BURNS How to have the perfect night dining with Rabbie
Suppers can range from an informal gathering of friends to a huge, formal dinner full of pomp and circumstance. This running order covers all the key elements you need to plan and structure a Burns Supper.
A big- time Burns Night calls for a piper to welcome gu guests. If you don’t wa want all that baggage, tra traditional music will do nicely.n F For more formal eve events, the audience shou should stand to welcome arriv arriving guests. The piper plays until the high table is ready to be seated, at which point a round of applause is due.due At a gathering with no highhig table, the chair can simply bang on the table to drawadraw attention to the start of theh evening’si proceedings. The host warmly welcomes and introduces the assembled guests and the evening’s entertainment. A short but important prayer read to usher in the meal, The Selkirk Grace is also known as Burns’s Grace at Kirkcudbright. Although the text is often printed in English, it is usually recited in Scots.
Guests should normally stand to welcome the dinner’s star attraction, which should be delivered on a silver platter by a procession comprising the chef, the piper and the person who will address the haggis.
A whisky- bearer should also arrive to ensure the toasts are well lubricated.
During the procession, guests clap in time to the music until the haggis reaches its destination at the table.
The music stops and everyone is seated in anticipation of the address to the haggis.
The honoured reader now seizes a moment of glory by offering a fluent and entertaining rendition of To A Haggis. The reader should have his knife poised at the ready. On cue ( His knife see Rustic- labour dight), he cuts the casing along its length, making sure to spill out some of the tasty gore within ( trenching its gushing entrails).
Warning: it is wise to have a small cut made in the haggis skin before it is piped in. Instances are recorded of top table guests being scalded by flying pieces of haggis when enthusiastic reciters omitted this precaution. Alternatively, bits of haggis flying about the assembled company is regarded in some quarters as a part of the fun.
The recital ends with the reader raising the haggis in triumph during the final line Gie her a haggis!, which the guests greet with rapturous applause.
The audience now joins in the toast to the haggis. Raise a glass and shout: The haggis! Then it’s time to serve the main course with its traditional companions, neeps and tatties.
In larger events, the piper leads a procession carrying the opened haggis out of the kitchen.
Served with some suitable background mus i c , t h e sumptuous Bill o’ Fare includes:Starter: Cock- a- leekie soup. Main course: Haggis, neeps and tatties.
Sweet: Clootie Dumpling ( a pudding prepared in a linen cloth or cloot) or Typsy Laird ( a Scottish sherry trifle).
Cheeseboard with bannocks