Pastry and Pasta Come From the Same Word
Pastry is a flour dough. It shares an origin with pasta, paste and even pâté, all from a Greek word for a mixture.
Pastry is a dough of flour, fat and water used for pies and tarts. It belongs to a large family from Late Latin *pasta*, a dough or paste, from Greek *paste*, a barley porridge: Italian *pasta*, English *paste*, French *pâté* and *pastry* itself all descend from it. So does *pastiche*, a work assembled from mixed sources.
- A flour dough. *Shortcrust pastry.*
- A baked item. *Danish pastries.*
- Pastry chef — a specialist baker. *A trained pastry chef.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | pastry | Puff pastry. |
| Plural | pastries | Fresh pastries. |
| Related | paste | Tomato paste. |
| Related | pasta | Dried pasta. |
| Related | pastiche | A clever pastiche. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Puff pastry has hundreds of layers.Created by folding butter into dough.
- Keep pastry cold to keep it short.Warm fat makes it tough.
- Pasta and pastry share a root.Both mean a dough.
Kinds of pastry
- Shortcrust — half fat to flour, crumbly
- Puff — laminated with butter, rising in layers
- Filo — stretched paper-thin, brushed with fat
- Choux — cooked twice, puffing with steam
- Hot water crust — moulded by hand, used for pork pies
From Old French *pastaierie*, from *paste*, dough, from Late Latin *pasta*, from Greek *paste*, a mixture.
Why is it called shortcrust?
Because fat shortens the gluten strands, producing a crumbly rather than elastic texture. Short means crumbly in baking.
Are pasta and pastry related?
Yes. Both come from a Late Latin word for dough, itself from a Greek word for a mixture.