I tried supermarket Cornish pasties – cutting into the luxury £1.50 winner was a joy, says Blur’s Alex James

WE can’t get enough of Cornish pasties, with more than 100million of them baked every year.

Traditionally they are made with a short or rough crust pastry and filled with beef, potato and veg.

Authentic West Country versions must contain at least 12.5 per cent beef and be sealed sideways.

To mark Cornish Pasty Week, Alex James, Blur bassist, foodie and founder of the Big Feastival, tucks into a selection on sale in supermarkets . . . 

Peter’s Beef & Veg Pasty, 199g, £1.25, Sainsbury’s

WITHOUT wanting to court controversy I have included a couple of “Devon crimped” pasties in the field for good measure.

If you are new to the debate, it’s a question of top or side seals.

Devonshire pasties have the pastry crimp – the thick scalloped join – on the roof and are said by absolutely everyone who lives East of the Tamar (the river dividing Devon and Cornwall) to be moiles batter than the Cornish laterally closed ones.

Peter’s pasty costs nearly twice the price of Aldi’s very similar-looking offering. The smell’s not thrilling and is rather “school dinner-y”.

It doesn’t slice so much as mush up, and inside looks like some porridge had a fight with wallpaper paste.

It’s the least calorific but this test is about the taste, not the waist, and the main flavour here is salt.

RATING: 1/5

Asda Cornish Pasties x 4, 520g, £2.94

THE pastry used for a pasty used to be cut around a dinner plate, so it was quite a hefty size.

It was the custom to mark one corner with an initial and claim any half-eaten pasty later.

I think it’s safe to say all the pasties on test today are “one-sitting” jobs.

Asda’s offering does come in a handy pack of four if you want to go back for more later.

But what do they taste like? In a word, bland.

Or in a sentence: Like a cheap can of soup with a whisper of tinned potatoes.

A bit dry, a bit weak, a bit skimped and it certainly doesn’t make you crave another bite. Asda – expect a visit from the pasty police.

This is a serious breach of Cornish intellectual property.

RATING: 0/5

Eastman’s Minced Beef & Onion, 150g, 59p, Tesco

CERTAINLY a winner for looks, because the criss-cross pattern on the pastry makes this one really stand out from the crowd.

It would look very attractive on a dinner plate with the classic sides – AKA beans and chips.

Contains an impressive 18 per cent beef but also “extracts”, added colouring and unnamed “flavouring”.

I’m not sure any of these were added when the boys were taking them down the tin mines.

Taste wise, overall it’s just a little bit dry but the pastry has good puff and crispiness.

Inside, there is a good punch of swede waiting but ultimately the filling is bland.

I think a good splodge of twangy pickle or, even better, a fat dollop of piccalilli would perk things up.

RATING: 2/5

Crestwood Puff Pastry Beef & Veg, 200g, 69p, Aldi

THIS value option is almost identical to the above Peter’s beef and vegetable pasty in shape, although it looks plenty bigger.

They both look like they have been unceremoniously squirted out of a pasty machine rather than lovingly hand-folded.

But if you are microwaving it at work and eating it out of the wrapper, that won’t matter.

What else do you expect for 69p? Having said that, buying food is not the same as buying petrol – best price doesn’t always mean best value.

This version looks to be high on potato content with some scrimping on the vital swede and onion.

The pastry is stodgy and almost uncooked. The filling bland but not offensive.

It is slightly nicer than some but still not what I would call a bargain.

RATING: 2/5

Morrisons Cornish Pasties x 4, 520g, £2.95

IT was genius to wrap cheap cuts of cooked beef with widely available winter vegetables like swede, potato and onion in a thick pastry crust, creating possibly the earliest example of a working man’s packed lunch.

Housewives and independent bakeries famously made pasties for Cornish tin miners to take to work and no two recipes would have been identical.

While all of today’s sampled Cornish pasties are different, it’s worth noting that they are – perhaps surprisingly – all made in the same factory.

And all the non-Cornish ones were made in one factory, too.

Maybe that’s why the supermarket runners hailing from the county are hard to separate visually.

Here, the onion flavour comes mainly from powder, although little chunks are detectable inside.

There’s a good meat-to-pastry ratio and it’s pleasingly peppery, with tastable swede.

RATING: 4/5

M&S Cornish Pasties x 2, 300g, £3

THEY maybe double the price of many, but these really stand out in terms of ingredients.

There is a solid, short list with not too many preservatives, nasties or flavour enhancers.

It says butter-enriched pastry, too.

Cutting into these pasties was a joy, releasing deep, hearty aromas that filled the room and drew several gasps of expectation from awaiting diners.

Well-filled, really good, tasty pastry and the inside was meaty and mouth-watering.

I think you would have to go to Cornwall to top this clear standout.

If £1.50 is the price of luxury, I’m in. Time to bust out the English sparkling wine – which would be the perfect match for these.

RATING: 5/5

Chef Select Cornish Pasty, 200g, £1.19, Lidl

THEY used to say in Devon that if the Devil crossed the River Tamar, the Cornish would turn him into a pasty – a reference to the horns shape you see on a traditional regional bake.

While it is hard to get a wapping-great specialist horns-and-all Cornish pasty in a national supermarket – you really have to visit Cornwall for that – I have to say the overall Cornish pasty standard was pretty high.

This attempt was well-filled. The pastry was just a little dry, so not quite butter-enhanced.

But inside it was nicely balanced with no off notes.

Not bad for just north of a quid in your local Lidl.

Simply add ketchup, some mustard and maybe an ice-cold glass of beer.

Or a piping-hot cuppa.

RATING: 3/5

Ginsters Beef Pasty, 180g, £1.50, Iceland

THIS contains more potatoes than it does flour – quite surprising for a pastry product.

There are a couple of added extras too, including coriander, turmeric and even leek.

It also comes with instructions for air-fryer heating.

A chef would always recommend warming pasties through in a conventional oven but those of us who don’t spend all day in a kitchen know that’s not always possible.

I have countless fond memories of eating microwaved Ginsters pasties at service stations up and down the land.

After 20 minutes in a conventional oven, this one emerged plump and tempting. Soft pastry, tasty and well-filled.

The herbs and spices were liked, ticking all the boxes. Excellent effort.

RATING: 4/5