haggis

Haggis displayed for sale

Haggis on a platter at a Burns supper

Haggis is a kind of savoury pudding containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a casing rather than an actual stomach.

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".^[1]

The haggis is a traditional Scottish dish, considered the national dish of Scotland as a result of Robert Burns' poem Address to a Haggis of 1787. Haggis is traditionally served with "neeps and tatties" (Scots: Swedish turnip and potato, boiled and mashed separately) and a "dram" (i.e. a glass of Scotch whisky), especially as the main course of a Burns supper. However it is also often eaten with other accompaniments.

History

Haggis is popularly assumed to be of Scottish origin, but there is a lack of historical evidence that could conclusively attribute its origins to any one place.

A serving of haggis, neeps and tatties

The first known written recipe for a dish of the name (as 'hagese'), made with offal and herbs, is in the verse cookbook Liber Cure Cocorum dating from around 1430 in Lancashire, North West England.^[2]

For hagese'.

Þe hert of schepe, þe nere þou take,

Þo bowel noght þou shalle forsake,

On þe turbilen made, and boyled wele,

Hacke alle togeder with gode persole,

The Scottish poem Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy, which is dated before 1520 (the generally accepted date prior to the death of William Dunbar, one of the composers), refers to 'haggeis'.^[3]

Thy fowll front had, and he that Bartilmo flaid; The gallowis gaipis eftir thy graceles gruntill, As thow wald for ane haggeis, hungry gled.

— William Dunbar, Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy

An early printed recipe for haggis appears in 1615 in “The English Huswife” by Gervase Markham. It contains a section entitled “Skill in Oate meale”.^[4]

The use and vertues of these two severall kinds of Oate-meales in maintaining the Family, they are so many (according to the many customes of many Nations) that it is almost impossible to recken all;” and then proceeds to give a description of “oat-meale mixed with blood, and the Liver of either Sheepe, Calfe or Swine, maketh that pudding which is called the Haggas or Haggus, of whose goodnesse it is in vaine to boast, because there is hardly to be found a man that doth not affect them

— Gervase Markham, The English Huswife

There is no precise date for the first preparation of haggis but the earliest recorded consumption of the comparable French dish Andouillette, made with tripe, can be traced back to an actual date in the ninth century – it was served at the coronation of King Louis II in Troyes on 7 September 878.^[5][6]

Food writer Alan Davidson goes back further, stating that the Ancient Romans were the first people known to have made products of the haggis type.^[7] Even earlier, a kind of primitive haggis is referred to in Homer's Odyssey, in book 20, (towards the end of the eighth century BC) 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). Since the internal organs rapidly perish, it is likely that haggis-like preparations have been around since pre-history.

Clarissa Dickson Wright claims that it "came to Scotland in a longship [ie. from Scandinavia] even before Scotland was a single nation."^[8] Dickson-Wright further cites etymologist Walter William Skeat as further suggestion of possible Scandinavian origins: Skeat claimed that the hag– element of the word is derived from the Old Norse haggw or the Old Icelandic hoggva^[9] (höggva in modern Icelandic^[10]), meaning 'to hew' or strike with a sharp weapon, relating to the chopped-up contents of the dish. One theory claims that the name "haggis" is derived from Norman French. Norman French was more guttural than modern French so that the "ch" of "hachis", i.e. "chopped", was pronounced as the "ch" in "loch", giving "haggis". This conjecture, however, is discredited by the Oxford English Dictionary.^[11]

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.^[12]

Folklore

In the absence of hard facts as to haggis' origins, popular folklore has provided some 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.

A fiction sometimes maintained is that a haggis is a small Scottish animal with legs on one side longer than those on the other, so that it can run around the steep hills of the Scottish Highlands without falling over. According to one poll, 33% of American visitors to Scotland believed haggis to be an animal.^[13]

Modern usage

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

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 Address to a Haggis, which starts "Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!" In Burns's lifetime haggis was a common dish of the poor as it was nourishing yet very cheap, being made from leftover parts of a sheep (the commonest livestock in Scotland) otherwise thrown away.

Haggis is widely available in supermarkets in Scotland all 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 or a container which can simply be microwaved or oven-baked. Some supermarket haggis is largely made from pig, rather than sheep, offal.

Haggis is 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. A "haggis pakora" is another deep fried variant, available in some Indian restaurants in Scotland.

A modern haggis variant often served in higher class restaurants is the "Flying Scotsman", which is chicken breast stuffed with haggis. This can in turn be wrapped in bacon to create a dish known as "Chicken Balmoral".http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/610999 ^[14] Haggis can also be used as a substitute for minced beef in various recipes.^{[citation needed]}

Since the 1960s various Scottish shops and manufacturers have created vegetarian haggis, substituting various pulses, nuts and vegetables for the meat in the dish.

Drinks

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 levels of sweetness depending on the spiciness of the haggis: whisky, with its high alcohol level, can exaggerate peppery spice (unlike the capsaicin in chili, which it dissolves) rather than complement it. ^[15]. Haggis-maker MacSween conducted a taste-test^[16] which indicated 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. Edwardes also suggests oloroso as a suitable match for Haggis given oloroso's whisky-like aromas and mouth-feel but with less than half the alcohol. ^[17]

Outside Scotland

Haggis platter at a Burns Supper in the U.S.

Haggis remains popular with expatriate Scots in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, owing to the strong influence of Scottish culture, especially for Burns Suppers. It can easily be made in any country, but is sometimes imported from Scotland.

Since 1971 it has been illegal to import haggis into the US from the UK due to a ban on food containing sheep lung, which constitutes 10 to 15% of the traditional recipe.^[18] The situation was further complicated in 1989 when all UK beef and lamb was banned from importation to the US due to the BSE crisis.^[18] In 2010 a spokeswoman for the US Department of Agriculture stated that they were reviewing the ban on beef and lamb products, but the ban on food containing sheep lung will remain in force.^[18]

Other uses

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

Haggis is used in a sport called haggis hurling, which involves throwing a haggis as far as possible. The present Guinness World Record for haggis hurling has been held by Alan Pettigrew for over 25 years. He threw a 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) haggis 180 feet 10 inches (55.12 m) on the island of Inchmurrin, Loch Lomond, in August 1984.^[19]

On October 8, 2008, competitive eater Eric "Steakbellie" Livingston set a world record by consuming 3 pounds (1.4 kg) of haggis in 8 minutes on WMMR radio in Philadelphia.^[20]

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.^[21]

See also

• Chireta
• Pölsa
• Saumagen, a traditional German dish from the Palatinate region.
• Scrapple
• Soondae
• Skirlie
• White pudding

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Haggis

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Haggis

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Address to a Haggis

• Alton Brown's Haggis Recipe
• Belief in the Wild Haggis
• How to cook the perfect Burns supper at scotland.org
• Haggis, Hail to Thee! - slideshow by Life magazine

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