Haggis, and sundry

[pensnest]

We had haggis for lunch today. Not, in fact, in honour of Burns Night, which we ignored, but because I was late getting to the butcher on Saturday and when I got there, well, there haggis was.

So, I poll:

Poll #23328 Haggis Poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 16

View Respondents

So, haggis.

View Answers

Yay!
5 (31.2%)

Noooooo!
2 (12.5%)

Never tried it.
9 (56.2%)

What is haggis made of?

View Answers

minced meat, onions, oatmeal
10 (62.5%)

No idea
5 (31.2%)

Something... I will detail in comments
1 (6.2%)

I discovered, incidentally, that haggis apparently cannot be imported into the USA. Because of the sheeps' lungs. But I'd have expected there to be plenty of Americans of Scottish descent who revel in Burns Night stuff and require haggis. Perhaps they can obtain inauthentic locally-made products.

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Just found (via metafilter) this *delightful* thread by someone watching The Princess Bride for the first time.

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I listened to a Tom and Lorenzo podcast not so long ago in which either Tom or Lorenzo suggests that while Prince William is turning into Charles, Prince Harry is turning into Diana. It seems a perfect summary of where those two are. Actually the opinions of T or Lo on the whole business made a lot of sense to me.

Comments

[turps]

James had haggis for tea two days ago, he enjoys it and I leave him to it. Which means lots of leftovers for him.

[dine]

I got curious and googled it - apparently specialty Scottish vendors sell inauthentic haggis (in cans even!) and some restaurants also have it on the menu. and some folks try to smuggle the real thing across the border from Canada, or get 'black market sheep lungs' to make their own

[conuly]

People smuggle it. Not even the weirdest thing people smuggle, tbh.

[turlough]

Americans have so many weird hangups! What's wrong with sheeps' lungs??

[pensnest]

I wouldn't want it often, but it's pretty good - nice and spicy! It was also *huge*, I didn't realise quite how huge until I put some of it in the microwave and had about half left. Meep.

[pensnest]

In cans has to be Just Wrong, surely!

I know there are plenty of sheep in the US, so somebody must have a lung or two to dispose of. And hearts and livers....

[pensnest]

I suppose I should have expected that! An interesting challenge for drug-sniffing dogs.

[pensnest]

They don't even eat liver and kidneys! Mind you, I can't bring myself to fancy tripe, so we all have our lines to draw.

[twistedchick]

I may be wrong, but I think the lung ban (as with similar bans) was the result of a transmitted-disease scare decades ago, possibly of something along the lines of Mad Cow? And the ban is still on the books.

Some of us on this side of the pond do eat liver and kidneys; it can sometimes be hard to get kidneys, but it is possible if one talks to the butcher.

[brandywine28]

As far as I know, haggis is made of (and I want it on the record that I didn't Google the answer, nor did I cheat by peeking at the other comments!) -- um. Sheep...guts? That have been...boiled? Possibly?

Geez, maybe I should've peeked. And yes, if you guessed I've never eaten it, you are 100% correct. (You're also right about Americans. We/they are weird about organ meats. Except for the Jews, who truly know what's what.)

That thread is adorable, but it kills me to think that anyone might see The Princess Bride for the first time and dub it "that movie where all the memes come from"!

[pensnest]

I wouldn't be surprised if the lung ban tracks back quite a long way. I believe it was eating sheeps brains that started Mad Cow—why anyone thought it appropriate to add meat to the cows' diet I cannot imagine. Sigh.

I must admit, I've been surprised at the amount of hostility to the idea of offal that I've seen in the past—many, many Americans must be descended at whatever distance from people who came from the poorer end of their respective societies—exactly the people who would have learned to do awesome things with 'unwanted' bits of animals. French cuisine seems to have made a real virtue of it.

And in fairness, there are lots of people here who won't touch the stuff either, which is probably a self-spiralling thing as there are fewer and fewer who know how to cook it.

[pensnest]

Sheeps guts, indeed - the 'pluck', it's graphically called! Minced up, spiced, with oats and chopped onion. Worth trying, though!

Re TPB: it's a bit like seeing Hamlet and coming out remarking that it is full of quotes.

[turlough]

Well, I don't eat liver either - it's one of the foodstuffs I can't even stand the smell of, like blue cheese and horseradish - but I love and adore kidneys!

[bettina]

I said "yay", because the one time I tried it in Scotland I quite liked it. I wouldn't mind eating Haggis again. Which is weird, because I'm not really into eating organ meat like at all. Here it's common enough to eat kidneys and livers, not sure about lungs, though.

[pensnest]

I think I prefer liver to kidneys, though as long as both are lamb I'm happy with either. Sometimes it's cultural, sometimes it's personal, I spose.

[pensnest]

I think lungs are a bit off the wall here as well! Heart is also unusual, though years ago I used to put stuffed hearts in the slow cooker for many hours and we'd have them for supper.

[ephemera]

Haggis is essentially just a different kind of sausage, right? One of these days I'll get around to trying the veggie versions that get sold for one week and one week only this time of year!

[pensnest]

It's a bit more textured than most sausages, that being the oatmeal (I assume). Also spicier! Not sure what a veggie haggis is made of, but given the increasing options in the field of meat substitutes, I expect it's pretty decent stuff.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

You left out the intestine casing.

We tried haggis at a festival. It was delicious. I have no idea why so many people seem to dislike it; it's very much like other sausage-type things, probably most similar to bratwurst.

In my community when somebody doesn't like something, we say, "Another haggis shortage averted!" :D