Haggis Image Used Under Creative Commons License From londonist.com
Citizens – for those of you who are not of Scottish blood, be advised that tonight is that most sacred Scottish holiday: Burns Night!
Celebrating that most famous son of Scotland, the poet Robert Burns, all good Scots tonight partake of the pomp, circumstance and rituals surrounding the holiday: bagpipes, toasts, oration and of course the eating of Haggis, aka “the Great Chieftain o’ the Pudd’n race”.
This most infamous of Scots recipes usually sends Sassenachs (non-Scots) screaming back to the English border and beyond. Yes, it uses parts of the sheep like finely minced cooked liver and heart cooked in a stomach. It also includes oatmeal, whisky, herbs and spices.
If you have a problem with this…
…get over it. 🙂
Your average hot dog has all those organ meats in it plus snouts, ears and assholes – haggis is a cleaner and nobler sausage by far! You don’t eat the stomach, by the way…
This recipe is delicious. Try it. Just once. Or not – but you’ll be missing out. For the bravest amongst you, who will try the recipe – I salute you!!! My recipe is without question the finest that can be tasted and is totally authentic with one exception: lungs cannot be sold legally in the U.S. so I’ve instead substituted minced lamb’s tongue.
Battle on and Happy Burns Night – The Generalissimo
PrintThe Hirshon Haggis for Burns Night
- Prep Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 0 hours
- Total Time: 0 hours
Ingredients
- 1 lamb’s paunch (stomach)
- 1 lamb’s heart (cleaned and trimmed)
- 1 lamb’s liver (cleaned and trimmed)
- 1 lamb’s tongue (cleaned and trimmed)
- 1 beef liver (cleaned and trimmed)
- 1 pound steel cut coarse oatmeal
- 1 pound beef suet, shredded
- 3 large onions, peeled and finely chopped
- Lots of lamb or beef stock
- 1 tsp grated nutmeg
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp mace
- 2 tsp fresh parsley (leaves only chopped fine)
- 2 tsp fresh thyme (leaves only chopped fine)
- 2 tsp fresh sage (leaves only chopped fine)
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 1 teaspoon marjoram
- 1 teaspoon pennyroyal (the traditional Highland herb for Haggis – use it if you can, otherwise omit
- 1 teaspoon summer savory
- ¾ teaspoon cayenne
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
- The Macallan 12 whisky
Instructions
- Prepare the lamb’s paunch (stomach) by washing it out under clean running water, then stirring 3 tablespoons of salt into 10 1/2 cups of cold water in a clean plastic bucket and soaking the paunch in it overnight.
- Prepare the lamb and beef liver, tongue and heart.
- Wash the livers, tongue and heart under clean running water and place them in a large saucepan, cover with lamb or beef stock and a tablespoon of sea salt, bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes drain the liver, tongue and heart well and place into a bowl (reserve 3 ½ cups of stock for later!), when cool put them in the fridge to be used the next day.
- The next day:
- Turn the soaked paunch inside out and rinse under cold running water for at least ten minutes, to wash all the salt water off it. Then set aside to drain as you make the filling.
- If you are using fresh beef suet shred it very small, almost to breadcrumbs (it should shred easily) and reserve in a very large mixing bowl – if using packet suet add it into the bowl.
- Coarsely mince the livers and add to the suet in the large mixing bowl.
- Cut the tongue and heart up very small or coarsely mince. Add this to the large mixing bowl with everything else.
- Into the bowl add and thoroughly mix each ingredient in – the fine chopped onions, the herbs and spices and then stir in the reserved stock with any fat that has hardened.
- Make sure everything in the bowl is mixed thoroughly and no one ingredient is clumping together. Bake the oats so they are completely dry (take out before they brown) and add to the mixture.
- Add The Macallan 12 whisky (to taste) to the mixture then grind everything together once in a sausage grinder.
- Using a spoon put the Haggis filling into the prepared lamb’s paunch (turned back the right way out). Once put in sew up the opening with linen thread or thin butchers string. Note: The paunch must not be too tightly packed or it will burst as the oatmeal swells during cooking after absorbing the stock.
- Put the Haggis in a large saucepan of boiling water and simmer gently for 3 to 4 hours. Using a sharp needle prick the paunch once or twice in the first hour to allow steam to escape and prevent the Haggis from bursting.
- After 3 or 4 hours serve the Haggis turned out of the paunch on to a large dish and serve with neeps and tatties (turnips and mashed potatoes). Needless to say, serve with single malt whisky and stout or bitter ale.
- Praise the Pudd’n!
- Category: Recipes
Nutrition
- Calories: 2492.62 kcal
- Sugar: 33.59 g
- Sodium: 1567.38 mg
- Fat: 177.51 g
- Saturated Fat: 92.92 g
- Trans Fat: 0.03 g
- Carbohydrates: 102.71 g
- Fiber: 12.58 g
- Protein: 46.09 g
- Cholesterol: 609.28 mg
