The story of Bawcock was popularised by Antonia Barber's children's book The Mousehole Cat, which featured the stargazy pie.

Wen morgee brath ad cleard tha path Comed lances for a fry, An then us had a bet o scad an starry gazee py.

Nex cumd fermaads, braa thustee jaads As maad ar oozles dry, An ling an haak, enough to maak a raunen shark to sy!

A aech wed clunk as ealth wer drunk En bumpers bremmen y, An wen up caam Tom Bawcock's naam We praesed un to tha sky.

[2] The celebrity chef Rick Stein suggested also poking the pilchards' tails through the pie crust to give the effect of leaping through water.

[3] In spite of the fact that the British Food Trust describes the dish as being fun as well as amusing to children,[2] it has been listed in "Yuck!

Disgusting things people eat", a lifestyle feature by the New York Daily News based upon the book by an American author, Neil Setchfield.

[7][9][10] An older feast, held by the fishermen towards the end of December, included a pie cooked with different fish to represent the variety of catches the men hoped to achieve in the coming year.

Morton Nance went on to restore the traditional song sung on Tom Bawcock's Eve, played to the local tune "wedding March".

[15][16] The original pie in the legend included sand eels, horse mackerel, pilchards, herring, dogfish and ling along with a seventh fish.

Richard Stevenson, chef at The Ship Inn in Mousehole, suggests that any white fish will work for the filling, while pilchards or herring can be added for the presentation.