The Offal Truth About American Haggis

[Ozark Ridge Rider]

If you're going for the presentation, the presentation kit from Caledonian kitchen if fine (I don't work for them by the way, just happy coincidence to also be from the same part of Texas)

However, you can do your own for a smaller quantity than 30 people.

From any online sausage supplier you can get 100mm collagen casing (aka "salami" casing) which is definitely not edible, or "beef bung" in the 4"-4 1/2" variety (debatable edibility ) and stuff the Caledonian kitchen stuff into them. "Cooking" would be fast as the insides are already ready to eat and both types of casing are also already ready to use - basically you'd be heating it to get it hot and then serve it.

Just spoon in the stuff from the can, then leave "half again" loose casing for expansion (so if a can takes up 2 inches of casing, leave 1 more inch of loose casing), and tie it off. You're done. Heat it. Serve it on kale/lettuce.

I prefer the beef bung because you get maximum "bang for your buck" with the veinous "natural texture" of the casing. The collagen casing does fine though and looks "prettier" ... if you can say such a thing about haggis. .. or rather, maybe "tidier" is a better word.

Mine generally gets made in a pot on the stove. I then use small oven bags to "stuff it" so it's suitable to "cut ye up". Collagen casings work, too

[mookien]

... From any online sausage supplier you can get 100mm collagen casing (aka "salami" casing) which is definitely not edible, or "beef bung" in the 4"-4 1/2" variety (debatable edibility ) and stuff the Caledonian kitchen stuff into them. ...

WJ: Thanks for the "recipe". But, unless I'm missing something about "inedibility" I'll stick with the 303 steel casing, ie the can - much easier to dispose.

John

PS: "303 steel casing" sounds like something made by British Enfield.

[Ozark Ridge Rider]

Compared to some of the "by-products" we allow in hot dogs (Americas national food?) and lunch meats, I would think livers, lungs and such wouldn't be such a shocker.. but then, being from SE Texas with Louisiana right across the border, we're use to eating those types of things in Boudain, so maybe its just me.. I refuse to eat hot dogs and bologna but would be willing to try haggis with no quams. Seems mild in my opinion compared to things like tripe, chitterlings and other intestine products..

Quoting one of the lads in our St Andrews Society, "I'd a lot rather eat a haggis than a hot dog. I KNOW what's in the haggis".

[Wolfhound Jack]

But, unless I'm missing something about "inedibility" I'll stick with the 303 steel casing, ie the can - much easier to dispose.

Just a matter of "presentation" - tougher to cut into a can with a Sgian Dubh while dramatically reciting Address to a Haggis - but yes, for just basic eating, a can opener is just fine.

[mookien]

Compared to some of the "by-products" we allow in hot dogs ...

You mean like pig snouts, camel lips, and armadillo sphincters. Yummy!

[Babyvett]

And now I'm picturing little haggises (what would be the plural form for a haggis?) running around all armored up like Armadillos... hmmmm, maybe the haggis is a distant relative of the Armadillo? Especially if they've been seen running around the lakes of Texas... .. I think I need more coffee..

[Babyvett]

You mean like pig snouts, camel lips, and armadillo sphincters. Yummy!

Or as we say in Texas --- Wangs, bums, beaks and tongues.

[mookien]

I think "haggis" is Latin for lopsided or slanted (because of the short legs on one side), so the plural form would be haggi. Apparently, since nobody (except of course W. J.) has actually observed a haggis in the wild, there is little use for the plural form, so like the haggi themselves, is not often seen. I think I need more Scotch ...

[thescot]

Like others, we make our own with our own hybrid recipe. Can't get a real sheep's stomach, so we use a Reynolds boiling bag for stuffing it into. That really doesn't matter since the purpose of the stomach is to hold all the haggis together while you boil it.

We use real lamb, but we sumplement with chicken liver and a little ground beef since all of the real stuff is hard to find in these parts. Last time I tried to get my butcher to order all the lights and such, he looked at me like I was crazy.

We do use real steel cut oats and currants. Then it's basically onions, salt, pepper, and away we go. Ours is incredibly good, and there is rarely any left.

[Zardoz]

Well my xwife knows a lot about sheep, and she says in '71 U.S. Department of Agriculture banned the use of any lungs in food. After inspections found stomach contents, blood and bacteria in lungs. Since then the USDA has considered them "adulterated" (impure or unsafe) food items. The UK's mad-cow disease thing in the 80s put sheep stomachs on the inport ban list as well, because sheep and goats get a version of mad-cow called scrapie.