The honoured pudding
Haggis and its content of lamb plucks – lungs, liver and heart – is synonymous with Scotland. However, lots of countries and cultures can claim ownership of it
With Burns Night looming,
Emily Arbuthnott looks at the appeal of haggis, which, she says, is certainly not confined to Scotland
written BY emily Arbuthnott
Haggis? What is haggis?” asks the Spanish character Ramirez, played by the Scot, Sir Sean Connery, in the film Highlander. “Sheep’s stomach stuffed with meat and barley,” replies the immortal, eponymous Connor Macleod, played by the French actor Christophe Lambert. “And what do you do with it?” asks Ramirez. “You eat it,” Macleod replies. “How revolting,” responds Ramirez.
Haggis. All things truly Scottish, from orange cheddar to the clashing colours of hunting tartans, involve a slight leap of faith. That first screech on the chanter, which (eventually) leads to the exhilarating sound of Highland Cathedral emitting from the bagpipes; the flinch at that first taste of single malt before your soul surrenders to its soporific magnificence; the initial disdain at haggis and its contents of lamb plucks — lungs, liver and heart — before discovering deliciousness without equal. Aware of this need to overcome, they start them early north of the Border. Children throughout Scotland are served haggis not only at home but at school from the age of five onwards.
Haggis is synonymous with Scotland, yet lots of countries and cultures can claim ownership of it. The Scandinavians have a Viking hand-me-down version, for example. The ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes complained about his exploding in 423BC. Even the English can claim their Lancashire cookbook of 1430, Liber Cure Cocorum,
contains the earliest known recipe for haggis. F Marian Mcneill wrote in her book, The Scots Kitchen: “The choice of haggis as the supreme national dish of Scotland is very fitting. It is a testimony to the national gift of making the most of small means. It contains a proportion of oatmeal, for centuries the national staple grain. Further, it is a thoroughly democratic dish, equally available and equally honoured in castle, farm and croft. Finally, the use of the paunch of the animal as the receptacle of the ingredients gives that touch of romantic barbarism so dear to the Scottish heart.”
The Scots have two great advantages that enable them to claim haggis as their own. Firstly, as James Macsween of Macsweens tells me, “The Scottish diaspora is 40 million worldwide.” That is a lot of Scottish haggis endorsement. The other is that the great and, let’s be honest, slightly more rock-star bard, Rabbie Burns, wrote an ode to it. The ultimate advertising jingle.
ADDRESS TO A HAGGIS
First printed in 1786, Address to a Haggis contains immortal lines such as “Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race!… The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like a distant hill.” [Fair and full is your honest, jolly face, Great chieftain of the sausage race!... The groaning trencher there you fill, Your buttocks like a distant hill.]
Address to a Haggis is the most brilliant poem and if you haven’t read it, then I urge you to, even if it’s the last thing you do today before you put the dogs out. Burns is not short on homage paid to him; every Hogmanay Auld Lang Syne is belted out by millions of people all over the world. Even, once upon a time, Cherie Blair. My Love is Like a Red Red Rose is cited by Bob Dylan as having the greatest impact on his life and as a song, has had as many covers as you need to keep warm in a Victorian Highland shooting lodge. The ultimate tribute to Burns takes place every year on 25 January, his birthday, when families and communities all over the world come together to feast and celebrate Burns Night. Since the first Burns supper in 1801, the haggis has been ceremonially piped in before it is scoffed with neeps and tatties. The Address to a Haggis is read, as is other work by Burns, and several drams of whisky are somewhat enjoyed.
It is important to stress that while Burns’ literary finesse lends romanticism and nostalgia to this vision of offal, were it revolting the ploughman poet’s endorsement would be in vain. There is a reason Shakespeare never wrote an Ode to Tripe.
James Macsween acknowledges that there is a sales peak around Burns Night, particularly in Canada, but that haggis is popular all year round, including being a feature dish for other celebrations. “We provide the haggis for the illustrious St Andrew’s Society Ball in Singapore, held on 24 November and now in its 182nd year,” he says. Macsweens, who are currently also exporting haggis to France and Germany, began exporting to Canada in August 2017. The first time haggis had been
Sales peak around Burns Night but haggis is popular all year round
exported there in 46 years. David Rae from Macsweens affirms: “There is a real opportunity for exporting haggis and we frequently get requests from our international following on Facebook to start exporting to various countries, such as Sri Lanka and India.” The one place that you will not find Scottish haggis legally at the moment is in the US. A 1971 federal regulation ruled that “livestock lungs shall not be saved for use as human food”. Although there is rumoured to be a multimillion-dollar haggis smuggling ring, such is the desire for it.
James Macsween is “quietly confident” that it will be possible to export to the States soon, “especially since the Republic of Ireland have recently begun exporting beef to America”. For the time-being, Macsweens and other Scottish haggis-makers still have a presence in the US with their vegetarian versions. “In the US our vegetarian haggis is known as Scottish Veggie Crumble and in Canada it is Highland Veggie Crumble,” says Macsween. “We had more than a million pounds worth of sales in veggie haggis in the past year. My Dad made the first commercially viable vegetarian haggis in 1984 for the opening of the Scottish Poets Library in Edinburgh. The vegetarian haggis ended up getting more press coverage than the launch.”
Waitrose is keen to tell me that it saw, in the past year, “an increase in sales of traditional haggis by 35%, vegan haggis by 36% and gluten-free haggis, which was only introduced in 2017, of 151%. We expect to see all our haggis prove as popular in 2019.”
Independent butchers also sell a variety of haggis, from gluten-free to vegan, alongside the traditional one. Annabel Forbes, who runs Bel’s Butchers in Angus, sells sliced haggis, which customers take out of the case and use as stuffings or crumble it on toast. For Scottish Craft Butchers, 2019 is the year of the haggis.
When asked why butchers are reticent to relinquish haggis recipes, Forbes explains: “Each butcher’s haggis is integral to their identity. Our recipes are sacred to us. We all use old recipes that we have made tweaks and adjustments to. Each butcher’s haggis is unique because they are seasoned differently. I wouldn’t recommend trying to make haggis at home, anyway, it is a nightmare of a job and unless you have been stalking and can make venison haggis, coming by
all the ingredients can be tricky. If you ask a butcher for lamb lungs they are more likely to convince you to buy one of their own haggis. They are easy to take home and cook – one of the many joys of haggis.”
HAGGIS FROM SCRATCH
Billy from Findlays Butchers, in Portobello, Edinburgh, concurs: “It takes about a day to make a haggis from scratch.” As well as selling wholesale to hotels and restaurants in Edinburgh, Findlays also sells many haggis to the tourists who arrive off the cruise ships at nearby Ocean Terminal.
Annabel Forbes’s advice on what to look for in the perfect haggis is that it, “shouldn’t be bitter or tough. Avoid over-salty or overfatty varieties. We use coarser pinhead oatmeal because I like the texture.”
Chef Claudia Escobar, who has cooked all over Scotland and South America, frequently uses haggis in her dishes. “It goes so well with venison and cheese. I sometimes add onions, a bayleaf, cognac or a single-malt whisky, butter, salt and pepper to the crumb and use that as a base and serve it with roe deer and sweet potato. It is unbelievably delicious,” she says.
Carol Deeney, purveyor of Scottish street food and proprietor of Deeney’s cafe in London, is famous for her haggis toastie, the Hamish Macbeth. She says: “There is a definite nostalgia for haggis. Whether from Scots or from tourists. Haggis is a beautiful product and both vegetarian and non-vegetarian haggis toasties are tremendously popular. They are something different and something special.” Her website describes them as like “a highland breeze wafting up your kilt”. Food blogger The Hungry Kitten says: “The humble toastie is how Carol’s made haggis palatable to the masses.”
My good friend Hugo could quite possibly be Britain’s biggest fan of Grant’s tinned haggis, which he introduced me to on a walked-up grouse shoot nearly a decade ago. He says: “Tinned haggis is a cupboard staple for an emergency full British breakfast. Nothing beats fried egg, bacon and haggis. Pop it in the Aga for 25 minutes and it crisps up really nicely. It is peppery perfection.”
As Annabel Forbes says, “Haggis is so versatile, it is scrumptious as a standalone dish or as a hybrid of something else, you can do a million and one things with it.” Haggis bon bons, haggis nachos, haggis scotch eggs and haggis koftas frequently feature on fine dining menus and beyond. It is always being reinvented. Macsween once concocted a 3.7kg haggis consisting of Highland wagyu beef, white summer truffle and edible gold leaf for £4,000. And in the vein of Scottish authenticity, there is always deep-fried haggis. Sláinte!