Scottish Haggis understand our traditional Scottish dish
August 30, 2009
Haggis is our national dish but one which a lot of Scots will not eat. Reason they don’t like the idea of the foods that go to make up its bulk and taste.
It is said and I believe it that most people would not have even heard of the Haggis if it had not been for our national poet Robert Burns. He referred to it as the Chieftain of the Pudding Race in his poem “Address To The Haggis. Robert Burns died in 1796 but his memory lives on and so does his poem to the haggis which is said on 25th of January each year when we celebrate Burns Night.
We give the full version of the “Address To the Haggis” poem on ScottishJerk.com. There is also a sample format for those wanting to hold a Burns Night Dinner. The template also has the Scottish Grace or Selkirk Grace along with the order of toasts and responses that should be included.
The haggis can also be eaten as a Haggis Supper at local take-away shops. This is simply deep fried haggis with chipped potatoes (French fries outside of Scotland). You can also buy the haggis in many supermarkets although numbers available on the shelf do seem to increase in mid January then fall away again when sales tend to decrease. So what is that makes our Scottish Haggis special?
If you ask a Scot many of them will say that the haggis is a small beaver sized animal that lives wild on the sides of our Scottish highland hills. They have adapted to the steep sided slopes by having shorter legs on one side of its body than the other. Darwin explained this under the survival of the fittest theory by pointing out that this difference in leg length allowed them to run in circles around steep Scottish highland hills. Some travel agents will still try to sell tourists tickets for haggis hunting tours and then take them to the local butchers shop.
In reality the haggis is made up of the cheapest cuts of meat available usually a sheep making it popular for poorer families in ancient times (although venison haggis is eaten in some areas). The main ingredients tend to be oats and several different meats usually mutton, offal (i.e. heart, liver and lungs) all minced (or ground) along with onion and suet all heavily spiced according to different traditions. After mixing it will be placed inside a sheep’s stomach as a lining before being boiled and served usually with neeps (turnip) and boiled potato.
Today you will also find the sheep’s stomach has been replaced with an artificial cellulose casing and several vegetarian versions of the haggis are being made available in supermarkets.
In many countries it will not be possible to get a truly traditional haggis e.g. the USA where the lung of animals has been ruled to be unfit for human consumption. We have covered the haggis in more detail including its role in Burns Night celebrations on our Scottish culture website http://ScottishJerk.com