Take white pickled Herrings of one nights watering, and boil them a little: then pill off the skin, and take only the backs of them, and picke the fish cleane from the bones, then take good store of raysins of the Sunne, and stone them, and put them to the fish: then take a warden or two, and pare it, and slice it in small slices from the chore, and put it likewise to the fish: then with a very sharpe shredding knife shred all as small and fine as may be: then put to it good store of currants, sugar, cinamon, slic't dates, and so put it into the coffin with good store of very sweete butter, and so cover it, and leave only a round vent hole on the top of the lid, and so bake it like pies of that nature. When it is sufficiently bak’t, draw it out, and take Claret wine and a little verjuice, sugar, cinnamon and sweete butter, and boil them together; then put it in at the vent hole, and shake the pie a little, and put it againe into the oven for a little space, and so serve it up, the lid being candied over with suger, and the sides of the dish trimmed with suger.
--Gervase Markham, The English Housewife, 1615

Filling
about 12 pickled herring fillets
2 firm pears, peeled, cored and chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup currants
12 dates, sliced
1/4 cup sugar

Syrup
1/2 cup red wine
1 tablespoon verjuice
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Rinse herring and soak in cold water for one hour. Put herring in a sauce pan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil for a few minutes and drain.

Combine all the filling ingredients and break up the herring. Pour into a deep dish pie crust. Cover with top crust and cut a large vent hole in the center.

Bake at 350 for an hour.

Combine syrup ingredients in a small saucepan. Stir until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. When pie is ready, pour syrup slowly into vent hole, sprinkle pie lid with sugar and set back in the oven for 10 minutes. Serve.

Notes:
I used whole pickled herring fillets, which come in huge buckets, because that’s what we had. I’m not sure how much herring you’d need if you’re using the bite-sized pieces that come in the jars.

I think I used Anjou pears, and Cabernet Sauvignon wine.

It’s probably easier to pour the syrup in using a funnel, but I wasn’t thinking too clearly at that point.

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Copyright 2003, Abigail Weiner