Dish with Haggis
(click to enlarge)

Haggis


Scotland - North America
Makes:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 4 #
****
5 hrs
Yes		 The "national dish" of Scotland - as "authentic" as can be made north of the Mexican border. Surprisingly tasty, with many uses. See also Comments.




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oz
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#
T
c
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t
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"Lamb Stomach" (1)  
Lamb Liver (2)
Lamb Heart (3)
"Lamb Lungs" (4)
Meat (5)
Suet, or (6)
Onions
Butter
Rolled Oats (7)
Steel Cut Oats
Allspice
Salt
Pepper blk 		Prep   -   (2-1/4 hrs - 35 min work (with synthetic cases))
  1. Prepare your casing. for Synthetic Casing, just soak in water a few minutes. For Beef Bung, soak at least 4 hours and clean well - turn inside out for stuffing. For Sheep Stomach, if it's a cleaned commercial product, soak in salted water overnight, then turn inside out for stuffing. If you've disassembled your own sheep, you have a whole lot of cleaning to do first.
  2. IF using Honeycomb Tripe for "Lungs", bring it to a boil in water to cover, acidulated with Lemon Juice or Citric Acid. Discard water and rinse well.
  3. Place HEART, LIVER, "LUNGS" and MEAT in a pot of water to cover. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Pour out into a clean sink. Clean pot and rinse crud off the meats, returning them to the pot (this gives you a clean cooking liquid). Cover with Water, bring to a boil, and simmer 2 hours.
  4. Remove Solids from the pot, leaving liquid in the pot.
  5. Meanwhile:   Chop SUET small.
  6. Chop ONIONS medium. Place in a pan with the Butter and fry slowly stirring until soft. Set aside.
  7. Heat Oven to 325°F/165°C. Spread OATS on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 12 minutes. They should not be noticeably browned, but should be aromatic. Cool and set aside.
Run   -   (2-3/4 hrs - 40 min work (with synthetic cases))
  1. Cut Heart, Liver, "Lungs", and Meat into small pieces. Discard fat, gristle, and strong membranes from all - and the windpipe from real lungs.
  2. Run all Meats, Onions, and Suet in a food processor, but not to mush. There should still a fair amount of texture.
  3. Mix together All Items. Mix in enough of the reserved Cooking Liquid to make a slurry that is not quite pourable.
  4. Tie one end of your casing and stuff it - not stuffed too tight as the contents will expand some. Squeeze out as much air as you can and tie the end you stuffed from. For synthetic casing leave a bit of slack in the end as you tie it. If using Beef Bung, you can make ties in the length to make smaller Haggis. If using Sheep Stomach, sew up the openings.
  5. Place the Haggis in the pot with remaining cooking liquid. Add more water to completely submerge it. Bring to a boil, turn to a simmer and simmer covered until at least 165°F/75°C in the center. 2 hours for synthetic casing or beef bung, probably 3 hours for sheep stomach.
  6. Serve with Neeps & Tatties and Whisky Sauce. The Haggis will keep several days in the fridge, or can be frozen, and can be used many other ways.
NOTES:

  1. Lamb Stomach:

      This is traditional, but it's smelly and a real hassle to clean up and prepare - and unavailable whole in the U.S. The stomach is not eaten, only the stuffing. Even in Scotland it is commonly replaced by a Beef Bung or a 3 to 4 inch synthetic casing. The photo example was made using a 4 inch synthetic casing.

  2. Lamb Liver:

      This is available from markets serving a Middle Eastern community, and many other ethnicities as well. It should be fresh, smooth and dark red. keep frozen until needed.

  3. Lamb Hearts:

      availability is the same as for Liver. Here they are generally cut in half vertically.

  4. Lamb Lungs:

      Lamb Lungs are considered essential for authentic texture and flavor, but they are illegal in the US and Canada. As substitute, I have chosen Beef Honeycomb Tripe, and it has works very well - but it shrinks a lot in cooking, so I use a bit more than listed. Lamb Tongues have also been suggested. A few folks have gone out to a farm, bought a lamb, killed and butchered it themselves in the name of "authenticity".

  5. Meat:

      Many recipes do not include this item, and some ask for a whole pound. The meat can be Lamb or Beef trimmings or stew meat.

  6. Suet:

      This hard fat from around the kidneys of a cow, usually, but also lamb, or sheep. Some recipes call instead for fatty lamb trimmings, enough of which can cover both the Meat and Suet items. Suet is available from specialty meat markets, as it's much used in English recipes.

  7. Oats:

      Most recipes call for all Steel Cut Oats, but some (even Scots) combine Rolled and Steel Cut Oats to make the texture less grainy.

  8. Comments:

      Yes, this recipe is quite large because it's used as a party dish, especially for Burns Night, and Haggis has many uses to use up leftovers. It is not only eaten plain with Neeps and Tatties (I prefer Clapshot, Neeps and Tatties mixed), it is also fried up as patties, used in sandwiches, and in many other ways. In the UK, it is manufactured and sold refrigerated, frozen, or canned, but home made is far superior.

  9. History, etc.

    The origin of Haggis has been blamed on everyone from Romans to Vikings, but I'll stick with Scotland for the Oats version. The Romanian version, Drob de Miel, uses the same sheep parts but with spleen and kidneys added, uses bread instead of oats, and is wrapped in lamb cawl or a sheet of dough. Haggis and the like have been used to consume perishable parts of a sheep that had just been slaughtered. Today, with refrigeration, we can make a Haggis any time we want. In one of my older cookbooks, the writer mentions that the worst Haggis he had eaten was in Italy, but that "Italy" was no excuse because the best Haggis he had eaten was at a restaurant a few blocks away. The chef of that restaurant told him he had learned it from the cook of a British destroyer soon after liberation in WW-II. He took it up because the ingredients were available even during food scarcity.
  10. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste
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