The Cornish pasty was created by the urban middle classes in London, a food historian has claimed.
Despite being closely associated with the West Country, Peter Brears has said the British snack was not actually created in Cornwall.
In a food studies journal, Petits Propos Culinaires, Mr Brears said that the name of the meaty-filled pastry was coined by London cookery teachers.
It is also been suggested that the pasties in Cornwall in the 19th century were mostly vegetarian.
In the Western Morning News, Mr Brears said: “Always containing red meat, its use was spread throughout the entire country by London-trained cookery teachers who invented the term ‘Cornish pasty’.
“They did not originate in Cornwall and although they drew their inspiration from those enjoyed by tourists in the county, were quite different from the true pasties of Cornwall in a number of ways.”
Mr Brears explained the London teachers chose meat, potatoes and onions at the filling, rejecting traditional ingredients, and were made smaller as a “savoury nibble for polite middle-class Victorians.”
