What’s Wrong With My Haggis?

Evidently, too many people turn their nose up to my beloved national dish. I am often left wondering why especially when there are so many other foods that also contain offal and are loved by the same people who won’t try haggis. I’m left scratching my head.
This situation has left me to think about how to present haggis in my upcoming book. I have looked at it from every angle. The spice, the oats, the organ meat itself, the cook process and lastly, how it is served. Traditionally it is served with neeps and tatties but I have found some risk takers dishing it up in other forms as well but still not really hitting the mark as far as enticing the rest of the world to eat it regularly and not just on Burns Night.
While I contemplate what it is that might possibly need work to make it modern, I have to admit that I seriously overthought this one. The haggis itself is a beautiful dish. Most often overcooked and underseasoned but certainly a beautiful dish. A dish deserving it’s very own poem written by Scotlands most famous poet? Aye, it is!
Described by words like reekin, gushing and glorious I have to wonder are we diluting this glorious dish with sides undeserving? Where did the neeps and tatties come into all this anyway?
Honestly, in my opinion, this is where we lose the interest of the dish. It’s not the haggis, it’s the 2 lumps next to it that don’t compliment the dish at all. If neither are mashed then possibly just possibly it is enjoyable but here is my take on the whole trinity of things.
Texture. That’s right, the texture is too soft. Soft haggis, soft potatoes and soft neeps all mashed up and offering nothing to the diner except a distant memory of baby food.
I say forget the neeps and tatties. Even if you fry both, it is still lost because I just don’t see how they go together permanently. Well, let’s just say it is a work in progress but a mushy supper is typically not on anybody’s plans for a good meal so no wonder it is hard to sell especially if it is all 3 your selling!
I will continue my work on this and hopefully come up with something of a solution. If not, the book will just have to simply include haggis all by itself. Either way that’s not too bad in my book.
Cheers,

Address to a Haggis
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin’-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye worthy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o need,
While thro your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
The auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
‘Bethankit’ hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi perfect scunner,
Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither’d rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll make it whissle;
An legs an arms, an heads will sned,
Like taps o thrissle.

Ye Pow’rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis

Hot or Cold?

When I started out on my journey to create Modern Scottish Cuisine I did my best to rummage through my thoughts and ideas of what ingredients would best demonstrate the flavors of Scotland. Arbroath Smokies? Haggis? Black Pudding?

For me at first, I was overwhelmed with ideas. For the first time in my life it finally dawned on me that Scotland was bursting at the seems with great food. Initially I thought that maybe, just maybe I felt the way I did because of the way I grew up and these foods were familiar to my fondest memories. I was wrong. After twenty something years of cooking great food I have now focused on my favorite foods and how to modernize them without losing the classical flavor that could sometimes be muddled or lost in the translation.

I can finally relate to the fondness that Rabbie Burns wrote about in his poem Address to a Haggis:

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.

It is because of the idea of eating haggis either hot or cold I focused my attention on developing not just modern hot dishes but complete the process with cold dishes as well. My first attempt will be smoked salmon, I thought. If you’ve never tried it then your certainly missing out. It is delicious. Cold smoked of course and perfect for an opening recipe for my book. I have the chilled Skirlie wrapped in lovely cold smoked Scottish salmon. As the development goes on, I try to marry the dish up with compliments of sweet, savory and earthy tones that best represent Scotland. Orange marmalade, mushroom duxelles and a topping of finely chopped herbs to give it, what I call, a hedgerow to emulate the abundance of hedges seen around Scotland.

It’s finally coming together and I’m excited to get the recipes finalized. Once done I plan on sharing, meanwhile:

Thanks Rabbie for the inspiration! I’ll have my haggis now and not just wait for your birthday!