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
Cornish mythology the fish was put into a big pie, and the pie called "Stargazy pie". The Merry Maidens stone circle at St Buryan: the local myth about the creation of the stones suggests that nineteen maidens were turned into stone as punishment for dancing on a Sunday. ("Dans Maen" translates as Stone Dance.) The pipers, two megaliths some distance north-east of the circle, are said to be the petrified remains of the musicians who played for the dancers. A more detailed story explains why the Pipers are so far from the Maidens - apparently the two pipers heard the church clock