If You Wear a Kilt, You Gotta' Have Haggis!

[Pour1Malt]

the traditional way of cooking haggis is boilin' it...

ai find boiled meat o any kind is awfy bland.... try this way tae prepare yur haggis instead...

Haggis Ferintosh

1 large Haggis (in paunch) pre cooked (boiled)
2 onions
300 g (about 1 1/2 cups) dried apricots (pitted)
300 g (about 1 1/2 cups) dried prunes (pitted)
1 beef bullion cube
1 1/2 cups Scotch whisky (preferably a peaty one)
lots of pepper
*several drams of single malt scotch for chef

1. Chop onions into quarters
2. Warm 1 cup whisky on stove with beef bullion cube until cube is dissolved.
3. while whisky is warming, place Haggis in large ovenproof dish and surround with onions, prunes, apricots
4. when beef cube is dissolved pour whisky over haggis and pepper well
5. bake, uncovered in oven at 180C/350F/gas 4 for 30 minutes or until haggis is dark golden on top. Heat can be lowered to extend cooking time. DO NOT let haggis overcook or burn, the paunch will split.
6. when it comes out of the oven pour remaining 1/2 cup Scotch over haggis.
7. Serve haggis with the prunes, apricots, onions, and also Skirlie, bashit neeps, mashed tatties, and single malt scotch.

Slaint mhath!

[Pour1Malt]

here is yin oi' my sauces...

Whisky Cream Sauce

1 beef stock cube
1/2 cup peated malt whisky (Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Ardbeg, Caol Ila)
2 oz butter
1/2 cup double cream
ground pepper

boil whisky over low heat for a couple minutes (you do not want the alcohol- use high heat and boil it off)

at the same time melt the butter in a hot skillet (the skillet, you just browned the meat in, works best)

add whisky and 1 beef cube to butter, stir well and scrape meat juices from skillet, then add cream, stir and scrape more, give a good few grinds of pepper, heat until sauce just starts to boil- then remove from heat and serve...

[thescot]

As said before, just because you've eaten "haggis" doesn't mean you've eaten haggis. I happen to like haggis. And I like lamb, beef liver, chicken liver, and other types of meat that some do not. I also like collard greens and rudagaba.

But I don't like every bite of haggis I've ever had any more than I like every "kilt" I've ever seen. Putting something on a bag or skin and calling it haggis is like sewing some bright, cheap material together and calling it a kilt.

I suspect that the only way the canned stuff can be (forgive me) stomached is by doing a lot of extra work. I think Pour1Malt has the right idea, though I've not tried it yet.

I make my own haggis, and I think it avoids the pitfalls mentioned above. Last year, the guys who "tried" it, often came back for seconds, and the shepherd's pie was only eaten by a couple of guys after they ate a healthy portion of haggis. (Our rather large haggs was all gone, so if you were still young enough to eat another meal, it was shepherd's pie of nothing.)

BTW, the stomach adds little or nothing to the flavor of the haggis any more than the intestine it's stuffed in adds flavor to the sausage you fry up for breakfast. I use a Reynolds boiling bag available in any grocery store, and it does fine, looks good, and serves the purpose.



Looks like that was one big sheep with that size stomach!

The point of all this is that haggis is really good is properly made and served, but everyone will not like it. I don't particularly care for strawberries, but most folks do. So there you are.