# Tell me about Haggis **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 9, 2018, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607 "2018-07-09T20:02:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stana\_Claus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stana_claus/32/13874_2.png) [@Stana\_Claus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stana_Claus)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/21 "2018-07-10T14:56:57Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Just order it. What’s another £5 or £10 in the total cost of the trip? I don’t think it’s the actual cost that bothers me as much as wasting a whole plate of food. But you do make a good point. In for a penny, in for a pound! Thanks to all for the words of encouragement. It absolutely doesn’t sound like I will embarrass myself by retching at the first taste, so it will definitely be on my Must Try list for the trip. And it’s good to know that there are smaller bite options available for that first tentative tasting. Who knows, maybe my taste buds have matured enough since my youth that liver ain’t so bad any more. Or that sheep’s liver does indeed taste less livery than beef or chicken. Odder things have happened! ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/22 "2018-07-10T15:43:42Z")
For afters, see if you can get the local chippy to do you a deep-fried Curly-Wurly - and all washed down with some Irn-Bru (Made In Scotland - From Girders!) ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/23 "2018-07-10T17:12:29Z")
I also despise liver, although I can handle it if spiced beyond recognition (liverwurst). I loved the haggis I had in Scotland, couldn’t taste liver at all. Get haggis, neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes) - that way if you really don’t like the haggis you can fill up on the neeps and tatties. Plus some places serve it with a shot of Scotch whisky… ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/24 "2018-07-10T18:53:00Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > It has liver undertones, but it’s not the dominant flavour. It’s more oats and pepper, to be honest. Yep, that’s my experience as well. I had it in 1998 at some kind of Burns Night-like thing at an Edinburgh hotel. It mostly tasted like very peppery oatmeal mixed with meat, and a not very strong organ meat flavor. I’m not usually a fan, and this wasn’t enough to turn me off of it. In all honesty, it looks nastier before they cut it open than it tastes. And by far the nastiest thing on the plate were the mashed neeps (turnips or maybe rutabagas). Those things were atrocious. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/25 "2018-07-10T21:04:22Z")
> [@bump](#): > > In all honesty, it looks nastier before they cut it open than it tastes. It’s not the most photogenic dish, is it? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/26 "2018-07-10T21:24:12Z")
Of course, haggis traditionally contains minced sheep’s lung in it too, which I’d find much more disgusting a prospect - if haggis wasn’t so delicious. I’m not generally a fan of white pepper, but it really works in haggis. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/27 "2018-07-11T03:31:42Z")
There are foods in the world that would leave many people retching and disgusted. Haggis is most decidedly NOT such a food. OK, if you are a vegan who is thoroughly disgusted by anything that contains meat… but in that case you wouldn’t be considering trying haggis, would you? 🙂 If you don’t like it, I can almost guarantee that it will be a calm, measured dislike, “I don’t like that, I guess I’m not a haggis person”, rather than a wild-eyed departure from the room. 🙂 A valid point I heard made recently: what’s in haggis is better than what’s in a hot dog - sufficiently better that the host is not embarrassed to know you know what’s in it, where with hot dogs you don’t ever find out. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/28 "2018-07-11T03:53:55Z")
There was an episode of _ **DDD** _ (I think) where they interviewed a guy somewhere in the Pacific Northwest who served homemade haggis at his restaurant. Apparently, it’s illegal to do so with sheep’s lung in the US (or Canada; I don’t remember). ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/29 "2018-07-11T07:02:59Z")
Haggis fan here- I’d advise as above and see if you can find a restaurant that offers fried haggis ball/haggis pakora as a starter. That way, you only get a couple (that can be parcelled out among friends) and you won’t be wasting a whole large plate of food if not to your liking. Or if you get a spoonful as part of a breakfast- then you can just eat everything else on the plate. My Haggis story? It was at the University of Aberdeen, Burns Night. I was a vegetarian, and there was veggie haggis. I’d never had any kind of offal before. There was a bottle of whiskey on the table. I ate someone else’s plateful. It was wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/30 "2018-07-11T07:09:54Z")
> [@MickNickMaggies](#): > > Haggis fan here- I’d advise as above and see if you can find a restaurant that offers fried haggis ball/haggis pakora as a starter. That way, you only get a couple (that can be parcelled out among friends) and you won’t be wasting a whole large plate of food if not to your liking. Or if you get a spoonful as part of a breakfast- then you can just eat everything else on the plate. > > My Haggis story? It was at the University of Aberdeen, Burns Night. I was a vegetarian, and there was veggie haggis. I’d never had any kind of offal before. There was a bottle of whiskey on the table. I ate someone else’s plateful. It was wonderful. Just to improve my understanding: you were a vegetarian at the time, but ate a full serving of the one with meat because it was so good? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/31 "2018-07-11T07:34:14Z")
I’ve never had authentic Scottish haggis, but there’s a chef in Seattle who makes his own haggis for a Burns Supper his restaurant does every January. I don’t recall tasting any liver in it - to me it tasted like meatloaf with cardamom in it. ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/32 "2018-07-11T07:34:46Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > Just to improve my understanding: you were a vegetarian at the time, but ate a full serving of the one with meat because it was so good? I was under the impression that it was my plate of veggie haggis, due to the bottle of whisky on the table, I’m afraid. And I started raving about how great it was- and how vegetarians weren’t missing anything, clearly. And my error was pointed out. I was fairly horrified. But it was delicious. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/33 "2018-07-11T19:17:26Z")
> [@MickNickMaggies](#): > > I was under the impression that it was my plate of veggie haggis, due to the bottle of whisky on the table, I’m afraid. And I started raving about how great it was- and how vegetarians weren’t missing anything, clearly. And my error was pointed out. > > I was fairly horrified. But it was delicious. I was just about to ask what vegetable offal is exactly! ---
**Author:** ![Critical\_Mass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@Critical\_Mass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical_Mass)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/34 "2018-07-12T23:48:23Z")
I’ve had traditional (i.e. not deep fried) haggis, and I’ve had deep fried haggis. While tasty, I don’t think deep fried haggis is going to give you the full taste experience that you would get from a properly prepared dish that’s been boiled in a sheep’s stomach. Try the traditionally prepared haggis at least once during your travels. And the little pubs that dot the countryside that look like they’ve stepped out of a story book? Stop at them and meet the people and eat and drink beer. You’ll have a great experience every time. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/35 "2018-07-14T06:01:32Z")
All I know is that I had haggis once, at a Scottish ball in Jakarta. I was prepared to find it loathsome, but it was exquisite! I pretty much wanted to ask everyone at my table if they’d mind giving me their servings. Now, that was one batch, and I have no idea whether it was representative of haggis in general. However, most of the people at my table were actual Scots, and none complained, or corrected me when I said it was really good. Like others above me, I thought the dominant flavors were oats and pepper, rather than meat or offal. (But sheep lung is a standard offering in one type of Indonesian cuisine, so if it is a usual haggis ingredient, I suspect it was used in what I ate.) Mmmmm…haggis… ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/36 "2018-07-15T01:19:29Z")
Count me in among the posters who have found haggis to be surprisingly good. I don’t think I remember a liver taste, but then again I like liver. We spent a week in Scotland some years ago, thought that we might as well try it, and ended up ordering it again in several different places. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/37 "2018-07-15T03:27:23Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I was just about to ask what vegetable offal is exactly! With certain vegetables, the entire thing is simply offal. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607/38 "2018-07-15T03:51:59Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > With certain vegetables, the entire thing is simply offal. 😉 Yeah, like those mashed turnips/rutabagas. Just plain awful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-haggis/817607.md?page=1)