Haggis is the traditional Scottish meal but not the most popular in fact many Scots turn their nose at idea of eating it.

Robert Burns our national poet wrote a poem to the haggis referring to it as “the Chieftain o’ the Pudding race”. Many say that if it wasn’t for that Address to the Haggis poem few people outside of Scotland and Scottish culture would even have heard of the dish. Robert Burns died in 1796 but his memory lives on and so does his poem to the haggis which is said on 25th of January each year when we celebrate Burns Night.

You will be able to find the full version of “Address to the Haggis” on our ScottishJerk.com website. The same section of the website includes a template menu for those looking to organise their own Burns Night supper. The menu template includes the Selkirk Grace our famous Scottish Grace.

On less formal occasions such as almost every night of the week all year round most Scots COULD buy what is referred to as a haggis supper. This is simply deep fried haggis with chips (outside of Scotland “chips” may be called French fries) and sold mainly as a take-away meal along with Haggis burgers. However this does not tell us what is the secret recipe that makes Haggis so special.

If you ask a Scot many of them will say that the haggis is a small beaver sized animal that lives wild on the sides of our Scottish highland hills. They have adapted to the steep sided slopes by having shorter legs on one side of its body than the other. Darwin explained this under the survival of the fittest theory by pointing out that this difference in leg length allowed them to run in circles around steep Scottish highland hills. Some travel agents will still try to sell tourists tickets for haggis hunting tours and then take them to the local butchers shop.

In reality the haggis is made up of the cheapest cuts of meat available usually a sheep making it popular for poorer families in ancient times (although venison haggis is eaten in some areas). The main ingredients tend to be oats and several different meats usually mutton, offal (i.e. heart, liver and lungs) all minced (or ground) along with onion and suet all heavily spiced according to different traditions. After mixing it will be placed inside a sheep’s stomach as a lining before being boiled and served usually with neeps (turnip) and boiled potato.

To suit modern day tastes the sheep’s stomach is usually replaced with an artificial casing and vegetarian friendly ingredients will often replace the meat and offal.

In many countries it will not be possible to get a truly traditional haggis e.g. the USA where the lung of animals has been ruled to be unfit for human consumption. We have covered the haggis in more detail including its role in Burns Night celebrations on our Scottish culture website http://ScottishJerk.com

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