A History of Haggis (2019)

3 days ago (historytoday.com)

Call me a birkie, but I do skip the stomach stuffed with pluck (aka liver, heart and lights (aka lungs)) in favor of a simple loose saute of a nice lamb and/or beef and/or venison mince with oats, onions and proper spice; plus carrot and parsnip puree instead of neeps; plus a nice chianti.

While an interesting history, the actual truth is that the haggis is a small mammal which lives in the highlands. While they can be hunted (from St Andrews Day to Burns night), most commercially available haggis is farmed.

There is no truth to the rumour that they have 2 legs longer on the left side to easily run around the steep hills. Or that the males and females have different long legs so that they run around the hills in different directions and therefore meet.

> Once again, it was the English who provided the spur.

I'm continuing with this initiative by proposing a new variant on Haggis: "Shepheard's Haggis". It's basically a Shepheard's pie - which is essentially lamb mince+stuff topped with mashed potato - made using haggis instead of mince. If I have any leftover gravy in the freezer that gets mixed into the haggis to moisten it a bit. I've making this for years.

For added heresy I replace the neeps with baked beans, themselves livened up with some sumac or similar.

Im Scottish and stopped eating haggis for a while due to the "it contains ..." - but then started liking and appreciating it again. Its a great food for mixing meat, oats and herbs, and the veggie versions are really good too

Most people who complain have no objection to the floor sweepings of fast food they are eating

One of the worst things about Brexit for me in mainland Europe is that it became very difficult to obtain real, proper Haggis and Stornoway Black Pudding.