Haggis Recipe

[kiltedwolfman]

I have made several dishes using the canned haggis and while it might not be quite tradional it is very tasty. another upside is that most people never question something that has come out of a can, they naturally assume that it is some kind of regular food product. This way you can wait until after the meal to reveal the truth about the ingredients. ;)

[Old Hippie]

My wife and I recently purchased a lamb from a local rancher and I realized that since we own the entire animal, this will be my best chance to make haggis without the trouble of searching out all the necessary organs.

A guid haggis is a bit o' work, but everyone should make it the "right" way once. If for no other reason, then you can compare other styles to it. Haggis is a sausage, pure and simple. Nothing to get in a dither over.

Having been in your position back in my more carnivorous days, I took the heart and liver for my haggis.

We have acid rain and diesel exhaust with which the early Scots did not have to contend, so leave the lungs out.

Cut up the heart in cubes, removing any strings of muscle. Roughly chop an onion and put the heart and onion in a 4-quart pot with 3 quarts of water. Boil until tender.

Cut up the liver in cubes, removing any blood vessels. Roughly chop an onion and put the liver and onion into a 4-quart pot with 3 quarts of water. Boil until tender.

Toast 4 cups of stone-ground (not steel-cut or flaked) oatmeal in the oven at 400 degrees F. Stir frequently. Aim for a golden-brown colour.

When the liver and heart are done, grind them through a fine plate and "clean" the grinder with two or three onions. The operative word for onion in haggis is "redolent." Reserve the liver broth. Give the heart broth to a well-meaning cat.

Mix together the ground heart, liver and onion. Season with a few blades of mace well ground, as well as rosemary and a bit of thyme. Add approximately 3 cups of oats, and moisten with liver broth until it is the consistency of stiff cookie dough. Add salt and pepper -- taste it.

If it doesn't taste good or at least edible to you at this point (the meats are all cooked so it won't hurt you), then cooking further won't improve it. Put it in a large bowl and call in the dogs, then take the young lady out to dinner. If it passes this test...

Consider what your doctor told you on your last checkup. If you are hale and hearty, take one pound of the best lard you can buy and work it into the mixture. If you are hearty but not hale, take one half pound. If you are neither hale nor hearty, see the directions for "Bowl Haggis" below.

Mix it well in. If you wish to use a "natural" casing see if you can get what butchers call a "blind stump." This is a cow's stomach with only one hole in it. Regulations vary. In some places you can buy it, in others not. You may be able to get large hog casing and use a sausage stuffer. I've used manufactured casings for summer sausage, which come sealed at one end.

"By any suitable method" as the patent papers say, pack the haggis pate into the casing. Allow approximately 40% room for expansion. Tie or sew the ends shut. Pierce the casing with a knitting needle or icepick several times, if it is not pre-pierced.

Get a large kettle of water on the boil, as if you were in an old movie and someone was about to have a baby. Put a large steamer on the bottom of the pot, or a baking rack or similar device to hold the haggis up slightly. When you have the water boiling merrily, slip the haggis in and cover the pot. Boil for 2-3 hours.

As it cooks, fat will leak out and wonderful smells with permeate your kitchen. When it's done, hopefully you've got all the rest of the goodies fixed. Pump up the piper and serve the meal.

Bowl Haggis: if you don't want to mess with casings, just put it in a bowl and STEAM it instead of boiling it. Because it's in a bowl the fat will not leak out -- so use 1/4 pound of lard. You can use butter or some vegetable oil if you prefer. Purists will moan but there'll be more haggis for you.

Dealing with leftovers: crumble it up and sprinkle it into scrambled eggs, or slice cooked cabbage and boiled potatoes and fry up with haggis. Make a good potta strong tea and it looks like breakfast to me.

A note about oatmeal: I make extra toasted oatmeal. Some I will cook as normal and eat for breakfasts. Once it's toasted, it's cooked, technically, so you can eat it just like that. Works for me, maybe not for you. My favourite thing to do with extra toasted oats is to get a litre or so of the best vanilla ice cream I can find, and soften it. Then I stir in a couple of generous handsful of toasted oats, and a hefty shot of Laphroaig 15 and put it back in the freezer. Use your favourite malt. It's a glorious end to any meal.

Including breakfast.

:ootd:

[KiltedBrewer]

Thanks to all for the recipes and info. Thinking of it as simply a sausage makes it much less daunting! We picked up our lamb yesterday, so hopefully I'll be able to make my haggis relatively soon. I'll be sure to post results.

David

[Rollo]

Haggis
Haggis, ‘great chieftain o’ the pudding race’, as Burns described it, is a close relation of the sausage. Its ingredients, which vary widely, always contain a fair proportion of oatmeal and more normally the heart, lights and liver of a sheep, wrapped in its paunch. Most people will be content to buy a haggis ready made from a butcher but some may like to make one themselves. However, the important thing is to know how to cook it.
Ingredients:
A sheep’s paunch
Liver, heart and tongue of a sheep
1/2 lb suet
2 large onions
1/2 lb oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon powdered herbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Method:
Wash paunch and soak overnight in cold salted water. Wash the liver, heart and tongue and boil in salted water for 2 hours. Reserve water. Then cut in pieces, removing gristle and skin, and mince. Mince the suet and onions and toast the oatmeal to a golden brown. Mix all together
adding salt, pepper and herbs, moisten with water which the offal was boiled in. Fill the paunch two-thirds full of the mixture and sew up. Prick over with a darning needle, to prevent bursting. Place haggis in boiling water and boil for 3 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes and swede.

[thescot]

Just a little hint: you can use a boiling or baking bag in lieu of a stomach just fine. They can be purchased at any grodery store.

Since the only purpose of the stomach is to hold everything together, there's no need not to use the bag. Done well, it looks like a stomach, and you;re going to cut it open anyway.

[Old Hippie]

Just a little hint: you can use a boiling or baking bag in lieu of a stomach just fine.

That's my "new thing to learn" today, I guess. Thanks! I may go back to boiling them -- I've been unable to get good casings lately. I usually make a pitch to the butcher that ends with him or her saying, "Why for #@$% sake would you eat THAT?"

This year I'll probably use my late father's cavalry sabre to make the first cut -- stab, really...I'm not one to sharpen it.

Swords, whisky, boiled food -- why can't we have more holidays like that?

:ootd:

[MacBubba45]

Generally I've found if you like liver, you'll like haggis.

I've used the recipe out of Jeff Smith's Immigrant Ancestor book (Recipes You Should Have Gotten from Your Grandmother). It's been kind of Americanized; for instance we usually have to settle for beef heart. But you won't have to go through looking for uncommon ingredients (for where I live). And fresher ingredients are always better!

I'm at work and don't have the recipe with me, but I can post it for you later if you like.

The sheep's stomach part we got around using a beef cap (part of the intestine) we bought from a butchers shop. I agree with the above posts about using a bag or just making it in a pot and bypassing that part. I've had plenty of good haggis made in a pot. You just have to have it look like a greenish/grayish ball for "The Address" when it's used at a reception or dinner for the dirk to hack up!

[Rollo]

Haggis
Haggis, ‘great chieftain o’ the pudding race’, as Burns described it, is a close relation of the sausage. Its ingredients, which vary widely, always contain a fair proportion of oatmeal and more normally the heart, lights and liver of a sheep, wrapped in its paunch. Most people will be content to buy a haggis ready made from a butcher but some may like to make one themselves. However, the important thing is to know how to cook it.

Ingredients:

A sheep’s paunch
Liver, heart and tongue of a sheep
1/2 lb suet
2 large onions
1/2 lb oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon powdered herbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Method:

Wash paunch and soak overnight in cold salted water. Wash the liver, heart and tongue and boil in salted water for 2 hours. Reserve water. Then cut in pieces, removing gristle and skin, and mince. Mince the suet and onions and toast the oatmeal to a golden brown. Mix all together
adding salt, pepper and herbs, moisten with water which the offal was boiled in. Fill the paunch two-thirds full of the mixture and sew up. Prick over with a darning needle, to prevent bursting. Place haggis in boiling water and boil for 3 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes and swede.


Traditional Haggis
There are many different ways of making a haggis as far as the composition of the materials is concerned. Some people like minced tripe in it, some do not; some only like a very small portion of the lights (lungs). This recipe is a standard one, you may make adjustments as you wish.

Obtain the large stomach bag of a sheep, also one of the smaller bags called the King's hood, together with the 'pluck' which is the lights, the liver and the heart. The bags take a great deal of washing. They must be washed first in running cold water, then plunged into boiling water and after that, they must be scraped. Take great care of the bag which is to be filled for if it is damaged it is useless. When you are satisfied it is as clean as you can make it, let it soak in cold salted water overnight. The pluck must also be thoroughly washed; you cook it along with the little bag.

Boil the pluck and the little bag in a large pot with plenty of water, (leaving the windpipe hanging over the side of the pot as this allows impurities to pass out freely) for about an hour and a half before removing it from the pot and allowing it to cool. Reserve the cooking liquid forlater use.

When cold, start preparing the filling by cutting away the windpipe and any gristle and skin. Use only a third of the liver and grate it, then mince the heart, the lights, and the little bag. It may be that you find that the heart and the king's hood are not boiled enough in the hour and a half, and if so, put them back in the pot and boil until tender.

Chop finely one-half pound of beef suet.

Toast three handfuls of oatmeal (finely ground oats, or rolled oats; NOT the "instant" or "quick cooking" oats) on a cookie sheet in the oven, and then mix all the ingredients - minced lights, grated liver, minced heart, minced king's hood, suet, oatmeal, salt and a good shaking of black pepper. Make this into a soft consistency with the water in which the pluck,etc. was boiled; then place into the stomach bag. Fill only a little over half full as the mixture swells. Sew up the bag with strong thread and the haggis is now ready for cooking.

Use a pot which will easily hold the haggis, and place a plate or trivet in the bottom of the pan. Place the haggis on the trivet, and add water to almost cover the haggis. Bring the water to a boil, and keep it boiling steadily for three hours, pricking occasionally to allow air to escape.

The haggis should be served on a platter without garnish or sauce but served with mashed turnip and mashed potatoes seasoned with salt and pepper and mashed with a little butter.

Haggis

For 12 people

2 sheep's paunches (stomach bag)
1 ox heart
1.5 lb ox liver
1 lb lamb stewing meat
5 teaspoons black pepper
6 small chopped onions
1 lb steel cut oats
0.5 lb beef suet
mixed herbs (Thyme Sage, Basil)

Wash the paunch well and soak in cold brine for 2-3hrs.

Turn it inside out and scrape with a knife. Boil the meat for 1.5hrs.

Sew up the paunch with very fine string leaving a hole big enough to fill with stuffing.

Chop the meat finely and mince in mixer. Dump in large mixing bowl and add pepper, mixed herbs, onions, suet and oats. Mix well and fill the paunch two thirds full with the mixture.

Sew up remainder of panch.

Boil in water for 3 hours. When bag becomes tight, prick all over with a sharp needle (not a knife). Remove from the pan and place on a hotplate. Move it to the table.

To serve, slit open and serve with mashed potatoes and mashed turnip and blended whisky.

Trifle will feature on many Burns’ Supper menus