25 January: Haggis

It’s Burns Night, so here are ten facts about the staple of a Burns Night supper: Haggis.

1. What is haggis, anyway? Well, it’s not, as around a third of American visitors to Scotland believe, a small Scottish animal with longer legs on one side, so that it can run around the steep hills of the Scottish highlands without falling over. Sorry, but that’s a lie the Scottish people made up to take the mickey out of tourists. It’s actually a savoury pudding made of Sheep’s heart, liver and lungs. The meat is minced, mixed with Onion, Oatmeal, suet, spices and Salt. The mixture is then traditionally packed into a sheep’s stomach and boiled. Hence it is also classified as a type of Sausage.

2. It’s thought that haggis originated in the days of Scottish cattle drovers. When the men left the Highlands to drive their cattle to market in Edinburgh, their wives would prepare food for them to eat on the journey. They used whatever ingredients they had to hand (which may well have been offal, since when a laird had an animal slaughtered, he’d give the offal to the workers) and packaged them in a sheep's stomach so the meal would be easy to carry.

3. There are a couple of theories as to the origin of the word. Many say it comes from the Old Norse word höggva, meaning to cut or hit, the same root as the Old French word hacheiz, meaning “minced meat.” Makes sense in relation to a dish made of chopped up stuff. The alternative theory is that it comes from a different Old French word, agace, meaning "magpie", because it’s made up of odds and bits, and Magpies like to collect odds and bits.

4. Haggis is Scotland’s national dish, thanks to Robert Burns’s poem Address to a Haggis written in 1786. It starts "Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!" However, more haggis is sold in England than in Scotland. The dish is particularly popular in London. It’s also popular in Ireland and Hong Kong, but not in the USA as it’s been banned there since 1971 because it contains sheep’s lung which is a banned ingredient. This ban hit other traditional foods as well as haggis, but it came to be known as the “haggis ban.”

5. It’s thought that the ancient Romans and Greeks ate a dish similar to haggis.

6. Ideally, a haggis should “gush” when a knife is stuck into it. The best way to achieve this is to cook it by boiling, but with care as it could burst. When a haggis is boiled the insides, or “entrails” as they are described in the poem, swell up and stretch the outer casing.

7. Haggis hurling is a thing. It’s a sport played at the Highland Games alongside caber tossing. In June 2011, Lorne Coltart set the record, lobbing a haggis 217 feet.

8. Hall’s of Scotland made the world’s largest haggis in 2014, weighing 2,226 lb 10 oz— as heavy as a small car.

9. Since 1984 it’s been possible to buy a vegetarian haggis. This substitutes pulses, nuts and vegetables for the meat. Oats, Barley, Lentils, split peas, adzuki beans, kidney beans, borlotti beans, nuts, Mushrooms, onions, and Carrots might also be included. Vegetarian haggis now accounts for between 25% and 40% of haggis sales.

10. Haggis is quite versatile and can be used as an ingredient for other dishes. You can get haggis burgers, haggis pakora (common in Indian restaurants north of the border) or haggis Pizza. An option served in restaurants all year is is Chicken Balmoral, which is chicken breast stuffed with Whiskey-soaked haggis and wrapped in Bacon. In addition you can get haggis flavoured crisps and Ice cream.