Haggis

The author of this book is a regular customer at a pal’s restaurant / bar. The book is described as “the world’s first cross-referenced international cookbook/encyclopedia. Passion of a FOODIE uses more than five languages to let you know what’s cooking from A to Z.” (link)

On Thursday the author approached our table and to the mirth and laughter of many recited her brief definition and description of Haggis.

I was left wondering what cherished colleagues would have thought, so with Heidemarie’s kind permission I repeat her entry here …

HAGGIS: Scottish Cooking = It is the much talked about savoury pudding of Scotland, which Robert Burns, their national poet hero, immortalized it in his satirical writing ‘Ode to a Haggis’.
It is traditionally served on a silver platter whilst being ushered into the great dining-hall with bagpipes and presented to the Chieftain at Burns Night Supper wherever in the world Scots are gathered to celebrate the anniversary of Burns’s birth on January 25th and the ‘Ode to a Haggis’ is recited.
The chief cuts the haggis in the sign of the cross, and he, the piper and bearer share a drink of Scotch, toasting the accomplished task. (One may need to drink a lot of Scotch before one truly enjoys this dish.)  the topic of haggis has been controversial at times.  It’s contents are a mix of offal (heart, liver, lungs, etc.) onions, oatmeal and suet, which is sewn into the lining of a sheep’s stomach and boiled.  Haggis today is boiled in conventional cooking bags. Even so, it doesn’t sound very appetizing but is not as bad as it sounds.
It can be likened to a crude terrine or sausage, though a good bit of garlic and some herbs would have done wonders for this dish and made it better.
Then of course there is the annual ‘Haggis Shoot’, where clans meet looking to shoot this small, disheveled, horrifying ugly, uneven-legged animal that escapes everyone by romping through the heather and brambles backwards.  So far it has eluded everyone, though a lot of fun is had in trying to find this imaginary creature.  Drinking lots of Scotch whisky might just find it.
I have to admit that haggis is something that I’ve never had the pleasure of tasting 😉

19 thoughts on “Haggis”

  1. G’morgen, Soutie. You should give it a whirl. I prefer the wee beastie a little ripe, like all quality game, and served through an alcoholic haze. But there again, I’m a mere sassenach.

  2. I like Haggis!

    I am also partial to the North Country equivalent, and remember being delighted with a Portuguese version that I encountered while entertaining RAAF customers in Lisbon about 20 years ago. Though I forget the name the restaurant used for it, I still remember the taste. The Squadron Leader loved it too, and since he was the boss, it didn’t really matter that his staff hated it. 😆

    I’ve probably posted this before, a while back, so apologies for the possible perseveration. Call it a senior moment.

  4. Good morning , Soutie.

    I think that Ms Vos is much more of a ‘savoury pudding’ than haggis is and that her apostrophic aberration in para 3 is also a bit off for a published author, unless that’s just you misquoting her.

    That apart, I feel no urge to defend the haggis, given that it is, of course, Roman in origin. It wisnae us. Big boys in togas done it and ran away back to Rome.

    Bearsy, good morning. Thank you for a fine new word for my vocabulary.

  5. Mornin’ all. I must admit to have hunted haggis on many occasions. Elusive little buggers they are too, but well worth the effort for they are very tasty.

    OZ

  6. JM, I didn’t get as far as the “apostrophic aberration” in paragraph 3. The first sentence put me off: “which RB … immortalized it …”

    For those who turn their noses up at the very idea of haggis, may I suggest you look at the French andouillette, but not if you are about to eat.

    http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/blog/120-Toulouse/

  9. At the risk of upsetting Mr Mackie and others of a Caledonian persuasion, there is an item in today’s Telegraph which says that haggis was first eaten in Ancient Greece. 🙂

    I quite like haggis the way my mother-in-law used to do it and Mrs FEEG still does, i.e. as the filling for a baked shepherd’s pie. However, it is not very pleasant either boiled or fried!

  10. Sheona – at one stage of my colourful past, I was an honorary member of the AAAAA. I joined in La Closerie des Lilas, but it’s a long story. 🙂

  12. I used to have it for lunch regularly with mashed neeps and two oatcakes in Aberdeen.
    Cheap cheerful and tasty compared with a sandwich.

  13. sheona I use andouille sausage to make spaghetti putana style, it doesn’t smell here. No doubt came to the USA through the frogs in New Orleans and by the time it gets made up here locally is watered down in its ingredients!

  14. Of course you realise that haggis has only just become legal in the USA again after being banned for twenty years since the BSE crisis! 🙂

  16. Love haggis, pricked all over and cooked in the oven; a scrumptious, crusty outside layer and moist in the middle.

  18. szheona, having looked it up the stuff I buy is raw, very coarse, herbed and spiced but not smoked, but in a man made casing, I doubt they would use the other stuff here, not approved by the USDA! So which it is heavens knows! It is hot rather than smelly.

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