Haggis

File:HaggisUncooked CopyrightKaihsuTai.JPG

an uncooked small haggis

Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish.

Preparation

There are many recipes for haggis, most of which have in common the following ingredients: sheep's "pluck" (offal) (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours.

Haggis somewhat resembles stuffed intestines (pig intestines otherwise known as chitterlings or the kokoretsi of traditional Greek cuisine), sausages and savory puddings of which it is among the largest types. As the 2001 English edition of the Larousse Gastronomique puts it, "Although its description is not immediately appealing, haggis has an excellent nutty texture and delicious savoury flavour."

Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a casing rather than an actual stomach.

Haggis is widely available in supermarkets in Scotland (and in some parts of England) all the year round, with cheaper brands normally packed in artificial casings, rather than stomachs, just as cheaper brands of sausages are no longer stuffed into animal intestines. Sometimes haggis is sold in tins, which can simply be microwaved or oven-baked. Some supermarket haggis is largely made from pig, rather than sheep, offal.

Since the 1960s various Scottish shops and manufacturers have created vegetarian haggis for those who do not eat meat. These substitute various pulses and vegetables for the meat in the dish. Since both the offal-based and the vegetarian haggis have wide variations in flavor depending on the recipe used, it would be difficult to demonstrate that the two varieties do or do not taste alike.

History

The haggis is frequently assumed to be Scottish in origin though there is little evidence for this. It appears that the Ancient Romans made products of the haggis type. A kind of primitive haggis is referred to in Homer's Odyssey, in book 20, when Odysseus is compared to "a man before a great blazing fire turning swiftly this way and that a stomach full of fat and blood, very eager to have it roasted quickly." Haggis was "born of necessity, as a way to utilize the least expensive cuts of meat and the innards as well" (Andrew Zimmern). In fact, in times of famine people would eat whatever it was that they could get their hands on, which is how all those fascinating ingredients became a part of Scottish tradition.

Clarissa Dickson Wright repudiated the assumption of a Scottish origin for haggis, claiming that it "came to Scotland in a longship [in other words from Scandinavia] even before Scotland was a single nation." . Dickson-Wright further cites etymologist Walter William Skeat as further suggestion of possible Scandinavian origins: Skeat claimed that the hag– part of the word is derived from the Old Norse hoggva or the Icelandic haggw, meaning 'to hew' or strike with a sharp weapon, relating to the chopped-up contents of the dish.

Dickson Wright suggests that haggis was invented as a way of cooking quick-spoiling offal near the site of a hunt, without the need to carry along an additional cooking vessel. The liver and kidneys could be grilled directly over a fire, but this treatment was unsuitable for the stomach, intestines, or lungs. Chopping up the lungs and stuffing the stomach with them and whatever fillers might have been on hand, then boiling the assembly — likely in a vessel made from the animal's hide — was one way to make sure these parts did not go to waste.

In the absence of hard facts as to haggis' origins, popular folklore has provided more fanciful theories. One is that the dish originates from the days of the old Scottish cattle drovers. When the men left the highlands to drive their cattle to market in Edinburgh the women would prepare rations for them to eat during the long journey down through the glens. They used the ingredients that were most readily available in their homes and conveniently packaged them in a sheep's stomach allowing for easy transportation during the journey. Other speculations have been based on Scottish slaughtering practices. When a Chieftain or Laird required an animal to be slaughtered for meat (whether sheep or cattle) the workmen were allowed to keep the offal as their share.

Use

Haggis is traditionally served with "neeps and tatties" (Scots: swede, yellow turnip or rutabaga and potatoes; these are boiled and mashed separately) and a "dram" (a glass of Scotch whisky). However, it might perhaps be more accurate to describe this as the traditional main course of a Burns supper, since on other occasions haggis may be eaten with other accompaniments. Whisky sauce (made from thickened stock and Scotch whisky) has recently been developed as an elegant addition.

Recitation of the poem 'Address to a Haggis' by Robert Burns is an important part of the Burns supper.

Haggis can be served in Scottish fast-food establishments deep fried in batter. Together with chips, this comprises a "haggis supper." A "haggis burger" is a patty of fried haggis served on a bun, and a "haggis bhaji" is another deep fried variant, available in some Indian restaurants in Glasgow. Higher class restaurants sometimes serve chicken breast stuffed with haggis which is often referred to as "Chicken Jacobite"; haggis can also be used as a substitute for minced beef in various recipes.

Another modern haggis-based dish is 'Flying Scotsman', chicken stuffed with haggis . This dish is also known as Balmoral Chicken when the chicken is stuffed with haggis and also wrapped in bacon.

Haggis is traditionally served with the Burns supper on the week of January 25, when Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns, is commemorated. He wrote the poem Ode Tae a Haggis, which starts "Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!" During Burns's lifetime haggis was a popular dish for the poor, as it was very cheap, being made from leftover, otherwise thrown away, parts of a sheep (the most common livestock in Scotland), yet nourishing.

Drinks with haggis

Scotch whisky is often asserted to be the traditional accompaniment for haggis, though this may simply be because both are traditionally served at a Burns supper. Warren Edwardes of Wine for Spice notes that haggis is spicy and therefore recommends refreshing semi-sparkling wines to drink with haggis with increasing level of sweetness depending in the spiciness of the haggis: whisky, with its high alcohol level, can exaggerate spice rather than complement it.. Haggis-maker MacSween conducted a taste-test [1], in which it confirmed that whisky is a proper accompaniment, and adds that lighter-bodied, tannic red wines, such as those made from the Barbera grape, are also suitable, as are strong, powerfully flavoured Belgian beers, such as Duvel and Chimay Blue.

Use outside Scotland

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Haggis spread with oat cakes in the U.S.

Haggis is a popular with expatriate American Scots due to the strong connotations it has with Scottish culture, especially for Burns Suppers. However, currently the import of Haggis to the USA is illegal, in a measure that dates back to the BSE scare of 1989. This is due to haggis' offal ingredients such as sheep lungs. The British Food Standards Agency disputes these concerns, and claims there is no reason for the import of haggis to be restricted.

Entertainment

File:Rabbie Haggis!.jpg

A haggis on a Robert Burns plate.

A fictional Wild Haggis, Haggis scoticus, next to a prepared specimen, as displayed at the Glasgow Kelvingrove Gallery.

Haggis is an amusing subject for many people. Along with some other foods associated with a specific country or region (such as Australia's Vegemite, Minnesota's lutefisk, or Scandinavia's salmiakki), it's perceived to be loved in its home country and loathed by the rest of the world.

Many tourists are also duped (or nearly duped) by Scottish pranksters attempting to lead them on a 'Wild Haggis Hunt'. The Scotsman newspaper's web site runs an annual Haggis Hunt [2].

Wild haggis

A fictional Wild Haggis specimen, Haggis scoticus, as displayed in the Glasgow Kelvingrove gallery, next to a prepared example.

Wild Haggis (Haggis scoticus) is a fictional creature said to be native to the Scottish Highlands. It is comically claimed to be the source of haggis, a traditional Scottish dish that is in fact made from the innards of sheep.

According to some sources, the wild haggis's left legs are of different length than its right legs, allowing it to run quickly around the steep mountains and hillsides which make up its natural habitat, but only in one direction. It is further claimed that there are two varieties of haggis, one with longer left legs and the other with longer right legs. The former variety can run clockwise around a mountain (as seen from above) while the latter can run anticlockwise. The two varieties coexist peacefully but are unable to interbreed in the wild because in order for the male of one variety to mate with a female of the other, he must turn to face in the same direction as his intended mate, causing him to lose his balance before he can mount her. As a result of this difficulty, differences in leg length among the Haggis population are accentuated.

The notion of the wild Haggis is widely believed, though not always including the idea of mismatched legs. According to a survey released on 26 November 2003, one-third of U.S. visitors to Scotland believed the wild Haggis to be a real creature.

The telling of wild Haggis stories is not entirely confined to Scotland - for example, reports tell of a small Haggis population introduced to Nevada.

Haggis is also used in a sport called haggis hurling, throwing a haggis as far as possible. The present Guinness World Record for Haggis Hurling has been held by Alan Pettigrew for over 22 years. He threw a 1.5 lb Haggis an astonishing 180 feet, 10 inches on the island of Inchmurrin, Loch Lomond, in August 1984.

Following his victory in The Masters golf tournament in 1988, Scottish golfer Sandy Lyle chose to serve Haggis at the annual Champions Dinner before the 1989 Masters.

Variations

Dishes similar to haggis are found in a number of other cultures. Some similar dishes include:

• Bahur, Bulgarian sausage made from rice and pork liver and heart
• Balkenbrij from the Netherlands
• Bopis from the Philippines, made from pork minus the casing
• Boudin, an Acadian/Cajun sausage made with pork offal and rice
• Buchada from northeast of Brazil, in which goat's intestines are filled with pieces of liver, heart, blood, etc... cooked then served with white rice.
• Camaïot, a Balearic Islands sausage related to sobrassada made from pork offal, coarsely minced, and boiled into pork skin from the leg
• Chireta from Aragonese valleys of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza, and Girella from Catalan valley of Pallars, both made by boiling inside sheep intestines a mixture of rice and sheep offal, mainly lungs and heart
• Drob from Romania, made from sheep's organs, mixed with spices and herbs and wrapped in the sheep's stomach (or rarely, in a thin dough), prepared especially for Easter
• Garnatálg, an intestine and fat dish from the northern Faroe Islands.
• Ghammeh (aka kroush), from Lebanon, sheep stomach stuffed with rice, garlic, onions, pine nuts, minced lamb meat and spices, usually served with a soup that has similar ingredients to the fillings.
• Goetta
• Hogs Pudding or Groats Pudding from Devon & Cornwall containing oats and spiced pork offal
• Jaternica or hurka, from Slovakia. Very similar to Bulgarian Bahur, made with rice and mixed pork bowels. Known as hurka in Hungary.
• Kaszanka from Poland, closely resembling haggis despite its very different ingredients of buckwheat and pig's blood
• Kepeninė from Lithuania made from animal's (most frequently pig's) liver, lungs and some fat, all that stuffed into pig's large intestines.
• Kishka, a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish kosher dish consisting of a mixture of meal,meat and spices stuffed in a beef intestine or a sewn pocket made of poultry neck skin
• Knipp (Speise) from Bremen and Lower Saxony, north Germany. Made with any animal leftovers, spiced with salt, pepper and thickened with cereal. Served in either a sausage or in slices usually with fried potatoes and bacon. Tastes exactly the same as Scottish haggis.
• Kraujiniai vėdarai from Lithuania, Samogitia made from pig's blood and wheet grains, stuffed into pig's large intestines.
• Lungemos (Lungmush) Norway. Similar to haggis. Pork, Beef meat, Lung and Heart. Eaten with Lefse or potatoes, mashed or boiled
• Montalayo from Mexico, which is prepared from sheep or goat offal in a manner very similar to haggis
• Pölsa from Sweden, made from beef
• Saumagen from Western Germany, made with pork
• Slátur, an Icelandic cooked sheep's stomachs filled with blood, fat, and liver
• Stippgrütze from Westphalia, Germany, made from barley soup, pork or beef meat and entrails, fat, spiced with salt, piment, pepper, stuffed into a glass jar or into synthetic sausage skin. Pan-fried before served and eaten together with bread or pan-fried potatoes.
• Švargl in Croatia and Serbia, made from pork
• Tlačenka, from the Czech Republic. Similar to haggis, but from pork.
• Tripas from Portugal made from animal's entrails and is served with beans and rice.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Barham, Andrea (2005). The Pedant's Revolt: Why Most Things You Think Are Right Are Wrong. Michael O'Mara Books Ltd. ISBN 1843171325
• Davidson, Alan (2006). The Oxford Companion to Food. UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192806815
• Dickson Wright, Clarissa (1998). The Haggis: A Little History. Pelican Publishing Company. ISBN 1565543645
• Kirkpatrick, Betty. (2005). Haggis, Hogmanay and Halloween. Crombie Jardine Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1905102327
• Robuchon, Joël and Prosper Montagne (2001). Larousse Gastronomique. New York, NY: Clarkson Potter. ISBN 978-0609609712

External links

• Video Documentary of History of Haggis in America
• Haggis Recipe
• Alton Brown's Haggis Recipe
• Belief in the Wild Haggis
• Haggis Hurl

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