Fish pie

Fish pie
TypeSavoury pie
Place of originBritain
Main ingredientsWhite fish, bechamel sauce,
Variationsprawns, hard-boiled eggs, cheese
  •  Wikimedia Commons logo Media: Fish pie

Fish pie, also known as fisherman's pie, is a traditional British dish. The dish is also popular in Australia and New Zealand. A turnover called a fish pie is made in Trinidad and Tobago.

Origins

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

Ingredients

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

Royal fish pie

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. The prior of Llanthony, Gloucester, baked eels 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.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Make Rick Stein's famous fish pie at home". The Australian. 26 June 2026.
  2. ↑ "Jess' Creamy Smoked Fish Pie". The New Zealand Herald. 28 June 2022.
  3. ↑ "Ultimate Fish Pie". Cooking with Ria. 1 October 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dunn, Steve (30 November 2021). "Britain's Coziest Pie". Cook's Illustrated. Retrieved 2022-01-25.
  5. ↑ "Fish Pie in four stops". BBC Good Food. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  6. ↑ "Fantastic fish pie". Jamie Oliver. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  7. ↑ "Mary Berry's easy fish pie". BBC Food. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  8. ↑ Morelli, Olivia (30 April 2020). "Recipe: How to make Richard Corrigan's fish pie at home". Conde Naste Traveller. Condé Nast Britain. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  9. ↑ "Puff Pastry Topped Fish Pie Recipe – Rick Stein's Simple Suppers". Rick Stein. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  10. ↑ Chambers Book of Days - February 24th, FISH AND FISH PIES IN LENT
  11. 1 2 3 Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (2004). Encyclopedia of Kitchen History. Routledge. p. 381. ISBN 978-1-135-45572-9.

References