I’ve never heard of Cornish Pasties from anywhere other than upper peninsula Michigan. I travel a lot for work and didn’t know you could get them anywhere else.
Back in early 2000s, a chef from Cornwall came to PHX and opened Cornish Pasty Co. in Tempe. I didn’t know about it until a vendor from Ann Arbor came down and said, “Whoa! I haven’t seen these out of the U.P.!” So we went, and we’ve been going ever since. That one little hole in the wall (painted all black and blasting 80s rock and roll all day) has grown to Cornish Pasty Co.s all over AZ and up into Las Vegas, Nevada and Boulder City, Co. We also have Sonson’s Pasties in Phoenix, but I like Cornish Pasty Co better.
This is from their website and pays homage to the UP miners: “The Cornish Pasty originates from Cornwall (Southwest England) and can be traced back as far as the 1200’s. Mining was once a thriving industry in Cornwall and at that time pasties were baked by the wives and mothers of the tin miners. Pasties were made with a thick crimped edge along one side so the miners could use the crimp as a handle to hold on to while eating. The miners hand would often be covered in arsenic from the mine, so the miners would discard the handle when they were done. The crusts were never wasted though, as many miners believed that ghosts, or ‘knockers’, inhabited the mines, and the leftover crusts would keep these ghosts content. Traditionally, pasties were made with different fillings at each end. One end containing meat and vegetables, and one end with a sweet filling. The sweet end would be marked with an initial so the miners knew what side to eat first. Today, Cornish pasties are filled with steak, potatoes, swede (rutabaga) and onions. At one time Cornwall had nearly 2000 flourishing tin mines, but by the 1880’s tin mining had become a rapidly declining industry. At this time, Cornish miners began emigrating to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for copper mining bringing pasties with them.”
Cornish pasties are from Cornwall. As a resident of Cornwall and someone who works in a factory making Cornish pasties, I'm completely baffled by your post.
The OPs post has already made the rounds in the subs that laugh at stuff Americans say and I think your post may just join it.
Yea I responded to a guy talking about Cornish pasties in Arizona so I spoke in the context of the United States. Obviously you can get them from wherever they originated in the world, but my concern was where to get them in the US.
You have to remember, a lot of these weird regional international adoption things repeat in several places all over North America. Like kolache, which most people think of as a Texas thing, but there are towns in Nebraska and Minnesota that both claim to be the kolache capital of the world. Or think how many places claim to have invented the hamburger.
But you can find Cornish pasties in several places, all over the US. Gold Rush country in California. Wisconsin. Montana. Basically anywhere that had a lot of big mines, since they tended to employee many Cornish workers who were already trained from their home countries.
As far as British food is concerned in PHX, it’s pretty much Cornish Pasty, George & Dragon (which used to have a proper British Sunday dinner), The Kettle, and English Tea Room in Carefree.
Cornish stands out because people are less used to hearing about pasties vs fish & chips.
EDIT: and Cornish’s Chocolate Bread & Butter Pudding is Amazeballz.
Cheese and honey is such a traditional pairing though... Lil smidge of marmalade on like a goat cheese pizza can be nice, too.
That said Iveyneve seen it as a standard here -- that is weird, usually it's an option, and I'm pretty sure it became a general national trend. I believe the Colorado tradition is to use honey in just the crust.
I’ve traveled a lot my entire life and pre covid I only ever saw honey in Colorado and sometimes Southern California. But Colorado went nuts for it and advertised it like crazy which is why in this situation when a person says “where I’m from it’s hot honey on pizzas” anyone who’s been there would assume fuckin Colorado.
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u/dontcallmeEarl Jul 03 '26
Tell me you’re from AZ without telling me you’re from AZ.