What You Need To Know About Sardines

Perhaps, aside from the fact that we were born to have that natural liking to sardines, another reason why we appreciate canned sardine and other sardine recipes so much is we believe in myths. Yes, you read that right. For your information, there's this English recipe called the Stargazy pie from Cornwall that most of us view as "legendary" in a sense.

The story behind the dish is this: Long time ago in the village of Mousehole, Cornwall, there was a terrible storm and that no fishermen could leave the quay to fish. Soon, the village was swept with famine. A man named Tom Bawcock risked his life to go out and fish and managed to come back with enough fish to feed the village until the storm was over. All the fish he caught was put into a big pie, and that pie was called "Stargazy pie".

Now, Stargazy pie is still served in households. The pie is traditionally eaten during the holiday of Tom Bawcock festival's Eve (oh come on, you should know this already).

Frankly, Stargazy pie is made of baked pilchards and other fishes, covered with a pastry crust. Here's a simple recipe:

You'll need:

One 8" shallow pie dish
6 to 8 pilchard.
2 eggs.
3 bacon.
One medium sized onion.
ready prepared frozen pasty


Here's what you should do with the ingredients:

Firstly, clean the fish. Then, finely chop the onion and the bacon pieces. Place all these in your ready prepared frozen pasty (make sure that the pilchards are arranged with their tails toward the center of the pie and their heads poking up through the crust). Roll one half down to thickness sufficient to cover the base of your pie dish. Cut off the overlapped edges. Coat the edge with either milk or water to ensure the pasty lid will stick.

Place in the middle of a pre-hearted oven gas mark 6, 200 c for around 30 minutes, until golden brown.