Though their fillings may be a little spicier, the resemblance between the Mexican “paste” and traditional Cornish pasty is uncanny. The story of the somewhat unlikely legacy of the English snack takes us back 200 years, across the Atlantic Ocean, and down a few mines.
ADVERTISEMENTIf you’ve ever strolled the sandy beaches of Cornwall, the county on England’s rugged southwestern tip, chances are you’ve tucked into a Cornish pasty or three. Some 8,000 kilometres away, in the mountains of central Mexico, crowds are gathering to celebrate a rather similar snack.
This is the International Paste Festival, which honours a prized local culinary tradition: the “paste”. Pronounced PAH-stay, this pastry snack was introduced to the mining town of Real del Monte by British miners in the 1820s, and is still going strong today – albeit adapted for local palates.
Though in the UK you’d traditionally find beef, onion, potato and swede inside the pastry pockets, in Mexico popular fillings include a rich, spicy Mexican ‘mole’ sauce and sweet combinations such as pineapple or blueberry with cheese.
Many are oblivious to their surprising origins, but a graveyard atop a cobbled hill offers a hint: around 700 graves, cloaked in moss and lichen, bear distinctly English names. These mark the resting places of the hundreds of miners who journeyed to Mexico in 1824 to work in Real del Monte, extracting silver, copper, zinc, gold, and mercury.
A pasty from the past
These miners had travelled from Cornwall, where there was a similarly strong mining community in the 19th century, bringing with them their Cornish pasties. Dating back to the 13th century, these were once the preserve of the nobility. By the 19th, however, their potential as the ideal mining snack had been realised – the crimped edge providing something of a handle, saving the rest of the pastry from the grime of the mines.
According to local resident Isabel Arriaga Lozano, who said she has made pastes for 30 years, the pastries have become a crucial part of life in the “magical town” of Real del Monte.
“I think around 50% of us here make a living from this,” she told the Associated Press, “It’s, above all, the love we put into every paste that makes it a good product.”
As well as this extra special ingredient, though, Arriaga – who married into a paste-making family and took over the business when her husband passed away – believes pastes have remained popular due to the addition of “mexicanised” ingredients.
Compared to Cornish pasties, she said, “in Mexico (…) we always look for that spicy flavour … we add pepper, we add parsley.”
Indeed, visitors to this year’s paste festival (13-15 October) could sample fillings such as frijoles (beans), spiced mole sauce or Mexican style tuna, while UK menus are more likely to feature “full English breakfast” “steak and ale” or “lamb and mint” adaptations.
As well as the pastries themselves, the festival saw Real del Monte decked out with banners and signs adorned with the Mexican, British, and Cornish flags, celebrating a unique – and surprising – connection between Mexico and Britain that dates back 200 years.
Didn’t make it to the festival? Fear not, the celebration is year round at the town’s Paste Museum.
“The paste arrived in the year 1824, with the English miners from Cornwall who came to Real del Monte to start working in the mines,” said Epifanio Garcés Torres, director of the town’s Paste Museum. “The first Englishwoman to bake (one) here in Real del Monte was Mary Jenkins in 1824.”
To that we can only say: “buen provecho” and “omlowenhewgh agas boes” ! (Bon appétit in Spanish and Cornish).
