Stargazy pie Hunt explains that the Devil crossed the River Tamar to Torpoint. The chapter, entitled "The Devil's Coits, etc", reasons that the Devil discovered the Cornish would put anything in a pie and decided to leave before they took a fancy to a "devilly" pie, returning to Devon. The original pie in the legend included sand eels, horse mackerel, pilchards, herring, dogfish and ling along with a seventh fish. In a traditional pie, the primary ingredient is the pilchard (sardine), although mackerel or herring is used as a substitute. Richard Stevenson, chef at The Ship Inn in Mousehole, suggests that any
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: