Haggis finally gets a fair shake in the press!

[Tobus]

https://www.yahoo.com/food/haggis-ho...013921983.html

Haggis: How Bad Is It, Really?


This week, we’re taking a look at those international foods popularly thought of as “gross” and testing that theory. (Yay for us.) How bad are they…really?

Photo credit: Stockfood


Haggis: You think it’s gross because of how it looks. And because you’ve heard that it—whatever it may be—is encased and then cooked in the stomach of some four-legged animal.

The latter part is mostly true; traditionally haggis is prepared in a stomach casing, but you’ll find it in sausage casings, too. And what is it? It’s a savory mush of sheep tidbits (heart, liver, lungs), minced onion, cubes of suet (sheep fat), and oatmeal that’s served alongside ”neeps and tatties,” mashed turnips and potatoes, and some kind of sauce. (The version we found in New York City came with a brown gravy, but this author has also seen it with a creamy white sauce, as prepared by the Whitehouse Restaurant in the Scottish highland village of Lochaline.) It’s also the national dish of Scotland.


And it’s delicious.


"How could anyone not like this?" questioned one of our editors. "It has a slightly bitter flavor, but much more pronounced is a smoky meatiness the carnivore in me loves. The texture is like a finely ground hamburger meat, but the flavor is so much more than that: deep, dark, almost musty (in a good way)."


Of course, haggis is a prepared dish, unlike our other How Bad Is It, Really? subjects, which means there’s more room for error. Did this cook over-salt it? Did that cook chop the suet too small? The goodness of the haggis is at the mercy of the person preparing it. So that must be kept in mind.


"I’ve never had the real deal, but this version was damn good," said another one of our tasters. "I’m feeling a bit under the weather, and this made me feel warm and toasty and sort of normal for three seconds."


By “real deal,” she was referring to the fact that, in the States, our haggis doesn’t contain lungs. In fact, it hasn’t since 1971, thanks—or no thanks—to the US Department of Agriculture. So alas, the Burns Nights of Scots living in America have paled in comparison to the ones of their youths.


Even without the lung, though, we found it “intensely offal-y;” it has a nice “crackle of oatmeal” and was “pretty aromatic”—”sort of like ground meat plus extras.”


Haggis does not come close to being rated on the Gross Scale.

[HippieLee]

Man they make it sound downright scrumptious....

I still haven't had any but it's on my list. I love fried scrapple and I think haggis might be kind of similar - at least enough to make haggis a good thing.

[mookien]

Yum, yum! Eat 'em up. (from an old Little Rascals short).

[TheOfficialBren]

I love it! I seldom get to eat it but jump at every opportunity.

[BCAC]

It's good to see good press (for a change) for the good old haggis! I like it, a lot.

Here's a scoop, though. It's like any other food, really. You either like it or not. I seem to get the impression that Scottish diaspora try to like it, even if they don't. You are NOT obliged to like it just because of your Scottish ancestry! There are even people born, bred and living in Scotland that don't like it. It's allowed not to like it. The Scottish police won't be around to arrest you with the charge of "not liking haggis".

If you like it, fine. If you don't like it, fine also.

[Jack Daw]

In comparison to paté, I'll take haggis all the time. Paté is too bland in comparison.

[unixken]

The word I've always heard used to describe the flavor is... and always spoken with a pause, and a look of uncertainty... "savory."

[ctbuchanan]

Buck up my braw Buchanan brethren - haggis properly prepared is fit for any palate. Come up to the New Hampshire Highland Games where each year we entertain and feed about 60 of our Clan at our pot luck ceilidh! Haggis is the center of this meal and enjoyed by all!
The groaning trencher there you fill,
Your buttocks like a distant hill,
Your pin would help to mend a mill
In time of need,
While through your pores the dews distill
Like amber bead.
(Of course the free flowing drams a fore hand may make the difference as well!)

[room2ndfloor]

I still haven't had any but it's on my list. I love fried scrapple and I think haggis might be kind of similar - at least enough to make haggis a good thing.

I had it for the first time at a Burns Supper in January. It was tasty. The grain + meat and the texture reminded me of scrapple and boudin noir, an old-fashioned southern USA favorite.

It is one of those dishes, born of thrift to make use of all possible nutritious food, that gets elevated to some national emblem. With enough good brown gravy, a pile of wood chips would be tasty.

[HippieLee]

...With enough good brown gravy, a pile of wood chips would be tasty.

lol! Fair point! I haven't had Boudin noir either but that's another thing I saw on foodTV and thought I need to try...