Haggis comes without the offal
TORONTO — For the first time in nearly 50 years, Scotland will start exporting haggis to Canada. But traditionalists might be disappointed as a key ingredient of the iconic dish, offal, must be left out to meet Canadian regulations.
A traditional Scottish haggis is made with a sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, along with oatmeal, suet and spices, often encased in the animal’s stomach. But Canada has an import ban on offal — which includes the entrails and internal organs of an animal — so Macsween of Edinburgh has developed an off a lless version to export.
That doesn’t sit well with Steve Allen, owner of Allen’s Scottish Butchers in Toronto.
“We’ve been making haggis over 40 years,” Allen said. “I don’t know how you could get the same sort of thing without the offal in there.”
It is the lungs in particular that are essential to the proper preparation of a haggis, Allen said. “The lung actually makes the haggis fluffy and it gives it texture,” he said.
“Heart is basically a muscle, and it’s basically tasteless, but it’s lean. And then there’s liver. In our haggis, only 10 lb. of liver goes into a 200 lb. finished product, so you don’t taste the liver.”
For Dave Meli, head butcher for the Toronto-based Healthy Butcher chain, not using offal in haggis simply negates the philosophy behind the classic Scottish dish that ensures that all parts of the animal get used.
“I buy whole lambs every week and I’m one of the few butcher shops that deal with whole animals,” Meli said. “One of the byproducts of dealing with whole lambs is that bundle of offals, and let’s face it, people aren’t exactly buying up lamb offals left and right. But these things cost me $6 a pound. To throw them out every week sucks.”
Meli said converting offals that would otherwise go into the trash into something beautiful is a no-brainer. “I’m pretty confident that Scottish people in Scotland would tell you the same thing. It’s a way to make lamb offals awesome,” he said.
“Haggis has an unfortunate name. The best way to look at it is oatmeal paté. It’s outstanding, it’s velvety, it’s beautiful. But the name suggests you need to be tough as a Scotsman to try it.”
As far as imported offal-less haggis goes, Meli isn’t convinced consumers would really know the difference. “With food engineering, you can do about anything these days,” he said.
Michael Cox, who owns Ottawa’s two Scottish and Irish Store locations, said alternatives, such as vegetarian haggis made with lentils, already sell well at his stores, so he expects customers will likely embrace the opportunity to buy a different type of haggis directly from the motherland. “I think the taste is more of the thing with haggis, than whether it’s authentic or not,” he said.