Fish Pie---?

[Michael Banks]

I'd like to think that the idea for fish pie was dreamt up by Dr Magnus Pyke. Some of you will remember him as the archetypal "mad scientist" on British TV in the 1970s, but he previously worked at the Ministry of Food, and came up with a number of innovative suggestions for people to make the most of their meagre rations during WWII.

I remember every impressionist in the 70’s doing an impression of him.

[Robert Linford]

Pyke may have dreamt up the idea, but he was a lousy fisherman, owing to a chronic inability to hold the rod still for even a second.


However, he would have stood a chance of catching an octopus - I'll admit that.

[Robert Linford]

Kosminski refused to give his dog fish pie, and was fined for walking an unMouseholed canine.

[Sam Flynn]

Kosminski refused to give his dog fish pie, and was fined for walking an unMouseholed canine.

Blimus! That's excruciating even by your standards, Robert.

[Michael Banks]

Kosminski refused to give his dog fish pie, and was fined for walking an unMouseholed canine.

I wonder if that’s the first combined Jack The Ripper/animal/legal/Cornish pronunciation joke ever? 👍

[Robert Linford]

On the subject of wartime food, here's one :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolton_pie

[Anna Morris]

I knew I could count on everyone to expand my education!

I HAD heard of stargazy pie. Having seen the picture I did not proceed further. I had NOT heard of fish pie but various chefs are preparing it in videos as a traditional food. I was thinking, if it was so traditional, why weren't the poor eating it in JtR's time? MJK had fish and chips for her last meal. Seems like fish pie would have been cheap and filling. It could be made a lot cheaper than the TV chefs make it. Some served pudding and gravy from their open windows in the 1880s. Seems like fish pie would have been served the same if it was invented then.

I caught up on Mousehole. Charming! (J.K. Rowling is a talented writer but she sure got a boost by growing up with colorful place names to draw from.)

The TV chefs seem to use a couple kinds of white fish, salmon and prawns for a real upscale dish. Some of them add boiled eggs. I never understood boiled eggs in a fish pie/casserole. Russian kulebyaka calls for chopped eggs in the salmon mixture but I never put them in.

Thanks, everyone for your educational efforts!

[Cris Malone]

...
This is a recipe section so let me say I cook quite a bit of salmon on a cedar plank which is a Native American tradition. The cedar planks are sold for the purpose so are chemical free, etc. Soak overnight. Put salmon filet on board, skin side down. Rub with clover honey and apply spices of choice. (Can include thin lemon slices, etc. I use a mixed lemon peel spice plus black pepper and Spice Provencal.

Put into gas barbecue, lid down, low heat if heat can be regulated, about 25 minutes, till done. If you can't regulate heat or don't use gas, you'll have to work it out. WHATEVER the heat source, fish MUST be checked about every 5 minutes. If the board begins to burn, spray down fish and board with water. Reduce heat if possible.

All this lends a smoky, cedarwood taste to the fish. I cook quite a bit of it at one time and it heats nicely as leftover, over a gentle steam bath.

We have a similar recipe here that involves carp, except, after everything's done you throw the carp away and eat the cedar board.

[Anna Morris]

We have a similar recipe here that involves carp, except, after everything's done you throw the carp away and eat the cedar board.

I thought that was a special Pennsylvania recipe for scrapple!

(We used to get lots of carp way down the Snake River and pressure cook them to add to the dog's food. They always looked real good but nobody eats them. Except I later learned a gefulte fish processor gets carp at the exact same place for the Jewish delicacy. Reason nobody eats carp, so I am told, is because of the bones.)

(Scrapple, carp, stargazy pie...it doesn't help that this post is followed by one entitled "Ribbons of Flesh.")

[jachim3926]

Hi Anna,
Chris is definitely on the money about carp. It is eaten in Austrlalia, but largely by brave elements of the Asian population.

The the introduction of carp into the various OZ river systems , much of the desirable edible species have been neigh on decimated, due to lack of usual food supllies. For example the Murray River Cod , which is a fine table fish is now very hard to find.

In recent years carp was netted by the ton on the Murray/ Darling rivers and converted into manure for the local farms.

As far as Stargazy Pie is concerned , my half sisters and brother are Cornish and wouldn't touch it with a ten foot barge pole!
Cheers,
Merv

[Chris G.]

On the subject of wartime food, here's one :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolton_pie

Darn it, Linford, you are on to us Scousers!!!! There was a certain Wooltonian -- nothing to do with LORD Woolton -- who inserted into a famous song a dirty reference. Can you or someone else on here guess what it is?????

Darn it, Playmates, there may well be more RipperCon 2018 swag to give away, only here on JtR Forums! An exclusive, as it were: Hmmm... a famous roundabout, a nurse selling poppies from a tray.

First with the answer wins something special. But tell me what that dirty line is first. The Best of British Luck.

[Robert Linford]

Fish and finger pie....something teenagers do at bus stops?

[Anna Morris]

Looks like stargazy pie is kind of a sour cream mustard custard. I never read the recipe before because when I first encountered it I believe it was said the guts were left in the fish. Not in the modern recipe. Don't think I will be making it, though.

[Chris G.]

Fish and finger pie....something teenagers do at bus stops?

That's the reference, in "Penny Lane" -- I don't necessarily regard it as a reference to what happened at bus stops, but rather just an offhand sly and smutty reference that possibly a lot of people who have heard the song didn't realize was in the lyrics. Be glad to send you some goodies if you pm me the Linfordian snail mail address.

Cheers

Chris

[Michael Banks]

Try this one Anna. It looks like you might need a spare week though!

http://bunscuffle.co.uk/2015/12/heston-blumenthals-fish-pie/