15^th century

Haggis

Haggis might be one of the best-known puddings of Great Britain. Although the Scots have adopted it as their national dish, it is not very Scottish in origin at all. In fact, the first recipe published in Scotland was at the end of the eighteenth century, 300 years after it first appeared in an English text.

Haggis is a savoury pudding made of a sheep’s stomach stuffed with the minced heart, liver and lungs from a lamb or sheep, onions, oatmeal, suet, spices and herbs. It’s rather like a large sausage, which is boiled and then often toasted in front of the fire. The first mention of the word haggis can be found in Walter of Bibbesworth’s thirteenth century book The Treatise (written in verse to help a woman teach her Anglo–Norman children French). The earliest recipe for a haggis can be found in a manuscript from circa 1430 and is written in verse. Similar puddings had been around for decades, even centuries, before that. The Romans had recipes for stuffed sow’s womb and the ancient Greeks enjoyed a roasted stuffed sheep’s stomach.

For Hagese

The heart of sheep, the kidneys you take, The bowel naught you shall forsake,

In the vortex made, and boiled well, Hack all together with good parsley,

Hyssop, savory, you shall take then, And suet of sheep take in, I teach,

With powder of pepper and eggs good quantity, And seethe it well and serve it then,

Look it is salted for good men. In winter time when herbs are good,

Take powder of them I know indeed, As savory, mint and thyme, quite good,

Hyssop and sage I know by the Rood.

Liber Cure Cocorum, c. 1430, translated into modern English by Cindy Renfrow, 2002

But even in the rest of Europe and further afield there were and still are dishes that it is possible to categorise under the ‘haggis’ type of pudding. Norwegian lungemos, Swedish pölsa, Lebanese ghameh and Icelandic slátur – to name a few – are all very similar to the haggis. This shows again that our cuisine comes from similar if not quite identical backgrounds, but just evolved differently due to climate and culture.

The etymology of the word haggis is another thing to consider. Bibbesworth’s mid-thirteenth century poem suggests that the term haggis was commonly known in English and French at that time as there are no glosses provided for the word. It could have been derived from a Frankish verb meaning ‘to hack’. The etymologist Walter Skeat suggested Scandinavian origins and claimed that ‘hag’ is derived from the Old Norse ‘höggva’ which means to strike or hew, but this theory has been discarded by others. Therefore it is most probable that the word haggis came from the fact that one had to chop or hack up all the ingredients. In the north around Cumbria, a pudding with the name hack or hackin pudding (see here) existed and shares many similarities with the haggis.

As with many puddings, the haggis started off being savoured nationally before surviving only in localities like the north of England and Scotland. We have the Scottish poet Robert Burns to thank for this shift. In the eighteenth century he wrote a poem called ‘To a Haggis’ that started the tradition of Burns Night suppers, when a large haggis would be served to the guests. The poem would be recited and afterwards the haggis would be roasted and eaten. Burns Night is an important part of Scottish culture and gives an occasion to celebrate that isn’t related to politics or religion.

Haggis continues to appear in most historical cookery books, and most recipes remain very traditional, like the first in Liber Cure Cocorum. Robert May, in The Accomplisht Cook (1660), gives three recipe for ‘Sheeps Haggas Puddings’. In his recipes he explains that for Lent you can use a cloth instead of the sheep stomach and leave out the suet. He also gives a recipe which makes a haggis entirely of oats, egg yolks and several fresh herbs.

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.

The Poetical Works of Robert Burns, c.1856, George Routledge and Sons

Today haggis has many different regional variations and it can now also be found deep-fried, as a topping on pizza, in croquettes, burgers, and many other odd and creative fusion ways. The Scots continue to embrace the dish that has become such a big part of their culture and have brought it into the twenty-first century. Scottish friends tell me they usually buy their haggis rather than making it at home from scratch.

Do you have the guts?

If you’re feeling a wee bit reluctant to use a lamb’s stomach, you can either buy large ox bung (intestine) casings online or you can make an artificial gut out of plastic wrap! Place a pudding cloth or clean tea towel (dish towel) over a bowl, lay two sheets of plastic wrap over it, put the pudding mixture in the middle and close the plastic wrap around it. Now tie the cloth around the ball and proceed to boil the haggis.