MealMap #76

A large, oblong, fully enclosed fish pie: a filling of salmon or sturgeon layered with rice or buckwheat, hard-boiled eggs, mushrooms, onions and dill, wrapped in a shell of brioche or puff pastry and baked golden. In the grand version the fillings are stacked — white fish and rice top and bottom, fillets of sturgeon or salmon between — and each layer is separated by thin pancakes so nothing runs together; its most unusual traditional component is the dried spinal marrow of the sturgeon. Humbler versions swap the fish for cabbage or potatoes. One of the great classical chefs carried it west in the early twentieth century and wrote it into his definitive guide to modern cookery, which is how a homely layered pie ended up on grand-hotel menus.

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