Fish pie

According to Cook's Illustrated, the dish was likely created to make use of fish scraps during Lent.^[4] John Murrell's [la] 1615 A New Booke of Cookerie contained recipes for eel and carp pies that called for scraps.^[4] Jessup Whitehead's [wd] 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.^[4]

The pie is usually made with fresh and smoked fish (for example, cod, haddock, salmon) or seafood in a Béchamel sauce^[4] or cheddar cheese sauce made using the milk the fish was poached in.^[5] Hard-boiled eggs are a common additional ingredient.^[6][7] Parsley or chives are sometimes added to the sauce. It is mostly topped with mashed potatoes,^[4] (sometimes with cheese or vegetables such as onions and leeks added)^[8] however there are variations with a pastry top.^[9] The dish is sometimes referred to as "fisherman's pie" because the mashed potato topping is similar to that used for shepherd's pie.^[4]

Gifts of fish pie to the king were a common tradition for various occasions. In a Lenten tradition, the town of Great Yarmouth was required to bake 100 herrings into two dozen pies and send them to the king.^[10][11] The prior of Llanthony, Gloucester, baked eels and carp into a pie as a gift to Henry VIII in 1530.^[11] In 1752, one was sent to the Prince of Wales. The tradition was also recorded during the reign of Queen Victoria.^[11]

• Stargazy pie
• Shepherd's pie, an unrelated meat-based dish which also uses potato instead of pastry
• List of pies, tarts and flans