Haggis recipe that's do-able.

[auld argonian]

We've kicked Haggis recipes around here several times...it always comes down to the issue (in MHO a minor one) that there are certain ingredients that we can't get and/or use in the USA. (Keep big government out of your haggis, people!)

Anyhow...I have a very good local sausage shop that does all of the ethnic and seasonal sausages upon demand and they do them well. I am going to find a bangers recipe and try to get them to do a test run but I was thinking about whether or not to try to get them to do haggis...albeit, I would probably be their only customer but I figger they'd relish the challenge and it would give them bragging rights in terms of their ability and willingness to do absolutely ANY ethnic ground things stuffed in a sausage skin.

Does anybody have a recipe that might work here? I'm assuming that the real stomach envelope is going to be a non-starter so what about something that can be done up in a regular sausage casing? My wife's family constantly give me the business about whether I'm serving haggis for Christmas Eve dinner so this might be a chance to stick it to the mon.

Best

AA

[Pleater]

Weeelllll - assuming that you have zero experience with making do with the cheap bits - haggis is just a way to make the best of the bits of the sheep which have to be eaten up quickly as they don't keep - and in days or yor these were probably shared around the village or town row so there wasn't that much sheep per person. The same thing happened with pigs, but they were usually made into faggots. (I'm writing in British English, remember)


You don't have to make it in a casing and boil it for hours, and you can just go with what you can get - liver, heart, kidneys and an equal weight of real meat, already cooked so it is tender - simmer the offal with chopped onions for about an hour, fish out the solid stuff, pour off about half the liquid to make gravy and then cook some oatmeal in the other half.

Chop up or coarsely mince the offal and meat, put it into a bowl with the onions, add the spices and give a quick stir around then pour the oats over (don't stir) and put it into a warm oven for half an hour, covered over, for the spices to work.


Most haggis these days lacks fat - the meat should be shoulder of lamb or shin of beef with the natural fat on or in it. It is probably easiest to cook lamb, let it cool and then take the bones out. They can be added to the boil up at the start, then the lamb dropped in to be heated up just before the end of the cooking time. Beef is probably best cut into slices and fried then casseroled until tender. Make the gravy in the cooking pan using the juices from the meat.


The gravy should be thick, not runny.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[English Bloke]

Blimey Anne! Is there no end to your talents? I was dribbling at the mouth just reading that.

[thescot]

You can get the best recipe in the world from Alton Brown right here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/a...ipe/index.html

But getting a sheep's stomach has proved impossible around here, so I use a boiling bag from the grocery store. Afterall, the stomach is just used to keep all the loose stuff together. I buy what I can and substitute chicken or beef liver and parts if I have to. I also put in a good bit of chopped up lamb. The rest is mainly boiling all the stuff and adding plenty of salt and pepper. The onions and real Scottish oats are a must! (all from the grocery store with no problem.)

When it's all done, we put the haggis on a pan, tighten it up, and run it under that broiler before serving to give it a really nice browned look. It looks like a real stomach when we march it out.

Here it is with neeps and tatties surrounding:


or with leeks:

[Hocfutue]

Stahly's canned haggis isn't bad. Cracked out a tin of it today and heated it up at work.

Many co-workers hesitantly tried it, and all were positive in their response. The only negative comments came from the people who refused to try it!

While I was stirring the haggis after microwaving in the break room, the following conversation ensued:

Co-worker 1: "Smells good. Has a holiday kind of smell to it."
Co-worker 2: "What kind of #$%#ed up childhood did YOU have?"
Co-worker 1: "No, there's something about the spicy smell."
Me: "Probably the nutmeg. It's in most traditional recipes."
Co-worker 2: "No. Christmas smells like gingerbread and candy canes. Not sheep guts."

[Alan H]

I've done the super-size sausage casing thing, too and it worked fine.

Basically, what I did looks like this.

parboil some calves livers, then chop them up as fine as I have the patience for.
brown some beef hearts...chop them up, too
ground lamb...can actually GET that part of the sheep....brown it on the stovetop

Combine all that with an appropriate amount of chopped onion, uncooked oatmeal and spices. Add in a cup of chopped up suet. Suet is hard to get, but if you ask the butcher for it, they'll dig it up. Basically, it's fat. BTW< you can't chop it up, but do your best. break it up into smallish pieces if you have to. When you're all done the mix is about 50% oatmeal/onion/sute and 50%"meat". More or less. Remember that there IS no exact recipe for haggis, the stuff was made with what the people had on hand at the time.

I happen to add mace to my spices mix. I'd suggest being a bit on the generous side with your spices, btw. It can be a little bland, otherwise.

Mix, mix, mix, mix...and mix some more.

Now stuff the sausage casings. Pack it in there pretty darned good. This is a messy job. Have fun. The parboiled liver stinks to high heaven.

Toss into boiling water. Let it boil for about 30 minutes.

Now bake at 400 for about half an hour. Open the door of the oven every now and then to let the steam out. There will be a lot of steam. I suppose you could broil it, if you moved the oven rack down a couple notches so the haggis wasn't too close to the burner. If you don't do bake/broil, you will have haggismush, which is exactly what I had the first time I made it. I took it to a Nor Cal Rabble get-together and it was AWFUL. After that, I did the bake/dry-out thing and it was MUCH better.

Serve with neeps, tatties and a bit 'o whisky sauce.

[artificer]

HERE'S one I've used with great success, with the addition of some kidney and heart for extra zip and zing.

ith:

[Mickey]

Find a good Asian market (which should be very easy in Chi-town as even here we have a pretty good, yet small, Chinatown) and you can find all you need, even stomach (though it will generally be all pork). Finding even basic lamb chops is not an easy task in this city and when you do, the price will blow your hose off.

[Pleater]

Ah well, my part of Yorkshire has an oat cuisine, so oat cakes, parkin, herring coated in oats and fried, porridge, puddings and baking of all kinds with oat flour and rolled oats were part of my upbringing.

Mind you - my steak and kidney pudding, done in a tall saucepan with a suet crust is possibly the best thing I concoct. It is basically the same as my mother made, but with added mushrooms.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Ian_G]

My mouth is watering reading these recipes. What time is dinner?

Jim, I like the first picture. That's a reasonable portion, what did everyone else have?

Ian