stargazy pie

For some reason, though, Stargazy pie is famous.

A traditional Cornish pilchard dish is stargazy pie.

Stargazy pie is a pastry-based fish pie which, by tradition, is filled with whole pilchards.

Stargazy pie is an occasional festive Cornish dish with the heads of fish standing on their tails, originally pilchards, piercing a pastry crust.

One famous local fish dish is Stargazy pie, a fish-based pie in which the heads of the fish stick through the piecrust, as though "star-gazing".

The main course was a crayfish and rabbit stargazy pie and, for dessert, a perry jelly with summer fruits with an elderflower ice-cream.

There are several variations on it, but all versions of Stargazy Pie involve sardines, and all feature their Clupeidae heads poking up from under the crust.

A legend surrounding stargazy pie, along with the other unusual pies of Cornwall, is that they were the reason that the Devil never came to Cornwall.

Sample Stargazy Pie at Tom Bawcock's Eve in Mousehole (Eyewitness account of the celebration)

I was surprised to read in Mark Hix's recipe for stargazy pie (Magazine, 5 May) that crayfish "are classed as vermin and in need of culling".

The recipes for the stargazy pie are all topped with a pastry lid, generally shortcrust but sometimes puff pastry, through which the fish heads and sometimes tails protrude.

He also went on to confirm that the origins of the festival dated back to pre-Christian times, though it is unclear at what time the stargazy pie became part of the festivities.

Stargazy pie (sometimes called starrey gazey pie or other variants) is a Cornish dish made of baked pilchards, along with eggs and potatoes, covered with a pastry crust.

During this festival Stargazy pie (a mixed fish, egg and potato pie with protruding fish heads) is eaten and depending on the year of celebration a lantern procession takes place.

Listening to him talk about his career over a meal of stargazy pie with red peppers, I kept thinking that, although we were about the same age, we couldn't have come from more different backgrounds.

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.

Although there are a few variations with different fish being used, the unique feature of stargazy pie is fish heads (and sometimes tails) protruding through the crust, so that they appear to be gazing skyward.

The celebration and memorial to the efforts of Tom Bawcock sees the villagers parading a huge stargazy pie during the evening with a procession of handmade lanterns, before eating the pie itself.

Based on the legend of Cornish fisherman Tom Bawcock and the stargazy pie, it tells the tale of a cat who goes with its owner on a fishing expedition in rough seas.

Notably, Antonia Barber points out that stargazy pie was a staple of Mousehole diet before Tom's heroic fishing expedition, however, whereas according to tradition it dates from his return and legendary catch.

In the children's book, The Lighthouse Keeper's Cat by Ronda and David Armitage, the protagonist's favourite dish is stargazy pie, and he is rewarded with one at the end.

Nasty with unpredictability and generally greeted with both horror and delight, the sardine-packed Stargazy Pie, not unlike Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson's "Royal Tenenbaums," is a spectacular, witty surprise and guarantees to kindle conversation at your next dinner party.

The phrase “Real British” adorns the menu, while a wall map of the United Kingdom is adorned with not place names but representative regional dishes: stargazy pie for Cornwall, soda bread for Belfast, neeps and tatties for the Highlands, and so on.

The main course of the second series of the Great British Menu was won by Mark Hix, head chef at The Ivy in London, with a variation on stargazy pie, which combined rabbit and crayfish for the filling, poking some crayfish through the pie crust.

According to the tough British food writer Jane Grigson, Stargazy pie (sometimes spelled "Stargazey") is a Cornish creation traditionally made on Tom Bawcock's Eve, two days before Christmas, commemorating the night on which brave Bawcock went to sea to find sustenance for his foodless hometown of Mousehole.