Haggis, the national Scotland dish, you might wonder “what is Haggis?”. This iconic Scottish dish is becoming a popular dish on the internet because it’s as healthy as it’s tasty. You might hear a lot about this dish and some things might be good and others not so much, mainly because of its ingredients.
This dish was made traditionally with sheep’s offal and some spices, and it was cooked inside the sheep’s stomach. Nowadays Haggis changed a little and it’s not cooked inside of a stomach and is filled with lamb, beef, or pork. With this twist, this recipe became more appealing to everyone and now you can find it even in supermarkets.
Table of Contents
What is Haggis made of now?
The fillings of the Haggis might vary from place to place because many Scottish chefs have their own recipe but the main ingredients are the same most of the time. The traditional Haggis was made of sheep’s pluck – the lungs, heart, and the liver, minced and mixed with suet, oatmeal, and other seasonings and aromatics.
This traditional recipe has changed and is made with meats or another animal’s pucks. The commercial Haggis and almost all of the restaurant Haggis are made with the heart, lung, or liver of a lamb, minced beef or lamb, onions, garlic, suet, oatmeal, and some aromatics as nutmeg and coriander.
The casing has been replaced too for an artificial one to make this dish more appealing for everyone. Similar to blood sausage, this dish is full of iron and many vitamins, sharing some benefits and a similar texture.
How is Haggis served?
This might vary from place to place, but the most common way to eat Haggis is paired with mashed turnips and tatties – potatoes – along with a whisky sauce. Some other places served Balmoral Chicken as a way to present the dish, which is chicken filled with Haggis, and this maybe is the best way to eat it for the first time.
The Balmoral Chicken is Haggis wrapped with bacon, served with a creamy sauce, which makes the texture of the haggis a little better. Sometimes Haggis is served as a fried up replacing black pudding, as a creative way to give a twist to some other dishes.
Drink pairing
You can make the experience fancy by pairing your Haggis with some traditional Scottish drinks. Whiskeys go perfect with this dish and we recommend you to drink it dry or on the rocks. If you don’t want hard liquors with your meal you could pair it with a glass of red wine or a strong, dark beer.
What does Haggis taste like?
It depends on how you eat it and if you like blood pudding but, the actual flavour is really nice and you just need to get used to the texture and the irony hint it can give you. It can be very crumbly and the oats can give you some earthy flavours but overall is a hearty meal and it can be very wholesome.
As this dish is no longer prepared inside of a stomach and 90% of the restaurants serve it inside of an artificial casing, the flavour comes from what is inside. If it’s mixed correctly the profile of flavours is incredible, is very balanced, and not very strong.
Is it healthy?
Livers, hearts, and other plucks are good for you, especially if you need to raise the iron on your blood. This dish, in its meaty version, can also provide you with vitamins, minerals, iron, and magnesium, all of those are good for your heart, can prevent many diseases, and help your immune system.
Is there a vegetarian version?
You might find this suppressing but there is a vegan version of this meaty dish as it’s really good too. Many restaurants replace the offal and suet with fresh vegetables with a similar texture and mix them with beans, lentils, mushrooms for the umami, and many aromatics. Thanks to the mushrooms and the lentils the texture is similar and stills taste hearty.
This variant can be also found in supermarkets as many brands have created a vegetarian version that resembles their original meaty one. Restaurants in Scotland have this option too available on their menu so you don’t have anything to worry about.
How to cook Haggis at home
We can’t tell you how to cook a freshly made version because you might need a lot of tools that most people don’t have. In this case, we suggest you buy a pre-made one or one packed by your favourite restaurant and prepared it at home this way. Once you have your favourite one, you just need to prepare your kitchen.
The most traditional method is to simmer the Haggis for two to three hours in a pot with boiling water. You need to keep an eye on the Haggis if you do this method because it might burst. In case you want to avoid any bursting you can bake it in a casserole dish with veggies and some water.
The pre-cooked versions – the ones we recommend – have some advantage and you can cheat and cook it in a microwave if you are in a hurry. Another cheat is to cook it in a really hot cast iron pan; this will create a crust and will seal a lot of the flavours.
Is Haggis Scottish or English?
As the Scottish national dish, and being presumably invented there, many people believe it’s Scottish, but its origin is still a mystery. What we can say for sure is that Scotland’s celebrate this dish and they eat it in Burns Night, celebrating the way he immortalized this dish in his poem “Address to a Haggis”.
This celebration is still important in Scotland since 1801 and is celebrated on Burns’s birthday, January 25. Nowadays is celebrated across the world and many people do their own recipe to make a homage to this traditional and tasty dish.
