Haggis

Information about Scottish Haggis plus a traditional Haggis Recipe

Speciality Dish Scotland - Haggis

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Many view haggis as Scotland’s National dish. It’s certainly one of the most well known Scottish foods made even more famous by Robert Burns, the well know Scottish poet whose birthday is celebrated every year on 25th January – better known as Burns Night – and at which celebrations it is traditional to recite his poem “To a Haggis” whilst serving the dish.

Although there is no definitive proof as to the origin of Haggis, very recent research by a well known English food writer, suggests it may have its roots in Scandinavia – a notion which, considering the other close links as mentioned in the main Scotland Cooking by Country page, actually seems quite feasible.

 

The name “Haggis” is almost certainly related to Nordic names such as Hagga (the Swedish) and Hoggva (Icelandic) both of which mean “to chop” which is appropriate as the ingredients which make up Haggis (mostly sheeps’ offal) are all finely chopped.

Be that as it may, today Haggis is synonymous with Scotland. Whilst he traditional accompaniment to eat with this wonderful dish is ‘neeps and tatties’ - swede and potato boiled and mashed together – and really, that’s all that’s needed .

Today you can buy ready made haggis which only needs reheating for 20 minutes or so, but for those of you who want to have a go at making it from scratch, below is a basic recipe for you to try. Don’t be put off by the ingredients, it really is DELICIOUS.

A word about ‘neeps’
Although in Scotland the word neep is short for turnip, what they actually use is a “yellow turnip” which in other parts of the UK is known as a swede and in the US a rutabaga.

Happy Cooking!

 

Haggis      HT  MC  Scottish  230mins plus soaking

Serves 4      Hot    Offal     Main Course  Dairy Free  Eggless  Scotland  British  Europe

Ingredients

1 Sheep's Stomach
Salt
1 Sheep's Heart
1 Sheep's Liver
225g/8oz Fresh Suet
75g/3oz Oatmeal
1 teasp Salt
½ teasp Black Pepper
½ teasp Cayenne Pepper
½ teasp Nutmeg
180ml/6fl.oz Stock

Instructions

1. Wash the sheep stomach well, rub with salt and rinse thoroughly. Remove the membranes and any excess fat then soak in cold salted water for several hours.

2. Place the sheep's heart and liver in a large saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

3. Chop the heart coarsely and finely chop the liver.

4. Heat a large frying pan (without any fat) add the oatmeal and cook over a medium heat until lightly toasted.

5. In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients (apart from the stomach) until well blended.

6. Turn the stomach inside out, then loosely stuff with the oatmeal mixture, but only to about two-thirds full as the oatmeal expands in cooking.

7. Press any air out of stomach and truss securely. Place the stuffed stomach in a large saucepan, cover with boiling water bring back to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 3 hours, uncovered, adding more boiling water as necessary.

8. Prick stomach several times with a sharp needle when it begins to swell to prevent it from bursting.

9. To serve - drain well, transfer to a warmed platter, remove the trussing strings and serve with a spoon.

Traditionally served with neeps 'n tatties.