Forfar Bridies (Recipe) (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between Forfar bridie and Cornish pasty? ›

Forfar Bridies and Cornish Pasties are both meat pies and are generally hand-held. The difference between a Forfar Bridie and a Cornish Pasty is that the Pasty, originally from Cornwall, England, has vegetables in it.

What is a Forfar Bridie? A Forfar Bridie is a simple hand-held Scottish meat pie made in a horseshoe shape. It usually contains minced beef, sometimes onion, and various seasonings.

Bakers in Forfar traditionally use shortcrust pastry for their bridies, but in other parts of Scotland, flaky pastry is sometimes substituted. The filling of a bridie consists of minced steak, butter, and beef suet seasoned with salt and pepper. It is sometimes made with minced onions.

The name “Bridie” has two possible origins. One is that the name comes from Maggie Bridie of Glamis who sold them at Buttermarket and the other is that the horseshoe shape made them lucky to serve at weddings and took the name from the bride.

Local stories claim the 'Forfar Bridie' originated from one Margaret Bridie of Glamis who sold these meat pasties at the Buttermarket at Forfar in the eighteenth century. Recent genealogical research shows that there was a Margaret Bridie who lived in the first part of the eighteenth century in Glamis.

BRIDIE, Brydie, n. Also bradie, braddie. Also Forfar bridie, Farfar bridie. A kind of pie made with a circle of pastry folded over with a filling of meat, onion etc, originally made in Forfar, Angus, but now known and made in most parts of Scot. [ ′brəidi Ags.; ′bradi, ′bredi Abd.]

Forfar is easily accessible from Dundee and Aberdeen, via the A90. The town was once the seat of Scotland's King Malcolm Canmore and is famous for its witches who once danced on graves and frolicked with the devil. Find out more at the Meffan Museum.

Introduction. The market town of Forfar is located in the heart of the valley of Strathmore in Angus - hence its traditional role as the political and administrative centre of this rural region. The name of 'Forfar' is probably derived from the Gaelic word, Faithir, which means 'watching hill' or 'sentinel'.

A Scottish Forfar bridie is a meat and onion filled pastry that is popular in Scotland. The traditional and authentic Forfar version uses shortcrust pastry, however, bridies are often made with flaky pastry in Scotland. In the US and Canada, it would be referred to as a handheld meat pie.

What's inside a Bridie? ›

The bridie is made of minced beef, sometimes with onions and spices, placed on rolled-out pastry and folded into a semi-circular shape, and then baked in an oven. Forfar bakers traditionally use shortcrust pastry but similar products on flaky pastry or puff pastry are occasionally found.

A real Scottish favourite, the Scotch pie has been made in Scotland for at least the last four or five hundred years. The first filling was spiced mutton and sometimes you'll still find Scotch Pies called a Mutton pie, although now minced lamb or beef is more commonly used.

Pasties - which are meat-filled turnovers - came from England along with the Cornish who settled in America. Years ago, miners and woodsmen throughout the Midwest relished having these pasties in their lunch boxes.

American pasties are the American equivalent to Cornish pasties. The border between Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is delineated by a line of pasty shops.

In Cornwall, a pasty is often called an “Oggie”, and while it is unclear as to where the word originated, some people have suggested that it is derived from hoggan, a kind of bag in which the miners carried their croust (croust is the Cornish term for lunch).

Since 2011, the Cornish Pasty has enjoyed protected status under Protected Food Names legislation; so only a pasty made to a specific recipe in Cornwall can be called a “Cornish Pasty”.

The Mighty Cornish Pasty

There must be at least 12.5% beef and 25% vegetables in the whole pasty. All the ingredients must be uncooked when the pasty is assembled and then slowly baked to develop all that famous Cornish pasty taste and succulence.