Horse and Jockey staff open new Helston bakery Tinners: review

After much excitement on social media Tinners Bakery opened in the former Mothers shop in Coinagehall Street.

It is owned by Surrinder Paul, known to everyone as Sinbad, and his wife Mary, who worked for Horse & Jockey for 24 years and also has experience working for Warrens in St Just during the early years of the company and latterly Philps Pasties.

Also part of the team are Mary's sister Linda Pluckrose, who worked for Horse & Jockey for nearly 20 years and only left Philps a few weeks ago, having moved to the company when it opened in Meneage Street before being based out of Hayle when production closed in Helston.

Completing the line up us Linda's husband John, who used to make pastry for Horse & Jockey.

Read next: Horse & Jockey staff reunite to open new Helston bakery (with their own twist)

Sinbad said they had received a good response from customers today, although it had been difficult to judge how many pasties too cook after the whirlwind of interest on Facebook.

He said: "On the whole we were pleased and the custom was good.

"It's been a productive today."

Not everything went entirely according to plan, as the mixer failed to arrive in time to make their own pastry, due to delays caused by the pandemic.

This meant they had to buy in pastry, which will be used over the next few days before introducing their own, hopefully towards the end of this week.

The salad and sandwich bar was also open and when fully up and running the team will also be making a range of other bakery products, including sausages rolls, scotch eggs and cakes, the majority of which will be homemade - plus a few other taster experiments on and off, such as samosas.

Pasty review

With such pasty-making pedigree behind them, expectation and excitement within the town are unavoidably high - particularly given that it has now been more than two years since anyone has tasted a legendary Horse and Jockey pasty (unless you were lucky enough to have one stored in the freezer).

So what is the new offering like and how does it compare?

It's important to remember that the team have always been at pains to stress they do not intend to recreate Horse and Jockey pasties like-for-like - indeed, this would be nigh on impossible given the variables involved, not least different ovens and ingredients.

Also, a key point to remember today is that the pastry used in the first pasties on opening day has had to be bought in, due to the pandemic causing delays in their mixer arriving.

Bearing all this in mind, what can people expect from a new Tinners Bakery pasty?

While not designed to be a copy, I have to admit the first bite bore similarities to a Horse and Jockey.

Whether it's the ratio of veg to meat or the seasonings used it's hard to pinpoint, but a sense of nostalgia came over me.

There is a good hit of pepper in these bad boys, which come with a degree of heat. Tastes will vary over whether this is a positive or not - although the team have said they are happy to customise them with more or less seasoning, no onions or anything else that takes your fancy if given 24 hours' notice.

Sinbad has also said they plan to tweak the seasoning to lessen the pepper just a touch going forward.

One thing I was happy to see was a proper amount of filling and plentiful meat - there is nothing worse than biting in to find a couple of scrappy bits of beef and half a pasty of air.

My personal preference is for a tight crust also, rather than a huge hunk of pastry taking up a third of the pasty, and my one today had this.

Due to it being bought in it would be unfair to really review the pastry, as it will not be the standard offering (although I found it perfectly tasty).

With their mixer due to arrive tomorrow, I guess I will just have to go back again later in the week to conduct a full review. What a hardship.

(Of course everyone has their own opinion of what makes the perfect pasty - so for your own review, you'll just have to try them yourself!)