Haggis

sheep's pluck minced with pinhead oatmeal, onion and suet, packed loosely into a casing and simmered until the oats swell, with neeps and tatties

Origin: Edinburgh & Scotland

From the journey of Oat.

Haggis is a pudding of sheep's pluck, the heart, liver, and lungs, minced with onion, suet, spices, and a great deal of pinhead oatmeal, packed into a stomach or casing and simmered for three hours. The oatmeal is not filler. It absorbs the fat and the offal juices, swells to roughly three times its volume, and produces the loose crumbly texture that distinguishes a haggis from any other kind of sausage; a haggis short of oatmeal is dense and pasty. Scotland's relationship with the oat is why the dish takes this form. Oats grow where wheat will not, tolerate cold wet summers and poor acid soil, and were the staple grain of the Scottish diet for centuries: in porridge, in bannocks, in skirlie, in brose, and here. Samuel Johnson's dictionary definition of oats as a grain given in England to horses and in Scotland to the people was a jibe, and Lord Elibank's reported reply, that this is why England has such fine horses and Scotland such fine men, is a good deal better remembered than the insult. The dish is not exclusively Scottish in origin. Puddings of offal, oats, and fat cooked in a stomach are recorded across northern Europe and in classical sources, and the earliest known recipe printed under the name is in an English book, Gervase Markham's The English Huswife of 1615. What Scotland did was make it national, largely through Robert Burns, whose Address to a Haggis of 1786 is recited over the dish at Burns Night suppers every 25 January before it is cut open with a knife on the word trenching. It is served with neeps and tatties, mashed swede and mashed potato, and a whisky sauce is a modern addition that nobody minds.

Ingredients

Filling

1 sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs), about 1.5kg
400 g lamb or beef suet, finely chopped
300 g pinhead (steel-cut) oatmeal
3 onions, very finely chopped
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp ground mace
1 tsp ground coriander
0.5 tsp cayenne pepper
0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
500 ml reserved cooking stock from the pluck

Casing

1 sheep's stomach, cleaned, or a large ox bung or beef casing

Neeps

1 kg swede, peeled and chunked

Tatties

1 kg floury potatoes, peeled and chunked

To serve

120 g butter
1 tsp white pepper

Method

Rinse the pluck thoroughly, put it in a large pot with the windpipe hanging over the side into a bowl to drain, cover with water, and simmer for two hours.
Let it cool in the liquid, then lift it out, keeping 500ml of the stock. Trim off the windpipe and any gristle.
Toast the pinhead oatmeal on a dry tray in a 180°C oven for ten minutes, until it smells nutty and has coloured lightly.
Toasting the oatmeal is what gives the haggis its flavour rather than a raw porridge taste, and it takes ten minutes.
Mince the cooked pluck coarsely, or chop it by hand, and mix it with the suet, toasted oatmeal, chopped onions, salt, pepper, and spices.
Work in enough of the reserved stock to make a loose, wet mixture that just holds together. It should look wetter than seems right.
The oatmeal will take up a great deal of liquid and swell to about three times its volume during cooking, so a mixture packed tight or made too dry will burst the casing.
Fill the stomach or casing no more than two thirds full and sew or tie it closed, leaving plenty of slack.
Prick it in several places with a fine needle.
Lower it into a large pan of barely simmering water and cook for three hours, topping up with boiling water and never letting it come to a rolling boil.
Prick it again after the first half hour if it looks tight.
Boil the swede and potatoes separately, mash each with butter, salt, and plenty of white pepper, and serve the haggis cut open at the table with a spoon.

Notes

Two thirds full and no more; the oatmeal swells enormously and a tightly packed haggis will split. Toast the oatmeal. Pinhead, not rolled: rolled oats give a paste. Keep the water below a simmer. A butcher will sell a cleaned stomach or supply an ox bung to order, and the mixture can also be baked in a covered dish in a bain-marie for two hours, which is what most home cooks now do. Vegetarian haggis, made with the same oatmeal, onion, suet, and spicing over pulses and root vegetables, is standard in Scotland and is genuinely good.

The Gastrographer

Name: Haggis
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 3 h 30 min
Total time: 5 h
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Edinburgh & Scotland
Ingredients: 1 sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs), about 1.5kg; 400 g lamb or beef suet, finely chopped; 300 g pinhead (steel-cut) oatmeal; 3 onions, very finely chopped; 1 tbsp salt; 1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper; 1 tsp ground mace; 1 tsp ground coriander; 0.5 tsp cayenne pepper; 0.5 tsp ground nutmeg; 500 ml reserved cooking stock from the pluck; 1 sheep's stomach, cleaned, or a large ox bung or beef casing; 1 kg swede, peeled and chunked; 1 kg floury potatoes, peeled and chunked; 120 g butter; 1 tsp white pepper

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control