>Hotdish" reminds me that pasties (flat a) are regional. A pastie is a single-serving sized pastry crust, roughly rectangular, stuffed with meat, gravy and a veggie or two, the veggie usually being a root veg, especially turnip
Our pasties (preferably from Corwall) are definitely semi-circular, never rectangular. The ones sold outside Cornwall are nowhere near as good.
The Cornish Pastie was invented by Cornish housewives who wished to ensure that the husbands who worked down tin mines had proper food during the day. The thick, half round crust was baked so that the worker could hold his pastie without having to wash his hands, thereby losing valuable work time - when the pastie was eaten, the crust was thrown away.
For a picture see:-
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/alan.richards/cornish2.htmNext question: What is "a malted"?
