Makin' pasties, eh!

[Root]

My wife makes them. We only use ground beef, or venison, but otherwise the recipe is pretty close to the one you used. They are so good. I grew up eating them and the only thing we ever put on them was salt and pepper. Recently I brought a bunch in to work for people to try since they drool over them when I eat them. We happened to have leftover brown gravy from the shift before, so I tried it on a pasty. It was god damned delicious. Not sure I will ever eat them without a little gravy in the future.

Question: do you freeze them for later baking? I tried that with mine, and had not-great results baking them from frozen. They tended to leak liquid as they baked, and didn't hold together very well for eating. Have you had this experience, and do you have any tips?

[Inmyelement]

We freeze them uncooked. We tried cooking them first and then freezing and didn't like it as much. Sometimes the top splits when cooking them frozen, but haven't worried about it much as we don't pick them up to eat them. A good tough pastry crust seems to be the secret, and we haven't perfected that yet. The next batch we make we are going to knead the dough a little more to try and get a more tough pastry. It has been a bit of a challenge to get a crust that will stretch a little so you can stuff them full and not break, yet not be too soft after cooking. Lard seems to help for a tougher pastry. The good thing is that they all taste good.

[Allentown]

Question: do you freeze them for later baking? I tried that with mine, and had not-great results baking them from frozen. They tended to leak liquid as they baked, and didn't hold together very well for eating. Have you had this experience, and do you have any tips?

Would pre-cooking the filling help?
IIRC from my Alton Brown viewing days, freezing can cause ice crystals to rupture cell walls, meaning the meat and vegetables will leak more fluid than fresh/unfrozen.

[PuddingFace]

Tried making pasties this weekend - used this recipe http://paulhollywood.com/recipes/cornish-pasties/. substituted shortening for the lard and sirloin - roughly chopped up for the skirt steak. Also, cooked the fillng first - sauteed the meat with the onions, and steamed the potato & rutabaga briefly. I was concerned it would be too dry if the moisture from the meat and veggies was cooked out, but it turned out fine.

[Inmyelement]

We precooked the filling once and didn't like the results. One of my favorite parts is that little bit of juice that runs out and cooks into the folded edge. Gives the thicker crust a nice extra flavor. We also just use ground beef, so that might make a difference too. The filling had a crumbled beef texture too it that wasn't as good as not cooking the filling raw. Neither was bad, just one was better than the other.

[Cinic]

If you're ever in AZ (or Vegas now apparently) we enjoy this place: https://www.cornishpastyco.com/

They must pre-cook the fillings as they don't take long enough otherwise.

[mbasic]

If you're ever in AZ (or Vegas now apparently) we enjoy this place: https://www.cornishpastyco.com/

They must pre-cook the fillings as they don't take long enough otherwise.

yeah, that place is all right/thumbs up!
Wife really likes it.