Haggis is a meat pudding traditionally made of chopped sheep’s pluck (heart, liver, and lungs) mixed with oatmeal , chopped onions, fat, and seasonings, boiled in a sheep’s stomach . The cooked dish looks like a large, round, brownish sausage , fastened at the top and bottom. When served hot, it has a meaty, savory smell and taste and often a somewhat greasy, crumbly texture.
An animal stomach serves as a natural bag in which to cook food, so dishes similar to haggis have probably existed for thousands of years. The Odyssey , an epic poem from ancient Greece, described the roasting of a stomach “full of fat and blood.”
Haggis was popular in medieval Britain , where both sheep and oats were widely raised. It was a thrifty dish that made good use of highly perishable offal (an animal’s internal organs) and inexpensive oatmeal. The word haggis first appeared in English sources around 1400. It may be connected with the verb haggen, which means to hack, chop, or cut, in reference to the dish’s minced ingredients. The earliest surviving English recipe for haggis dates from 1381, when the dish was known as fronchemoyle.
Haggis declined in popularity in England in the 1700’s, but remained popular in Scotland . There it became a national dish and was celebrated by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in his “Address to a Haggis” (1786). Haggis is the featured dish in celebrations of Scottish culture called Burns Suppers, held around the world every year on the poet’s birthday, January 25th.
Today, many forms of haggis are available in Scottish supermarkets , including vegetarian and kosher versions. It is traditionally served with mashed “neeps and tatties” (rutabagas or turnips and potatoes). But haggis is also a popular item in Scottish fast-food restaurants , where it is deep-fried in batter and served with “chips” (French-fried potatoes).
