Here’s the finnished haggis! It was a dense little ball at just over 2 pounds.
Now it was time to open this little beast. I don’t know if you read about a traditional Burn’s supper but we skipped the usual ceremonies and simply dove in after saying grace. And to save you an extra search on the web, I’ll summarize the traditional dinner:
Everyone gets together on January 25th, the day of the holiday, and they bring out a haggis on a platter, bagpipes blaring away. Some guy in full Scottish dress comes up (I wonder if it’s ever a woman?) and starts reciting Robert Burn’s poems while talking to the haggis. That’s right… He talks to the haggis. Even though it seems a little silly to watch, I guess this makes sense since the title of the main poem is, “Address to a haggis.” At the end, he pulls out a big knife and slices open the haggis and everyone chows down to plates full of haggis, neeps, and tatties. And all of this is washed down with scotch, of course!
Click here to read the poem, “Address to a haggis.”
Samantha and I both agreed that it looked exactly like all the pictures we’d seen. The smell was hard to describe. It was rich and distinctive but not overpowering and not bad. Here’s a close-up of the main course. Remember, you can click on the photo for the full-sized version. 🙂
And of course, the back-up meal: chicken roast with root veggies, which smelled great.
I had planned to take more photos through this part of the meal but it was a little busy getting the last steps together, as a big meal always is. And once we started eating, I got absorbed into everything and missed more chances for other photos. I guess this is a good thing though since it meant we were all having a good time. Below is my plate with the traditional 3 items (haggis, neeps, tatties), some of the root veggies from the chicken roast, and a pile of greens. Those are sautéed green beans and green chard. I added the chard to put another “nutrient dense” food item into the mix to compliment the organ meats – like eating a plate-sized multi-vitamin!
You can see the scotch in the small glass next to the bottle that my dad contributed for the dinner and off to the right is a Belgian ale (the brown liquid in the small goblet). I’ll call this my appetizer, which was shared with my dad before dinner was ready. I have a weak spot for Trappist ales. The Trappists are an order of Catholic monastics and a small handful of them brew beer to fund their monasteries. Most of the Trappist breweries are in Belgium, a country that has been called the “Disneyland of beers.” In my opinion, those monks make the best, or shall I say, the most heavenly brews in the world. OK, maybe that was a little cheesy, but I’m not the only one who thinks this as these ales are among the highest rated beers in the world. If you’re an ale fan too, be sure to check out Rochefort, they’re my favorite of the Trappists and this is their #8 ale!
I have digressed… Back to the haggis! So I’m sure you’re wondering about the final verdict. My overall impression of the haggis was; OK to pretty good. It wasn’t great and certianly not bad. To be honest, I expected it to be worse than it was. This confused Debbie completely as she said, “I can’t undestand why you would make something you would expect to not like??” She definitely had a point, but for me there was so much more to this experience than simply tasting it.
As for the taste, it was rich, similar to the smell, with a nuttiness from the oats. It brought back very old memories of eating hash as a kid since the crumbly texture was similar. This was better than the hash since I’m pretty sure it was from a can and was just salty, ground-up corned beef sprinkled with bits of potatoes. The haggis meat was very soft and the flavor was not as strong as I expected, just unique and a little hard to describe. Maybe this was the lung in it, I don’t know, but I was surprised it wasn’t more like grainy, over-cooked liver since it went through 2 stages of cooking. Of course the added onions and fat would make anything taste soft and rich. The haggis tasted much better when mixed into the neeps and tatties. Incidentally, I was surprised at how long it took for the rutabagas to cook down to be mashed. It took at least twice as long as the potatoes or a little longer. I didn’t expect this so it messed up my timing for everything, but it was all OK in the end. We all liked the mashed rutabaga. Debbie and I thought it was a nice change to mashed potatoes, so I would recommend this dish if you want to try something different for your next pot roast or chicken roast. They have a mild sweetness and lightness that’s really nice. I was really happy to see that both of my kids finished their servings of haggis and everything on their plates! When I asked the kids what they thought, Andy gave a simple and short “It was good,” and Samantha said, “My mouth isn’t sure what to think of it.” I still haven’t been able to get a clear answer from her but it was great to see them have this experience at a young age. “It’s better to start them (with such things) when they’re young,” my North Dakota, lung-contributing friend said. I completely agree!
If I make haggis again, there’s only a few things I would change. I wouldn’t bother toasting the oats since this step strikes me as a modern version that makes those oat kernels harder from being further dried out. Then, I read about one Scottish haggis manufacturer that prides itself on having the “perfect” blend of pin oats to medium oats (called Scottish oatmeal in the states and is between coarse and fine ground oats). I would try something like this too and and lastly, I would add more spices and perhaps more stock for extra moisture, but the salt level was good. It would also be nice to use all sheep parts next time and… I would make it to coincide with a Burn’s Supper for more people! Even better would be to help make it with a local family in Scotland!
My dad told me the next day that they enjoyed coming for dinner but didn’t think haggis would become a staple in their house. I agreed. Nervetheless, as is evident from the photo above from our happy guests, the dinner was certainly a success!
I hope you enjoyed reading this!
Take care,
Tim
