Stargazy pie during a very stormy winter. According to the modern festival, which is combined with the Mousehole village illuminations, the entire catch was baked into a huge stargazy pie, encompassing seven types of fish and saving the village from starvation. The story of Bawcock was popularised by Antonia Barber's children's book "The Mousehole Cat", which featured the stargazy pie. In 2007 contestant Mark Hix won the BBC's "Great British Menu" with a variant of the dish. Stargazy pie is a pastry-based fish pie which, by tradition, is filled with whole pilchards. Critically, the pilchards must retain their heads, which then poke
Fish pie mashed potatoes (sometimes with cheese or vegetables such as onions and leeks added) is used to cover the fish during baking. The dish is sometimes referred to as "fisherman's pie" because the topping is similar to that of shepherd's pie, in that it uses mashed potatoes. The royal seafood tradition of England started in the time of Henry I, crowned in 1100, when cooks rolled crust over an annual Christmas lamprey pie. A separate tradition of Lenten fish pie required Yarmouth cooks to send the king two dozen pies containing 100 herrings. The customary gifts of fish in crust prevailed