Good Friday Fish Pie
Easter Tradition
During medieval times, meat eating was considered to be not at all good for you and caused people to become a too “frisky”. So “fish days” (and lots of them) were introduced. Initially these fell on Fridays and Saturdays. Wednesdays were introduced in the 15th century. But this was not good news for the poorer population as they did not have easy access to fresh fish. This meant that for their fish days they were having to use salted fish. So either way, meat or fish, their blood pressure couldn’t have been good. Eventually the number of fish days were reduced to include only Fridays and the period of Lent.
The fish pies we eat today have their origins back in medieval times when they were made with eels, herrings or salmon. The use of dried food was dropped as was the paste or pastry topping.