The humble hand-held snack has been enjoyed by Brits for around 700 years, first documented in the 13th Century. Back then, however, it was the food of the wealthy, stuffed with decadent ingredients such as venison, lamb and eels, often with a rich gravy and given extra flavour with fruit and berries.

The pasty took on its more familiar form in the 17th Century when it became popular with Cornish tin miners, prepared by their wives as a hearty meal for their fellas to enjoy while toiling deep beneath the ground. It was a matter of necessity; the men were unable to resurface to take a leisurely lunch break, so the thick crimped crust served as a kind of pastry handle they could use to eat the good stuff inside without getting it filthy with their unwashed hands. This wasn’t just a matter of hygiene because arsenic was a regular component of the ore they were mining, and this method also prevented the miners from poisoning.

 

 

Traditionally, the filling would contain beef, potato, swede, and onion, all wrapped in a robust shortcrust pastry that was said to survive even a fall down a mineshaft. Sometimes, raw pasties were cooked on stoves near the shaft, with the bal-maidens calling down “Oggy, oggy, oggy” to let the men know lunch was ready – “Oggy” is the Cornish word for “Pasty,” in case you were wondering. 

In other cases, the pasties were cooked at home and served as a neat little radiator to keep the men toasty when carried next to their bodies in the cold of the mine. Typically, superstitious miners would often leave leftovers for the Knockers, mischievous creatures that supposedly lived in the mines and could cause disaster if they were not properly appeased.

Nowadays, Cornish pasties are both a source of local pride and big business, spreading to all corners of the United Kingdom and beyond. In 2011, the term “Cornish pasty” received Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status from the European Union, meaning that only bakers from Cornwall could use the name. 

No doubt upsetting the bendy-banana brigade, this example of Brussels legislation also annoyed big supermarket chains and bakery franchises like Greggs, as they could no longer legally use the moniker. It was a move designed to protect authentic Cornish pasty-makers and their iconic dish, although few in the county ever thought that imitations served by the big boys could rival the real thing. Members of the Cornish Pasty Association (CPA) churn out around 120 million lovingly-crafted pasties each year, employing at least 2000 people and generating approximately £300 million in trade for the Cornish economy.

By far the most popular is Ginster’s pre-packaged range of Cornish pasties. Based in Callington, Cornwall, the company sells around 34 million units annually in the UK. I’m quite partial to one myself – it’s my go-to snack whenever I’m flying and I like it cold straight out of the chiller cabinet! Overall, the famous (and sometimes contentious) Gregg’s sausage roll sells more, shifting around 130 million a year, but both pale in comparison to the nation’s favourite snack: Brits eat around 3 billion pre-made sandwiches annually. 

Cornish Cream Tea

 

“I asked the maid in dulcet tone

To order me a buttered scone;

The silly girl has been and gone

And ordered me a buttered scone.”

 

Scones - how do you pronounce yours? While these baked goods are not unique to the British Isles, they are synonymous with Cornwall, Devon, and the Cream Tea. The name conjures up a modest English sort of luxury, lashing freshly-out-of-the-oven scones with jam and clotted cream and washing it down with a nice pot of tea. It is the staple of quaint tea rooms, stately home cafes, farmhouse visits, and posh hotels. Scones with raisins or sultanas are popular options, but purists will offer a plain version, which is really all you need. When it’s done right, the Cream Tea provides a sense of nostalgia and well-being that few other British delicacies can.

The popularity of the Cream Tea boomed in the 1850s, around the same time that the newly forged railways started taking tourists out of the cities to the coast. This rapidly expanding rail network also brought an influx of travellers to the West Country and down to the Cornish peninsula, where the combo of buttered scones, clotted cream and jam traces its roots back almost 1000 years.

 

 

The earliest form of Cream Tea is said to have appeared in the 11th Century when builders restoring Tavistock Abbey (which had been ransacked by Vikings) were rewarded for their efforts by the resident monks who laid on a spread of bread, cream, and jam. The “tea” element wouldn’t be added for another 500 years or so, when the East India Company brought the first exotic leaves to England from distant shores in the mid-17th Century. 

Catherine de Braganza, the Portuguese wife of Charles II, is credited with popularising tea-drinking in polite society, and it remained a tipple for royalty and the upper classes until the 1900s. During the 19th Century, lower taxes on tea imports meant that everybody could enjoy a nice cuppa, and it became the national beverage. It also made the perfect pairing with scones, cream, and jam – indeed, it seems unthinkable to drink anything else!

For the uninitiated, it absolutely has to be clotted cream. You can just about get away with crème fraîche or squirty cream out of a can if things get desperate, but you’re doing your scones a disservice. Clotted cream is far richer and heavier than regular cream, extra-skimmed to remove excess liquid and make the butterfat content higher, clocking in at around 64% compared to just 18% in single cream.

Clotted cream has been a staple of the southwest, particularly Cornwall and Devon, for around 2000 years, when the method was brought over by Phoenician settlers as a way of preserving buffalo milk. Nowadays, people of the two neighbouring counties enjoy debating the correct method of using it in a cream tea. Namely, which comes first, the cream or the jam?

In Devon, it is customary to layer the cream first, while the Cornish like to add it after coating the scone with jam. Either way is delicious, but if you want to be posh and traditional, it’s worth mentioning that the Queen preferred hers Cornish-style!

Stargazey Pie

Cornwall has a rich fishing tradition dating back more than 1000 years. In the 19th Century, Brixham harbour was home to the largest trawler fleet in Britain, and the town’s working fish market is still one of the country’s most famous. Chowing down on the county’s super-fresh seafood offerings is a highlight for any foodie visitor, but one fish dish is particularly divisive: Stargazey Pie.

A regular feature of disgusting British food lists, this baked dish is named due to its defining ingredient: whole pilchards with their heads popping out from under the pastry as if gazing up at the night sky. The arrangement isn’t just a show-stopping flourish; positioning the fish with their heads pointing upwards allows all their oils and juices to flow downwards during cooking to ensure nothing is wasted and to keep the pie moist and flavourful. 

 

 

Stargazey Pie originated in the gorgeous fishing village of Mousehole near Penzance in Cornwall, and it is commonly associated with a local legend. The story casts us back to the 16th Century when Mousehole harbour was beset by particularly stormy weather one winter. With the fishing fleet unable to sail, the village faced starvation as fish were the primary source of food. A fisherman named Tom Bawcock decided to brave the rough seas alone, bringing back a large enough catch to feed everyone. Seven types of fish (including sand eels, mackerel, and dogfish) were baked into a huge pie with the heads sticking out. 

 

 

Bawcock’s bravery and resourcefulness are celebrated on the 23rd December at an annual event called Tom Bawcock’s Eve, when the villagers bake a huge Stargazey pie and parade it through the streets with handmade lanterns before tucking in. The date makes it an alternative festive dish, and, despite its reputation for being a bit gross, it is considered a “fun” offering to keep kids amused. A variation of the dish even made it to the winning menu of the BBC’s Great British Menu, with chef Mark Hix serving up a rabbit and crayfish stargazey pie — thankfully, he went with crustaceans peeking out from the crust rather than rabbit heads!

Cornish Yarg

Cornwall produces over 60 types of cheese, from mature cheddars and the award-winning Cornish Blue to artisanal variations of Gouda, brie, and camembert. Perhaps the most distinctive is Cornish Yarg, which has an unusual backstory. It was first produced in modern times in the 1980s when Bodmin Moor farmer Alan Gray discovered a 300-year-old recipe for cheese in his loft. Made from local pasteurised cow’s milk, the semi-hard cheese is pressed, brined, and hand-wrapped in stinging nettle leaves picked from nearby hedgerows.

 

 

That might seem like a startling choice to many, as nettles are the bane of intrepid kids across the land. Urtica dioica evolved hollow hairs that deliver a sting to ward off predators, as many of us rummaging through woodlands found out to our cost – the classic antidote was to seek out a dock leaf to soothe the pain. 

Thankfully, the sting is neutralised in cheese-making as the Yarg is left to mature for five weeks, and the pesky weed gives the curd a delightfully herby flavour. Yarg slices nicely, and its creamy texture makes it a good accompaniment to strong cheddars and crumbly varieties like Wensleydale on your cheese board. In case you were wondering about the name, Yarg is simply its resurrector’s surname spelled backwards.

 

So there you have it, a few delicious treats that you should absolutely eat during your trip to Cornwall. Is there anything else you would add to the menu? Let us know!