DIPPIE

I start preparing to make the Dippie, knowing very little about the method.  It is another recipe from my old Cornish Recipes book of the 1920s and I will quote “ boil potatoes and pilchards [or herring] in thin cream” Are the fish filleted? How much is the cream thinned and with what? I set about trying to recreate this dish using a little common sense and my inbuilt Cornishness. The recipe originates from the Penzance area and was commonly made to use up all the cream before factories demanded it to make clotted cream. I would imagine most families had their own versions.

I am using herring. The weather is too rough for pilchards [same family] and I have a supply of herring in my freezer. I decide to fillet 3 of them.

I peel and quarter three medium potatoes and then parboil them until they are half cooked. I decide to add half a chopped shallot. Surely our ancestors would have aded some onion? Then what about parsley? They loved herbs - so would they have added some? If it was in the gardens then they would have!

I then thin the [¼pint + double] cream with half of a made up fish stock pot and pour it over the drained potatoes until they are just covered, then tucked the folded fillets in between the potatoes. Season generously with sea salt and fresh ground pepper and a dash of finely chopped parsley.

I simmered them for around 12 - 15 mins and the smell was delicious. Then spooned it into a bowl. My husband does not like fish so my guinea pig was Mike next door!  “absolutely beautiful” adding “but very rich, although the stock did balance the richness of the cream”.

He ate the whole lot!

I would think a very small portion of Dippie would make a great winter starter. You could even add a dash of something alcoholic? 

Our ancestors needed huge amounts of calories, working in the mines and fields and I visualise large caldrons of this bubbling over an open fire!!  After working hard all day I think they would have chopped the fish heads off, gutted them and throw them in the cream and potatoes!