So, how many of you have:
a) tried haggis?
b) liked haggis?
c) made haggis?
I’m firmly in the “yum” camp, especially for home-made haggis on oat-cakes, with whiskey as a side.
Any one else?
No, no, and no.
But my two culinary fantasies are to one day sample that delicacy and lutefisk.
I have a can of “pork haggis” given to me by a Scotch client (because customs wouldn’t let her bring in sheep haggis), along with a bottle of redcurrant “haggis sauce”. It claims it is “in skin”, but it’s in a can! What sort of sickness is that?
I will try fixing it sometime this Fall.
So in case you ever think YOU have problems, my mother was Scottish, and my father is Finnish. Not only do I have the dreaded Haggis in my heritage, but on the other side I have the dreaded Lutefisk.
And get this-dad actually LIKES lutefisk, and mom actually LIKED haggis.
Personally, I have always enjoyed the ritual “bringing in the haggis” at Scottish gatherings. Don’t get me wrong, I like to participate in the ritual, but I have never been able to bring myself to eat the stuff. And lutefisk stinks, I can’t say it any other way. Do you know that they soak that stuff in lye before they feed it to you? What’s up with THAT?
I bow to those of you among us that actually like these things. You are obviously a stronger person than I.
So I went to Scotland this summer (Edinburgh), and I figure WTF - I’m in this little diner and I just ordered it up. Came out looking like a fried sausage or something.
Yes I tried it and…YES I LIKED IT!
It was great! I’d eat it again and again…
Just goes to show - never ever ever ask “what’s in this?”
I’m definitely an a) and b). I have usually been the dude in a kilt piping in the haggis, so I haven’t had an opportunity to do c). But I’d like to give it a try some day!
Well, UncaStuart!
How you doin’?
Are you by any chance looking for a half-Scottish woman with red hair who loves the bagpipes?
Just checking…
A recipe
Ode to a Haggis by Robbie Burns.
Scotticher - when thinking about the haggis, bear in mind the whiskey…
Yep, I’ve eaten it and liked it. I think it’s the look of it that is bad…kinda ugly, but tastes fine. Makes me want to go back to Aberdeen just talking about it.
Eaten haggis, yes. Enjoyed it, certainly. I’m impressed at your bothering to make it - I recall intending to make it once, but the recipe I saw (admittedly not in a proper recipe book, but one of those historical-musings-on-rural traditions sort of things) seemed a bit too much like “first catch your sheep…” to me.
Have never met lutefisk - I must admit (especially because of the lye) that I used to suspect that Garrison Keillor had invented it as a joke on ignorant typelike me.
Celyn,
Yes, there is a “catch your sheep” element to it - you either have to have a connection to a farm, or you just phone around to butcher shops. In my experience, butcher shops fall into two categories.
The first category (by far the bigger) are the butcher shops where you phone and ask about getting sheep heart, lungs, and liver, and you get a long silence on the other end of the line.
The second, exclusive group are the ones that reply immediately with “Ah, you’re making haggis, are you?”
According to my uncle, there isn’t really a “proper” recipe for haggis - it’s more of a “toss everything in and hope for the best” kind of traditional dish. As long as you’ve got the heart, lungs, liver and oatmeal, you’ve got haggis - families have different add-ins. Last time I made it, I put in a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and lots of pepper.
Lutefisk-I keep remembering the episode of “King of the Hill” when Bobby eats all the lutefisk made by the new female pastor at their church.
Sheesh…and I thought kielbasa and halupki was disgusting…
Good, if there’s no proper recipe, I might just slaughter the cat instead. Heh Heh Heh. Would it upset your uncle to know that there are vegetarian versions available?
I don’t think that’s a problem. In my uncle’s view, the key point is to slosh the whiskey over the haggis as you serve. As long as you do that with your cat-haggis or vegan-haggis, I think he’d feel that tradition had been satisfied.
There’s nothing like a fine meal of haggis, with a side of Rocky Mountain oysters and a fine ouzo to wash it all down with.
Oh.
Words fail me.
Okay, so now I begin to understand the appeal of haggis. No one in MY family ever mentioned sloshing a quart of whiskey over the internal organs of sheep.
Of course, I come from a long line of non-drinkers, so that may be why I was never introduced to this stuff as a child.
Most likely, the only thing that makes it edible is the liquid enhancement. My mom always spoke about the ritual “piping in the haggis,” but never once did she suggest that anyone should actually EAT the stuff. And when we went to Robbie Burns Birthday celebrations, we were never encouraged to eat the stuff, we just had to participate in the “piping.”
Mom ate it herself, though…hmmmmmmmm
Oh god vomits…I just recently dissected a sheep’s pluck in Bio class. The smell was repulsive. How can people possibly eat Haggis? It just doesn’t seem right. And what the hell is lutefisk? Educate me!
I've never tried haggis, but it doesn't sound half bad. Ah, but I have had a run-in or two with lutefisk--- glistening piles of lutefisk set out at holiday gatherings. I am Danish, and I was raised in the upper midwest. I wish that lutefisk WAS just a joke invented by Garrison Keillor, but the stuff is serious. Deadly, deadly serious!:eek: Tabithina, Lutefisk survivor