Boudin. Is it really just Cajun haggis?

[Tobus]

Ah yes, blood pudding or blood sausage is another type of dish that is common to many cultures. My twin brother has a German wife, and when they were visiting her family in Germany he decided he would order blood sausage (blutwurst) at a restaurant. They all asked him, "are you sure you want to do that?" but he was confident. He had a hard time keeping it down, but had to save face and eat it all anyway - and pretend to like it!

One of the things I meant by calling haggis a crude dish is that it comes from a lifestyle of subsistence farming. While it has become a national dish symbolic of Scottish culture (in large part thanks to Rabbie Burns), it was originally known as something only eaten by poor crofters who had nothing else to eat. All the good parts of the sheep were used elsewhere, for others, and the working families had to subsist on what no one else wanted. So they made the best of it, using up the crude leftovers after butchering a sheep. All they could do was grind up organs and stuff them into the stomach lining along with some grain as filler. Seasoning was very basic with whatever they had from the kailyard. It was not a dish eaten by the upper classes, and was seen as only something the poorest of the poor would eat, just one step above eating garbage. But the Highland Revival in the early 1800s sort of romanticized it along with everything else, and it has since become a prized symbol of the tenacity of Highland culture and their ability to make do with whatever they have.

[Guiness gets my Irish up]

As settlers came to Louisiana from Nova Scotia (and other places), they brought as much of their culture as they could carry with them. "Cracklins" and "chittlins" (the least wanted parts of a slaughtered hog) became delicacies along with crawfish/crayfish, alligator and whatever else they could glean from the land (or swamp) because food was often hard to come by. French cuisine infused with African and Caribbean flair and spices became "Cajun" and "Creole" fare. While this type of "fusion" is fundamentally true virtually everywhere else in the world, you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere in the world that has done it more successfully than in Louisiana.

[Macman]

Another connection to France: "Le Boudin" is the official march of the French Foreign Legion.

[tripleblessed]

It was not a dish eaten by the upper classes, and was seen as only something the poorest of the poor would eat, just one step above eating garbage.
But the Highland Revival in the early 1800s sort of romanticized it along with everything else, and it has since become a prized symbol of the tenacity of Highland culture and
their ability to make do with whatever they have.

Many of my folk were very poor in Scotland, Ireland and England. Coming here was not by choice, but force or starvation. Being able to OWN land apparently persuaded them
they had magically become "gentry". My mother's line felt that they were above such dishes. When a friend brought chitlins to school as a recess snack and I found what chitlins
are, I was very grateful for their thinking. Still am. No haggis for me, either. Of course, after no meat since 1979, even if I could get such down and keep it down, I'd probably
face fairly dire consequences. My hat is off to those who had the ingenuity to find ways to use everything, and the strength to flourish despite how they were treated.

I do manage to handle addressing the haggis, and the execution of the poor beast, but leave the delight of consumption to others.

[MacKenzie]

...it was originally known as something only eaten by poor crofters who had nothing else to eat. All the good parts of the sheep were used elsewhere, for others, and the working families had to subsist on what no one else wanted. So they made the best of it, using up the crude leftovers after butchering a sheep.

This is why haggis has always reminded me of Bouillabaisse. The latter being made from the fish not fit for market boiled with the leftovers (shells) from other seafare.

[Guiness gets my Irish up]

My mother used to make a roux-based fish stew called "court bouillon" while my paternal grandfather was well known for his turtle sauce piquante recipe. My first wife was from Maryland. She discovered boiled crawfish while attending college in Louisiana. She wanted to do a crawfish boil for her friends while visiting home but was only able to find crawfish for sale in Maryland at a fishing bait shop.