There are many ways to make a pasty, but there are two things that must always be in it – lamb and swede. These two ingredients give it a truly authentic flavour. The pasty is shaped like it is, with a thick, pleated crust because traditionally Cornish miners, with coal all over their hands, used to hold the pasty by the thick, crisp edge. Then they ate the inside and could just throw away the soiled crust. There is a great glutenfree pastry recipe, which will also work perfectly for these pasties. It’s very delicate and I suggest you use the paper to help support the dough when you fold it over and make the shape. Remove the paper when you are ready to put the pasties in the oven. You can put them in the refrigerator to firm them up a little before taking the paper off.
Lamb shoulder has the perfect meat to fat ratio. It’s where all the flavour is and it just so happens to be my favourite cut of meat. The problem is that the shoulder is a working muscle and therefore is tough, so it doesn’t work well for cooking quickly. However, I suggest you cut it very finely with a knife into dice no bigger than 5 mm. Alternatively you could mince it, but by far the best result comes from hand-cutting.