Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Star-Gazy Pie (a favourite Cornish dish). — This pie is thus named because the heads of the fish are usually placed mouth uppermost in the centre of the Lid of the crust, as pigeon's legs are in a pigeon pie, and therefore the fish are supposed to be gazing at the sky or the stars. Take as many fresh herrings or mackerel as will fill a moderate-sized dish. Scale, empty, and open them, and remove the bones. Lay them flat on the table, season the inside of each with salt, cayenne, and chopped parsley, and roll it up neatly. Butter the piedish, and sprinkle upon it a thick layer of finely-grated bread-crumbs, lay in some of the fish, and fill the dish with alternate layers of fish and bread-crumbs. Cover the contents of the pie with a few slices of fat bacon or the fat of a ready-dressed ham, and pour over all six eggs beaten up with two table-spoonfuls of tarragon vinegar, or, if preferred, half a quarter of a pint of cream. Cover the dish with a good crust, and bake the pie in a well-heated oven. Arrange the heads of the fish in the centre of the pastry ; when the pie is baked put a piece of parsley into the mouth of each fish, and serve. Time, one hour to an hour and half. Steaming. — This is a process of cookery which is particularly adapted to very delicate preparations. It is sometimes carried on upon a large scale, and then an apparatus for the special purpose is provided. In ordinary kitchens, and for e very-day dishes, a kitchen steamer will be all that is required. The article of food which is to be steamed should be prepared as for boiling. It should then be placed in a steamer, which has a closely-fitting lid, over a saucepan full of boiling water, and this water should be kept boiling, and should be replenished as it boils away. When any delicate preparation is to be steamed, the cook should on no account boil anything strong and highly flavoured in the vessel under it. For STE (924) STO instance, liquor containing vegetables must not be boiled under a pudding, or the flavour of the latter will be entirely spoilt. If a proper steamer should not be at hand, a substitute may be improvised for steaming puddings, &c., as follows : — Turn a plate upside down in a saucepan, and sunound it with about three inches of fast-boiling water. Place the mould containing the pudding on the plate, cover the saucepan closely, and keep the water gently \ boiling round it, so that it will produce a j continuous supply oi steam. j Stern Meal (see Meal, Stem). Stew, Bachelor's {see Beef, Bachelor's Stew). Stew, English (see English Stew).