haggis-msg - 1/29/08
Scottish haggis recipes. comments on haggis. Both meat and non-meat items cooked in a sheep's stomach or similar container.
NOTE: See also the files: sausages-msg, organ-meats-msg, lamb-mutton-msg, fd-Scotland-msg, pig-to-sausag-art, livestock-msg, butchering-msg.
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From: LIB_JLC at vax1.utulsa.edu
To: markh at risc
Subject: haggis recipes
Date: 1/9/98
Here's a few recipes: one is quite edible, one may be of interest
if you have access to game, and one is traditional. They are from
THE SCOTS KITCHEN: ITS TRADITIONS AND LORE WITH OLD-TIME RECIPES by
F. Marian McNeill (London: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1947), a legacy from
my husband's Campbell grandmother. You can usually get suet, and
sometimes marrow, from a butcher. If you can't acquire marrow,
substitute an equal amount of butter. As you can imagine, haggis
is quite fatty, and may be a bit rich for modern tastes. The fats
do help the assemblage hold together, so if you're going to cut the
amount of fat, be sure not to cut back too much.
HAGGIS ROYAL [From the Minutes of Sederun of the Cleikum Club -
that's what the book says, I've no idea what it means]
Ingredients: Mutton, suet, beef-marrow, bread-crumbs or oatmeal,
anchovies, parsley, lemon, pepper, cayenne, eggs, red wine. [The
anchovies and cayenne are, no doubt, optional]
Three pounds of leg of mutton chopped, a pound of suet chopped, a
little, or rather as much beef-marrow as you can spare, the crumb
of a penny loaf (our own nutty-flavoured browned oatmeal, by the
way, far better)[I'd say 1 to 1 1/2 cups of crumbs or toasted
oatmeal], the beat yolks of four eggs, a half-pint of red wine,
three mellow fresh anchovies boned, minced parsley, lemon grate
(grated peel), white pepper, crystals of cayenne to taste -
crystals alone ensure a perfect diffusion of the flavour - blend
the ingredients well, truss them neatly in a veal caul [stomach],
bake in a deep dish, in a quick oven, and turn out. [I'd suggest
375F for 1/2 hour, then turn down to 350F till done] Serve hot as
fire, with brown gravy, and venison sauce.
DEER HAGGIS
(From the Kitchen of a Highland Chief)
Ingredients: Deer's heart, liver, and suet, coarse oatmeal,
onions, black pepper, salt, paste [pastry]
Boil the heart and a piece of the liver of a deer. When cold,
mince the heart very fine and grate a teacupful of the liver. To
these add a teacupful of coarse oatmeal, previously toasted in the
oven or before the fire, three finely chopped onions, a
tablespoonful of salt, and a strong seasoning of black pepper. Mix
all well together. Put into a pudding-basin, cover with paste as
for a beef-steak pudding, and boil for four hours. Serve in the
basin, very hot. [Basically a top-crust pie]
[The cooking method, I think, is akin to that of cooking pate': you
put the dish either into a double-boiler, or set the dish into a
larger pan of water to boil, or set it into a large pan of water
and put it in the oven, as you would a custard.]
MEG DODD'S HAGGIS [the traditional style everyone thinks of]
"The exact formula by which the Prize Haggis was prepared at the
famous Competition of Haggises held in Edinburgh, when the Cleikum
Haggis carried the stakes"
Ingredients: Sheep's pluck [lungs, heart, and liver] and paunch,
beef-suet, onions, oatmeal, pepper, salt, cayenne, lemon or
vinegar.
Clean a sheep's pluck thoroughly. Make incisions in the heart and
liver to allow the blood to flow out, and parboil the whole,
letting the windpipe lie over the side of the pot to permit the
dishcarge of impurities; the water may be changed after a few
minutes' boiling for fresh water. A half-hour's boiling will be
sufficient; but throw back the half of the liver to boil till it
will grate easily; take the heart, the half of the liver, and part
of the lights [lungs], trimming away all skins and black-looking
parts, and mince them together. Mince also a pound of good beef-
suet and four or more onions. Grate the other half of the liver.
Have a dozen of small onions peeled and scalded in two waters
[twice parboiled] to mix with this mince. Have ready some finely
ground oatmeal, toasted slowly before the fire for hours, till it
is of a light brown colour and perfectly dry. Less than two
teacupfuls of meal will do for this quantity of meat. Spread the
mince on a board and strew the meal lightly over it, with a high
seasoning of pepper, salt, and a little cayenne, first well mixed.
Have a haggis bag (i.e. a sheep's paunch) perfectly clean, and see
that there be no thin part in it, else your whole labour will be
lost by its bursting.
Some cooks use two bags, one as an outer case. Put in the
meat with a half-pint of good beef gravy, or as much strong broth
as will make it a very thick stew. Be careful not to fill the bag
too full, but allow the meat room to swell; add the juice of a
lemon or a little good vinegar; press out the air and sew up the
bag, prick it with a large neelde when it first swells in the pot
to prevent bursting; let it boil slowly for three hours if large.
"This is a genuine Scotch haggis; the lemon and cayenne may be
omitted, and instead of beef-gravy, a little of the broth in which
the pluck is parboiled may be taken. A finer haggis may be made by
parboiling and skinning sheep's tongues and kidneys, and
substituting these minced for the most of the lights, and soaked
bread or crisped crumbs for the toasted meal. There are, moreover,
sundry modern refinements on the above recipe - such as eggs, milk,
pounded biscuit, &c. - but these, by good judges, are not deemed
improvements. Some cooks use the small fat tripes, as in making
lamb's haggis."
Dunstana Talana the Violet
Northkeep, Ansteorra
Jennifer Carlson
Tulsa, Oklahoma
JLC at vax2.utulsa.edu
From: ANDERSJC at howdy.princeton.EDU (JANET ANDERSON - Ext 6639)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Haggis
Date: 27 Mar 1996 13:37:19 -0500
Organization: Princeton University
My home parish (outside Philadelphia) used to have "theme
refreshments" on appropriate Sundays, i.e. on St. David's Day we
would have Welsh delicacies, and on one St. Andrew's Day somebody
provided a (canned) haggis for those who were brave enough to try it.
I love exotic foods and figured it couldn't possibly be as bad as its
reputation, so I tried it.
I was wrong. It was. Once was enough to last me for the rest of my
life.
Dorigen
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: nhanger at windhaven.mv.com (Nancy C. Hanger)
Subject: Re: Haggis
Organization: MV Communications, Inc.
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 15:56:12 GMT
"ld. Ian Gourdon/ MKA: Dan Stratton" <agincort at imperium.net> wrote:
>> Mors Plumatahaggis, lovely haggis, beautiful haggis...
>haggis, like sex, is wonderful when it's good, and when it's not so good,
>it's still pretty good...when served with the proper scotch. still let's
>not forget the third ingredient of a really proper session of the
>'eating of the haggis', which is mashed 'neeps', eh? Ian Gourdon
=Tatties= and neeps. And good whiskey. (Always good whiskey....)
And, as someone who despises liver to the point of gagging when it is
even mentioned, I might add, I =adore= good haggis. Good haggis should
be peppery and dry and a delight to the senses. Some of the best I've
ever had was from a small family butcher's in Inverness. I'm obviously
very lucky not to ever have had bad haggis--I hate to think of the
consequences for my hosts <g>.
I think the lesson here is: don't eat haggis outside of Scotland. But
we already knew that, didn't we?
--Branwyn Mwrheyd--
From: dickeney at access1.digex.net (Dick Eney)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Haggis
Date: 29 Mar 1996 21:50:52 -0500
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA
JANET ANDERSON - Ext 6639 <ANDERSJC at howdy.princeton.EDU> wrote:
>My home parish (outside Philadelphia) used to have "theme
>refreshments" on appropriate Sundays, i.e. on St. David's Day we
>would have Welsh delicacies, and on one St. Andrew's Day somebody
>provided a (canned) haggis for those who were brave enough to try it.
>I love exotic foods and figured it couldn't possibly be as bad as its
>reputation, so I tried it.
>
>I was wrong. It was. Once was enough to last me for the rest of my
>life.
>
Jackson has the gout. Tamar reports that the haggis she had over an open
fire in the mountains overlooking Loch Ness was quite good. And
so was the one I had as an appetizer in Glasgow one evening, but maybe
that was the mild mustard sauce...
|---------Master Vuong Manh, C.P., Storvik, Atlantia---------|
|----------------(dickeney at access.digex.net)-----------------|
From: ejpiii at delphi.com
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Haggis
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 96 22:12:50 -0500
Organization: Delphi (info at delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice)
Well, all the Haggis I tried in UK was great, much to my surprise. I am
normally into really spicy stuff, but it was good. All I have had over
here was pretty bad though.
Eddward
From: corun at access4.digex.net (Corun MacAnndra)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Haggis
Date: 2 Apr 1996 06:55:34 -0500
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA
William Underhill <trode at islandnet.com> wrote:
>Nancy C. Hanger (nhanger at windhaven.mv.com) wrote:
>>And, as someone who despises liver to the point of gagging when it is
>>even mentioned, I might add, I =adore= good haggis. Good haggis should
>>be peppery and dry and a delight to the senses. Some of the best I've
>>ever had was from a small family butcher's in Inverness. I'm obviously
>>very lucky not to ever have had bad haggis--I hate to think of the
>>consequences for my hosts <g>.
>>
>>I think the lesson here is: don't eat haggis outside of Scotland. But
>>we already knew that, didn't we?
>
> Oh, say not so, milady! I have had good, in fact, excellent haggis right
>here (in An Tir). Granted, it was home-made, not boughten, but it was
>definitely outside of Scotland. Of course, there was cock-a-leekie pie,
>taties and bashed 'neeps, as well as a 40 oz. bottle of Glenmorangie for
>after. We even made a point of reading "To A Haggis", which, though not
>period, certainly lent to the general "Scottishness" of the occasion (not
>an event, a family birthday party).
I have been told that there is a law in Scotland that states that haggis
served in restaurants must be made in the intestine rather than the stomach.
So what you are getting is, in essence, a sausage. The intestine casing
would not have the same flavour as the stomach (or tripe as it's called).
I can't verify that this law is on the books, and I don't even recall who
told me at this point. But if true, then it would slant one's opinion of
haggis.
Now I will add that I've never been to Scotland (though that will change),
and have no desire to eat haggis in any form. My Lady, who is in Scotland
now, had occsion to attend the annual Robert Burns dinner at St. Andrews.
The traditional meal is haggis, and she claims it is vile. Still in all,
it's a matter of personal taste.
In service,
Corun
===============================================================================
Corun MacAnndra |
Dark Horde by birth | Gort, Klaatu mirabile dictu
Moritu by choice | from The Day The Earth Spoke Latin
From: s.krossa at aberdeen.ac.uk (Sharon Krossa)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Haggis
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 09:29:45 +0000
Organization: Phuture PhuDs
[My apologies if this is rather a late contribution to this thread: I've
been away from my net connection for many weeks except periodic visits just
long enough to download but not to post replies!]
jan.frelin at pub.MIL.SE (jan frelin) wrote:
>Tracy <treith at hevanet.com> replied:
>
>I beg to differ. On a visit to Edinburgh, we crashed with a couple of the
>locals of the shire of Harpelstane, and they invited us for a dinner of
>Haggis (with 'nips and 'taters) and malt whisky. The whisky helped, I'm
>sure, but I found the dinner quite pleasant. I can recommend to anyone!
It's neeps and tatties... ;-) but oh, how I long for tater-tots! (I wanna
go HOOOOOMMMMMMEEEEE!)
If you like sausages, you will very probably like haggis. If you don't,
well, you've got no taste! ;-) Haggis is simply the Scottish varient on the
sausage theme. No more, no less.
Regarding canned haggis, or any haggis really: You need to read the label
carefully. A surprising number of canned haggis and other haggises (ie, the
ones that come with ingrediants tags) are made with beef, without any
sheep, but including other strange things that have no place being in a
haggis. So read the label, make sure it's made with real sheep! I had a
very embarrassing and disappointing experience with Baxter's canned haggis.
I had brought some home to the USA to show my friends how lovely haggis
was, but instead of getting Grant's haggis, the canned variety I normally
get when a butcher's haggis isn't practical, I bought Baxter's, on the
grounds they were supposed to be this outstanding highland canning company.
Big mistake. It tasted like mediocre beef hash, and nothing at all like
haggis. I tried to tell my friends this wasn't at all like *real* haggis,
but I worry the damage may have been done!
Haggis made by a good butcher is, of course, far superior to any canned
variety, but canned haggis is better than none -- if it's the right brand!
I imagine I shall be getting care packages of Grant's from my Scottish
friends when I return to the USA permanently...
Sharon Krossa, who loves haggis, even the canned sort, and is very
sensitive to slights to the haggisly honour
skrossa at svpal.org (permanent) -or- s.krossa at aberdeen.ac.uk (until June 1996)
From: s.krossa at aberdeen.ac.uk (Sharon Krossa)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Haggis
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 23:41:46 +0000
Organization: Phuture PhuDs
In article <4kube0$5f0 at info.abdn.ac.uk>,
Jim_Dunn at abdn.ac.uk (Jim Dunn) wrote:
>Sharon Krossa (s.krossa at aberdeen.ac.uk) wrote:
>
>> Regarding canned haggis, or any haggis really: You need to read the label
>> carefully. A surprising number of canned haggis and other haggises (ie, the
>> ones that come with ingrediants tags) are made with beef, without any
>> sheep, but including other strange things that have no place being in a
>> haggis. So read the label, make sure it's made with real sheep! I had a
>> very embarrassing and disappointing experience with Baxter's canned haggis.
>> I had brought some home to the USA to show my friends how lovely haggis
>> was, but instead of getting Grant's haggis, the canned variety I normally
>> get when a butcher's haggis isn't practical, I bought Baxter's, on the
>> grounds they were supposed to be this outstanding highland canning company.
>> Big mistake. It tasted like mediocre beef hash, and nothing at all like
>> haggis. I tried to tell my friends this wasn't at all like *real* haggis,
>> but I worry the damage may have been done!
>
>Didn't you mean mediocre mutton hash? I imagine you did check the label,
>even for a firm with the reputation of Baxters! Anyway, that's just me
>teasing.
No no no :) I meant beef hash. There was no mutton, lamb, or sheep of any
kind in the Baxter's product (I hesitate to even call it haggis). If I
recall correctly it had diced potato in it too, or at least by taste it
seemed so. It was most odd. (And yes, the label did say haggis, NOT
stovies!) That experience was the one that taught me to always read the
label. (Proper shocked I was, too -- imagine! Baxter's! And after all their
lovely cosy commercials too...)
>The following is a serious question, though, which I hope
>Sharon will answer. Nowadays, all the haggises I encounter seem to
>contain oatmeal as their main cereal ingredient. However, when I was a
>lad, I believe the typical average haggis contained barley rather than
>oatmeal. Is my memory faulty (or at that age couldn't I tell the
> difference) or is there a regional variation - after all, here I am in
>the North-East of Scotland but I came from the South-West? Or could
>it be that haggises have evolved?
Come now, Jim, you'll know better than I! I've only ever lived in the
North-East of Scotland... erm, I mean to say, the only place in Scotland
I've ever lived is the North-East, and I thought oatmeal was the standard
thing. But then, I only arrived here the first time about 10 years ago! The
best haggis I ever had though (strange as it may seem) was a deep fried one
on the isle of Mull in a little chippy there about 6 years ago. I couldn't
tell you though if it had oats or barley. I don't know why it was so good,
but I've never forgotten it! That was my first fried haggis, and I've been
desperately trying to find one as good ever since... The New Dolphin (off
Union St. up by Holburn Jct) is nae bad, but can't really hold a candle to
that chippy on Mull!
I've dug out "Scottish Cookery" by Catherine Brown (its a cookbook, not a
history book -- I do have some!), though, and she says of haggis:
"15th-century recipes use the liver and the blood of the sheep, while later
recipes in the 17th century, referring to making a 'Haggas Pudding in the
Sheep's Paunch' use a wider variety of ingredients -- parsley, savoury,
thyme, onions, beef, suet, oatmeal, cloves, mace, pepper and salt, sewn up
and boiled; seved with a hole cut in the top and filled with butter melted
with two or three eggs. Another recipe uses a calve's paunch and the
entrails minced together with grated bread, yoks of eggs, cream, spice,
dried fruits and herbs, seved as a sweet with sugar and almonds: while yet
another recipe uses oatmeal steeped and boiled, mixed with spices, raisins,
onions and herbs." Elsewhere she says modern butchers keep secret their
permutations, but her basic recipe that includes sheep pluck, pinhead
oatmeal, suet, onion, salt, pepper, and mixed herbs is "a traditional
recipe which most butchers will tell you is basically what they work from,
though no two of them will produce the same haggis." She doesn't say
anything about barley, maybe its a South-West thing -- it does sound like
there is more room for variation that we thought! But I still say -- not
for beef! (Brown does say people get very picky about how they like their
haggis, so it seems there is reason for the butchers to shun uniformity!
Mark me down under the "no beef in the haggis" column)
Sharon Krossa, wondering why Jim isn't off Software Engineering something
and realizing with shock she's apparently not all alone in Aberdeen!
PS Brown's book lists a bunch of historical cookery sources in the back,
but doesn't tell which were the ones that told about haggis
skrossa at svpal.org (permanent) -or- s.krossa at aberdeen.ac.uk (until June 1996)
From: s.krossa at aberdeen.ac.uk (Sharon Krossa)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Haggis
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 09:29:49 +0000
Organization: Phuture PhuDs
[My apologies if this is rather a late contribution to this thread: I've
been away from my net connection for many weeks except periodic visits just
long enough to download but not to post replies!]
Magorn <mgallehe at dce