Haggis is the traditional Scottish meal but not the most popular in fact many Scots turn their nose at idea of eating it.

It is said and I believe it that most people would not have even heard of the Haggis if it had not been for our national poet Robert Burns. He referred to it as the Chieftain of the Pudding Race in his poem “Address To The Haggis. Robert Burns died in 1796 but his memory lives on and so does his poem to the haggis which is said on 25th of January each year when we celebrate Burns Night.

We give the full version of the “Address To the Haggis” poem on ScottishJerk.com. The same section of the website includes a template menu for those looking to organise their own Burns Night supper. The menu template includes the Selkirk Grace our famous Scottish Grace.

On less formal occasions such as almost every night of the week all year round most Scots COULD buy what is referred to as a haggis supper. This is simply deep fried haggis with chips (outside of Scotland “chips” may be called French fries) and sold mainly as a take-away meal along with Haggis burgers. So what is that makes our Scottish Haggis special?

Ask a Scot and they will tell you a Haggis is a small animal with its two left legs shorter than the right legs. Females have the short leg on the right so you tell them apart easier! Darwin explained this under the survival of the fittest theory by pointing out that this difference in leg length allowed them to run in circles around steep Scottish highland hills. Many tourists are very disappointed when they are unable to book on Haggis hunting expeditions at local travel agents.

But joking apart this food is traditionally made up of mainly the cheapest parts of a sheep so it was always particularly popular amongst the poorer people of the land.The main ingredients tend to be oats and several different meats usually mutton, offal (i.e. heart, liver and lungs) all minced (or ground) along with onion and suet all heavily spiced according to different traditions. After mixing it will be placed inside a sheep’s stomach as a lining before being boiled and served usually with neeps (turnip) and boiled potato.

To suit modern day tastes the sheep’s stomach is usually replaced with an artificial casing and vegetarian friendly ingredients will often replace the meat and offal.

In many countries it will not be possible to get a truly traditional haggis e.g. the USA where the lung of animals has been ruled to be unfit for human consumption. We have covered the haggis in more detail including its role in Burns Night celebrations on our Scottish culture website http://ScottishJerk.com