Stargazy pie generally shortcrust but sometimes puff pastry, through which the fish heads and sometimes tails protrude. For presentation, one suggestion is that the pilchards be arranged with their tails toward the centre of the pie and their heads poking up through the crust around the edge. As it includes potatoes and pastry, the pie can be served on its own or with crusty bread, sometimes with vegetables. Other suggested accompaniments are Cornish Yarg cheese, rhubarb chutney, poached eggs or a slice of lemon. The children's book "The Mousehole Cat" by Antonia Barber is inspired by Tom Bawcock's Eve. It is the
Battalia pie Dictionary, "Cocks-combs, Goose-gibbets, Ghizzards, Livers, and other Appurtenances of Fowls (1706)". It is not connected with Italian "battaglia", battle, but it was regularly confused with that meaning, and battalia pies were built with crenellated battlements around the edges, and sometimes as castles complete with towers. The 1658 cookery book "The Compleat Cook" by "W. M." gives an early recipe for battalia pie: In his 1660 cookery book "The Accomplisht Cook", Robert May gives a recipe "To make a Bisk or Batalia Pie", which instructs: John Nott's 1723 "The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary" gives a recipe for battalia pie with fish: