Meet the Clanger: Two delicious pies in one

My first reaction to the Bedfordshire Clanger at Stargazy was that it was one of the most delicious bizarre foods I'd eaten in a long time.

I've never eaten anything ever quite like this long pastry tube, which starts on one end with a spicy filling of curried lamb sausage and then, two-thirds of the way down, morphs into a sugar-dusted peach pie made from lovely Lancaster County fruit.

Well, of course, it's "#notthatbizarre," according to Stargazy's English-born Sam Jacobson, who replied on social media.

This cousin of the Cornish pasty dates to the 19th century, when farm workers in the east of England would tote a complete lunch to the fields: one pastry filled with various leftovers from the Sunday roast, capped with an end of jelly or fruit.

Some have suggested the name clanger referred to an original mistake of mixing sweet and savory, and early accounts of them weren't always appealing.

But if Jacobson's updated homages rolled in handmade flaky pastry are any measure - sometimes he fills them with pork and apples, or duck with pineapples, figs, or cherries - the clanger is everything that's right when an obscure, Old World agricultural relic meets the New World magic of a modern pie-shop visionary.

- Craig LaBan
Bedfordshire Clanger, $9, Stargazy, 1838 E. Passyunk Ave., 215-309-2761; on Facebook.