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HAGGIS, SCOTLAND'S NATIONAL DISH
Why is
it that when Scotland’s national drink is enjoyed and revered the
world over, its national dish is often the butt of the national
joke?
Ask
any Scotsman the age old question “What is a haggis?” His typical
response would be something like …“It’s a small four legged creature
that lives in the Highlands and has two legs shorter than the others
so it can run around the mountains without toppling over. It can
easily be caught by running around the hill in the opposite
direction.”
Well
it appears that the national joke is now beginning to backfire a
little, as according to a 2003 on-line survey, one-third of American
tourists to Scotland thought that a haggis was a wild animal and
almost a quarter arrived in Scotland thinking they could catch one!
So, if
you wish to preserve your belief in little furry creatures, or if
you have just purchased tickets for a “Wild Haggis Hunt”, please do
not read any further!
Perhaps it is because the truth is a little more frightening than fiction,
and too much
for a Scotsman to admit that his national dish consists of a sheep’s
stomach stuffed with diced innards and typically served with root
vegetables, otherwise known as haggis with mashed tatties (potatoes)
and neeps (turnips).
To be
a little more precise, a haggis is normally made up of the following
ingredients: a sheep’s ‘pluck’ (its heart, liver and lungs), minced
with onions, oatmeal, suet, salt and spices, all mixed with a stock
and traditionally boiled in the animal’s stomach for around an hour.
As unpleasant as this may sound, the end result is a culinary
masterpiece which should of course be washed down with a
‘dram’
of the national drink.
The
exact historical origins of this great national dish appear to have
been lost in the mists of time. Some claim that the dish originates
from the days of the old Scottish cattle drovers, when the men would
leave the Highlands to drive their cattle to market in Edinburgh and
the women would prepare a ‘ready meal’ for them to eat on the long
journey through the glens. Others have speculated that the first
haggis was carried to Scotland aboard a Viking longboat.
Yet
another theory dates the dish to pre-history, as a way of cooking
and preserving offal that would otherwise quickly spoil following a
hunt. Dice the ‘pluck’ and then stuff this and whatever other
ingredients may available into the stomach, immerse the whole in
the water contained within the skin of the beast, and then boil for an
hour or two. Nice and tidy, no washing-up required!
Traditionally a Chieftain or Laird may have had an animal or two
killed for a particular feast, the offal being passed to the
slaughterman as his payment. Haggis was always a popular dish for
the poor, cheap cuts of nourishing meat that would otherwise have
been thrown away.
Piping
in the haggis
Whatever its historic origins, the haggis is now as firmly
established as a Scottish national icon as the much revered whiskey, and
much of this fame can be directly attributed to Scotland’s national
poet.
Haggis
forms an integral part of the Burns supper celebrations that take
place around the world each January 25th, when Scotland’s
national poet Robert Burns is commemorated. Burns immortalised the
haggis in his poem Address to a Haggis, which starts “Fair fa’
your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o’ the pudding race!”
©
HUK
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