Haggis
How to make haggis…
Ingredients:
Set of sheep’s heart, lungs and liver (cleaned by a butcher)
One beef bung (intestine) or sheep’s stomach
3 cups finely chopped suet
One cup medium ground oatmeal
Two medium onions, finely chopped
One cup beef stock
One teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
One teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon mace
Trim off any excess fat and sinew from the sheep’s offal (heart, lungs and liver) Place in a large pan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for an hour or possibly longer to ensure that they are all tender. Drain and cool.
Finely chop the meat (or put through a meat grinder) and combine with the suet, oatmeal, finely chopped onions, beef stock, salt, pepper, nutmeg and mace in a large bowl. Make sure the ingredients are mixed well. Stuff the meat and spices mixture into the beef bung which should be over half full. Then press out the air and tie the open ends tightly with string. Make sure that you leave room for the mixture to expand or else it may burst while cooking. If it looks as though it may do that, prick with a sharp needle to reduce the pressure.
Haggis is traditionally served at Burns’ Suppers along with champit tatties and bashit neeps (mashed potatoes and turnips).
Good going Melanie !! Keep it up !!
Oh Haggis.
My family is a mixture of Scottish and Irish (as a lot of folks are in the South), so more than 15 years ago my sister and I spent part of a summer traveling from hostel to hostel in Scotland. It was an amazing trip and I have a lot of great memories. One thing I remember most is everyone telling me to try haggis, but I couldn’t. I’m a strict vegetarian and I wasn’t willing to drop my beliefs for a one time cultural experience. That’s why I was so excited to find vegetarian haggis at a health food store in Edinburgh. I’m sure it bears no resemblance to the ‘real’ thing, but I certainly did enjoy it.
Melanie, thanks for recommending my posts on twitter over and over. You’ve been super (I almost put supper…I guess all this talk of food is getting to me).
Leanne Ross ( readfaced.wordpress.com & @LeanneRossRF )
I’ve never tried vegetarian haggis, Leanne, but I’ve heard it’s quite good. Happy to support your blog posts and tweet them. Look forward to seeing more from you and will hop over to your blog for a proper visit, too.
Love haggis, I used to add it to all sorts of dishes to give them a bit of a kick. Since I can’t buy it very often I might have a go at making my own, thanks for the recipe. I’ll probably mix it and instead of stuffing go straight to frying as that’s my preferred way to cook it.
I also buy frozen, sliced haggis to fry up at breakfast with bacon, eggs and mushrooms. Yum! I’ve never done it, but haggis would make great stuffing for a chicken. I’m the only one in the house who eats it so most of the time, it’s just a heated slice for me.