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  • Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning

  • English. I'm Neil.

  • And I'm Rob.

  • Fancy a game of 'food connections', Rob?

  • So I'll name a place and you say the first

  • food that comes to mind. Ready?

  • Yeah, sure, let's go!

  • Italy.

  • Erm…'pizza' – or 'lasagne'.

  • New York?

  • 'Hot dogs', of course. Or maybe 'bagels'.

  • Now how aboutCornwall from the UK?

  • If it's Cornwall, it must be the famous

  • 'Cornish pasty', right?

  • That's right! Cornwall, the region which

  • forms the south-western tip of Britain, is

  • as famous for its pasties as New York is for

  • hot dogs. In this programme we'll be finding

  • out all about Cornish pasties. We'll hear

  • how it's gone from humble beginnings to

  • become a symbol of Cornish identity and spread

  • around the world to Jamaica, Argentina

  • and Brazil.

  • But what exactly is a pasty, Neil?

  • Somewhere between a pie and a sandwich,

  • right? A piece of pastry which is turned

  • over and crimped

  • along the side to make two corners

  • and filled with different ingredients

  • - which brings me to my quiz question for

  • today, Rob. What is the traditional filling

  • in an authentic Cornish pasty? Is it:

  • a) Chicken, avocado and brie

  • b) Beef, potato and turnip, or

  • c) Pork, onion and chorizo

  • Well, chorizo is Spanish isn't it? And avocado

  • with brie doesn't sound traditionally Cornish,

  • so I'll say b) beef, potato and turnip.

  • OK, Rob. We'll find out later if you were

  • right. What's for sure is that the Cornish

  • pasty has had a long history as BBC Radio

  • 4's The Food Programme discovered.

  • They spoke to Dr Polly Russell, a public

  • life curator at the British Library. Here she

  • is reading from one of the earliest

  • mentions of pasties

  • from the late 17th century:

  • There's a lovely bit here where he's describing

  • what a housewife in Hertfordshire does and

  • he's talking about her way to make pork

  • pies and pork pasties: pies may be made and

  • baked either raised in paste earthen pans

  • or in pewter dishes or in the shape of a turnover,

  • two-cornered pasties. So that's a very early

  • reference to a pasty in the shape, I think,

  • that we know it but also being made specifically

  • for labourers - to be feeding labourers on

  • a farm at harvest time.

  • So the earliest pasties were made in pewter dishes

  • – a traditional cooking plate made of a

  • silver-coloured metal called 'pewter'.

  • And they were eaten by agricultural labourers

  • workers doing physical farm work during

  • harvest timethe weeks in autumn when

  • crops like wheat are cut and collected

  • from the fields.

  • But it wasn't only farmers and labourers

  • who ate pasties. As well as its farms and

  • fishing, Cornwall was famous for tin mines,

  • as Ruth Huxley of the Cornish Pasty

  • Association explains:

  • Pasties would have been eaten by lots of people

  • who went to work but it just worked perfectly

  • down mines, and Cornwall became the world

  • capital of mining. And so lots of pasties

  • were made, lots of pasties were eaten and

  • then that mining community went all over the

  • world and took the pasty with them.

  • Pasties were eaten by hungry workers involved

  • in the mining industry - digging up materials

  • such as coal or metals like gold, or in Cornwall

  • tin, from the ground.

  • So far we've been talking about Cornwall.

  • But you said the Cornish pasty has spread

  • around the world, Neil. How did that happen?

  • Well, that's connected to the tin miners

  • we just talked about. Here's

  • Polly Russell again:

  • This is replicated, not just in Mexico but

  • with migrants moving to America, to Minnesota,

  • to Canada, to Australia. So anyone who travels

  • to many of those places now will see foods

  • which are incredibly reminiscent and familiar

  • and just like Cornish pasties.

  • In the 19th century, many Cornish tin miners

  • emigrated, moving abroad to start a better

  • life. Their pasty recipes were replicated

  • or copied exactly, in the new places where

  • they landed, from America to Australia.

  • And that's why in many places around the

  • world you can find food which is reminiscent

  • of pastiesmeaning it reminds you of something

  • similar, in this case the original Cornish

  • pastywith its traditional filling of

  • what's was your quiz question again, Neil?

  • Ah, yes. I asked you what the traditional

  • Cornish pasty filling was? You said

  • I said b) beef, potato and turnip.

  • And you were right! 'Keslowena', Robthat's

  • Cornish for 'congratulations'!

  • 'Heb grev', Neilthat's 'no problem'!

  • In fact those other fillingschorizo,

  • avocado and brie - really did feature in pasties

  • entered for this year's Annual World Pasty

  • Championships, held in Cornwall every spring.

  • Other pasty-inspired ideas include Argentinian

  • chimichurri empanadas and spicy

  • Jamaican patties.

  • So the pasty is still going strong, both in

  • Cornwall and around the world.

  • Today we've been discussing Cornish pasties

  • – a kind of filled pastry from the south-west

  • of England, originally made in pewter dishes

  • – a silver-coloured metal dish.

  • Pasties were eaten by agricultural labourers

  • farm workers bringing in the autumn harvest

  • the time when crops are cut and collected

  • from the fields, and also by workers in the

  • tin mining industrydigging up metals

  • like tin from underground.

  • Later, when these miners emigrated to new

  • lands, pasties were replicatedcooked

  • again in the same way.

  • In fact Cornish miners moved to so many new

  • countries that today, almost every corner

  • of the world has food reminiscent ofor

  • reminding you of, the original Cornish pasty.

  • That's all for today. Join us again soon

  • for more topical discussion and vocabulary

  • on 6 Minute English. Bye for now!

  • Bye.

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning

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酥餅真的是康乃馨嗎?6分鐘英語 (Is the pasty really Cornish? 6 Minute English)

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    林宜悉 posted on 2021/01/14
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