Haggis
Type | Pudding |
---|---|
Place of origin | Scotland |
Associated cuisine | Scottish |
Main ingredients | Sheep's heart, liver and lungs, and stomach (or sausage casing); onion, oatmeal, suet, spices |
Haggis (
It is believed that food similar to haggis—perishable offal quickly cooked inside an animal's stomach, all conveniently available after a hunt—was eaten from ancient times.[3][4][5]
Although the name "hagws" or "hagese" was first recorded in England c. 1430, the dish is considered traditionally of Scottish origin. It is even the national dish,[6] as a result of Scots poet Robert Burns' poem "Address to a Haggis" of 1786. Haggis is traditionally served with "neeps and tatties", boiled and mashed separately, and a dram (a glass of Scotch whisky), especially as the main course of a Burns supper.
History and etymology
Haggis is popularly assumed to be of
from an English cookbook also of c. 1430.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 "
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":[10] "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)
Food writer Alan Davidson suggests that the ancient Romans were the first known to have made products of the haggis type.[3] Haggis was "born of necessity, as a way to utilize the least expensive cuts of meat and the innards as well".[4]
Clarissa Dickson Wright says that it "came to Scotland in a longship [i.e., from Scandinavia] even before Scotland was a single nation".[11] She 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[12] (höggva meaning 'to chop' in modern Icelandic[13]), Modern Scots hag, meaning 'to hew' or strike with a sharp weapon, relating to the chopped-up contents of the dish.
In her book The Haggis: A Little History, 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.[5] The liver and kidneys could be grilled directly over a fire, but this treatment was unsuitable for the stomach, intestines, or lungs.[5] Chopping up the lungs and stuffing the stomach with them and whatever fillers might have been on hand, then boiling the assembly – probably in a vessel made from the animal's hide – was one way to make sure these parts were not wasted.[5]
Folklore
This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2018) |
In the absence of hard facts as to haggis' origins, popular folklore has provided some notions. One is that the dish originates from the days of the old Scottish
A joke sometimes maintained is that a haggis is
Modern use
Haggis is traditionally served as part of the Burns supper on or near January 25, the birthday of Scotland's national poet Robert Burns. Burns 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 sheep otherwise discarded.
Haggis is widely available in supermarkets in Scotland all year, with cheaper brands normally packed in artificial casings, rather than stomachs. Sometimes haggis is sold in tins or a container which can be cooked in a microwave or conventional oven. Some commercial haggis is largely made from pig, rather than sheep, offal.
Haggis is often served in Scottish fast-food establishments, in the shape of a large sausage[17][18][19] and deep fried in batter. Together with chips, this comprises a "haggis supper".[18][19] 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. Haggis can be used as an ingredient in other dishes, even pizza, rather than the main part of a dish.[20][21][22]
A traditional haggis recipe describes haggis as "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 boiled". Ingredients are sheep stomach, heart and lungs of one lamb, onions, oatmeal, salt, pepper, stock, and water, with optional ingredients dried coriander, cinnamon, and nutmeg. It can be boiled, baked, or deep fried.[23]
In the north-east of Scotland, from Aberdeen northwards, in addition to the customary neeps and tatties, haggis is commonly served with
Vegetarian
Outside Scotland
Haggis remains popular with Scottish immigrants in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, owing to the strong influence of Scottish culture, especially for
Legality
In 1971, it became illegal to import haggis into the US from the UK due to a ban on food containing sheep lung, which constitutes 10–15% of the traditional recipe.[28] The ban encompasses all lungs, as fluids such as stomach acid and phlegm may enter the lung during slaughter.[29] The situation was further complicated in 1989 when all UK beef and lamb was banned from importation to the US due to a BSE crisis.[28] In 2010, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Agriculture stated that they were reviewing the ban on beef and lamb products, but that the ban on food containing sheep lung would remain in force.[28] The ban on importing British Lamb to the US was finally lifted in 2022.[30]
As haggis cannot be exported to the United States, it is instead made there, sometimes by Scottish companies. In one such use, which is stated to be otherwise the same 150-year-old recipe having the same ingredients as in Scotland, sheep lung is not used and the casing is artificial rather than stomach.[31]
See also
References
- Notes
- ^ a b "haggis". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.) First recorded as "hagws" "Now considered specially Scottish, but a popular dish in [early] English cookery"
- ^ Montagné, Prosper (2001). Larousse Gastronomique. p. 592.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-280681-5.
- ^ a b Andrew Zimmern
- ^ ISBN 1-56554-364-5.
- ^ "Food and Drink in Scotland – Scottish Cuisine". Scotland.org.
- ^ "Liber Cure Cocorum: Parallel Transcription/Translation". www.pbm.com.
- ^ Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. 1999.
- ISBN 0-415-96943-3.
- ^ Markham, Gervase (1631). The English House-wife, Containing the Inward and Outward Vertues Which Ought to Be in a Compleate Woman (4 ed.). John Harison. p. 240.
- ISBN 1-84317-132-5.
- ^ The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, 1996. Retrieved on 29 June 2009
- ^ An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Page 309, Richard Cleasby, Guðbrandur Vigfússon, George Webbe Dasent – 1874
- ^ "American tourists believe Haggis is an animal", guardian.co.uk, 2003-11-27.
- ^ "Traditional Ball Haggis (1kg) – Ramsay of Carluke".
- ^ "The Jewish Chronicle ePaper". thejc.newspaperdirect.com.
- ^ "A guide to haggis". BBC Good Food.
chip shop-friendly haggis sausages specially shaped for deep-frying
- ^ ISBN 9781628732207. Retrieved 2016-04-20.. Some...serve the traditional large round haggis puddings though these tend to be too large for most appetites and some find them too spicy.
A popular chip-shop dish throughout Scotland is the haggis supper, which is a long haggis pudding, shaped like a sausage, served with chips
- ^ a b Ian Irvine (25 January 2013). "You don't have to be Scottish to enjoy haggis". The Independent.
the haggis supper – haggis in the form of a substantial sausage coated in batter and deep-fried till crisp
- ^ Herald Scotland: Braised Beef Cheeks with Haggis Crumble. An example of the use of haggis as an ingredient
- ^ "Macsween | US". www.macsween.co.uk.
- ^ Ranscombe, Peter (2012-01-22). "Scots sell focaccia to Italy – and haggis pizzas to Burns revellers". Scotland on Sunday.
- ^ "Haggis recipe & ingredients".
- ^ Presenters: Euan McIlwraith, Mark Stephen (25 January 2020). "A Robert Burns Special". Out of Doors. 27:54 minutes in. BBC Radio Scotland.
- ^ Sloan, Pip (January 24, 2020). "The best vegan and vegetarian haggis for Burns Night" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
- ^ "Vegetarian haggis sales soar ahead of Burns Night". www.scotsman.com.
- ^ The Guardian (London) 22.01.2015 How to cook the perfect vegetarian haggis
- ^ a b c "US not ready to lift ban on Scottish haggis". BBC News. 2010-01-26. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
- ^ "The USDA Doesn't Want Us to Eat Lungs". 2014-07-03.
- ^ "British lamb shipped to America for first time in over two decades". 2022-10-08. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions – McKeans – Buy Scottish Haggis Online".
External links
- Alton Brown's Haggis Recipe
- Belief in the Wild Haggis
- How to cook the perfect Burns supper at scotland.org Archived 2012-04-14 at the Wayback Machine
- Haggis, Hail to Thee!- slideshow by Life magazine
- HAGGIS at The Foods Of England
- Address to a Haggis in French on YouTube