Fish pie, also known as fisherman's pie, is a traditional

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

dish.

Origins

According to ''

Cook's Illustrated ''Cook's Illustrated'' is an American cooking magazine published every two months by the America's Test Kitchen company in Brookline, Massachusetts. It accepts no advertising and is characterized by extensive recipe testing and detailed instruct ...

'', the dish likely was created as a dish for

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...

that made use of fish scraps. John Murrell's 1615 '' A New Booke of Cookerie'' contained recipes for eel and carp pies that called for scraps. Jessup Whitehead's 1889 ''The Steward’s Handbook and Guide to Party Catering'' instructs the cook to poach the fish, then drain it and cover it in cream before baking.

Ingredients

The pie is usually made with fresh and smoked fish (for example

cod Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...

haddock The haddock (''Melanogrammus aeglefinus'') is a saltwater ray-finned fish from the family Gadidae, the true cods. It is the only species in the monotypic genus ''Melanogrammus''. It is found in the North Atlantic Ocean and associated seas wher ...

, salmon or

halibut Halibut is the common name for three flatfish in the genera '' Hippoglossus'' and '' Reinhardtius'' from the family of right-eye flounders and, in some regions, and less commonly, other species of large flatfish. The word is derived from ''h ...

) or seafood in a

white sauce White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

or cheddar cheese sauce made using the milk the fish was poached in. Hard boiled eggs are a common additional ingredient. Parsley or

chives Chives, scientific name ''Allium schoenoprasum'', is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae that produces edible leaves and flowers. Their close relatives include the common onions, garlic, shallot, leek, scallion, and ...

are sometimes added to the sauce. It is oven-baked in a deep dish but is not usually made with the shortcrust or puff

pastry Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" sugges ...

casing that is associated with most savoury pies (e.g.

steak and kidney pie Steak and kidney pie is a popular British dish. It is a savoury pie filled principally with a mixture of diced beef, diced kidney (which may be beef, lamb, veal or pork) and onion. Its contents are generally similar to those of steak and kidney p ...

). In place of a pastry casing enclosing the pie, a topping of

mashed potato Mashed potato or mashed potatoes (American and Canadian English), colloquially known as mash (British English), is a dish made by mashing boiled or steamed potatoes, usually with added milk, butter, salt and pepper. It is generally served as a ...

es (sometimes with cheese or vegetables such as

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onio ...

s and leeks added) is used to cover the fish during baking. The dish is sometimes referred to as "fisherman's pie" because the mashed potato topping is similar to that used for

shepherd's pie Shepherd's pie, cottage pie, or in its French version hachis Parmentier is a savoury dish of cooked minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked. The meat used may be either previously cooked or freshly minced. The usual meats are beef or la ...

Royal fish pie

Gifts of fish pie to the king were a common tradition for various occasions. In a

Lenten Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...

tradition, the town of Yarmouth was required to bake 100 herrings into two dozen pies and send them to the king.Chambers Book of Days - February 24th, FISH AND FISH PIES IN LENT
/ref> The prior of

Llanthony Llanthony (, cy, Llanddewi Nant Honddu ) is a village in the community of Crucorney on the northern edge of Monmouthshire, South East Wales, United Kingdom. Location Llanthony is located in the Vale of Ewyas, a deep and long valley with ...

, Gloucester, baked

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

s and carp into a pie as a gift to Henry VIII in 1530. In 1752 one was sent to the Prince of Wales. The tradition was also recorded during the reign of Queen Victoria.

Gallery

File:Baked stargazy pie.jpg, The

stargazy pie Stargazy pie (sometimes called starrey gazey pie, stargazey pie and other variants) is a Cornish dish made of baked pilchards (sardines), along with eggs and potatoes, covered with a pastry crust. Although there are a few variations using othe ...

is a traditional Cornish pie made with the heads of

pilchard "Sardine" and "pilchard" are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring family Clupeidae. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century, a folk etymology says it comes from the ...

s protruding through the crust. File:Fish pie.JPG, Fish pies are also popular in parts of Russia. File:Fish Pie with Sweet Potato Topping.jpg, Fish pie with sweet potato topping

Notes

References

* Murdoch (2004
''Essential Seafood Cookbook''
Pies, casseroles and bakes, pp. 254–295. Murdoch Books. .

External links

How to cook perfect fish pie
''The Guardian'', 27 January 2011. * Recipes fo
luxury fish pie
an
fisherman's pie
from the BBC Food website. {{British pies British pies New Zealand pies Fish dishes Potato dishes Savoury pies British seafood dishes