The haggis is the centerpiece of the Burns Night Celebration and is usually carried in by the chef on a silver plate. A kilted bagpiper leads the procession. Other guests followed carrying the “neeps and tatties” the turnips and mashed potatoes.

Before tasting this delicious Scottish Dish, Robert Burns’ “Address to the Haggis” is recited and the Haggis is stabbed with a traditional “Sgian-dhu” or black knife which the Highlander carries on his socks, the traditional beverage served is of course, “the Water of Life”, The Whisky.

The origins of the Haggis are unknown, some people believed its origins to be in Scandinavia, France, England or even in ancient Greece and Italy, as a very similar dish could be found in these countries.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, The Haggis is a dish consisting of the heart, lungs and liver of a sheep, calf, etc (or sometimes of the tripe, minced with suet and oatmeal, seasoned with salt, pepper, onions, etc and boiled like a large sausage).

This dictionary also mentions that the Haggis is now considered Scottish but it was a popular dish in English Cookery at the beginning of the 18th century. Also it was found on one of the oldest cookbooks in English “The Form of Cury” (cookery) written in 1390 by one of the cooks to Richard II and this book had a dish called “Afronchemoyle” which is the Haggis.

The recipe of “The Form of the Cury” is the following:

“Take eggs, with the yolk and the white together, and mix with white bread crumbs and diced sheep’s fat. Season with pepper and saffron. Stuff a sheep’s tripe with the mixture, sewing securely. Steam or boil and drain before serving”.

There are some stories about the real origins of the haggis.

1. It came from France during the “Auld Alliance” sometime during the Middle Ages, this is how Sir Walter Scott saw it in his work “The Fortunes of Nigel”.

2. Clarissa Dickson Wright, in her book “The Haggis” has a different opinion. She believes the Haggis comes from Scandinavia. Dishes made from the maw of an animal can still be found in this country. Scandinavian people visiting Scotland had claimed its similarity with their local dish. It is possible that the Vikings brought their haggis to Scotland while raiding this country; (they brought many things with them including their sheep and cooking skills when they settled in Scotland).

3. Perhaps the haggis came to Scotland from the Vikings but via France. After all Normandy got its name from the Norsemen. French ambassadors and other travelers could have brought it to Scotland. Let’s bare in mind that for many years Paris was a finishing school for the Scottish nobility and a training for the clergy.

4. In Ancient Rome and Greece butchers sold carcasses with all the innards intact and a passage from Aristophanes “The Clouds” suggests that they used to eat something similar to the Haggis.

Historically, the 15th century haggis recipes used the liver and blood of the sheep. Later in the 17th century comes a recipe for a meatless haggis in a sheep’s paunch. This one uses parsley, savoury, thyme, onions, beef suet, oatmeal, cloves, mace, salt and pepper; mixed together and sewn up and boiled. It was served with a hole cut in the top and filled with melted butter and 2 eggs.

Perhaps one of the reasons of the popularity of the haggis may have been that in the past, cooking pots were hard to find and the maw of a freshly killed animal was the perfect solution. The offal, the parts that go bad soonest, would have been eaten first. After the liver and kidneys were eaten, the Scots were left with the stomach which they used as a ready made cooking container.

In Scotland and other countries, haggis was made with meat that was dried or smoked to keep it fresh along the winter. Swedish Polsa is also made in this way.

There are modern haggis recipes which use pig meat and a banqueting dish from the middle ages was called small pig’s haggis. Another variety can be made of chicken and venison.

One anecdote about the Haggis.

In 1746, after the Battle of Culloden, a small group of Jacobite soldiers led by James Moir, laird of Stoneywood, was cooking their haggis over a fire when a band of Hanoverian soldiers rode up. In the melee that followed, the cooking pot was overturned and the haggis rolled out. An English soldier caught the haggis on his bayonet causing the hot pudding to burst and scattered the contents all over the English soldiers. The Jacobites ran for their lives, one of them calling out in Gaelic: “Even the haggis, God bless her, can charge downhill”!

Haggis in Humour

Ask a Scotsman, what a haggis is and you will probably get this explanation:

A haggis is a small four-legged Scottish Highland creature, which has the limbs on one side shorter than on the other side. This means that it is well adapted to run around the hills at a steady altitude, without either ascending or descending. However, a haggis can easily be caught by running around the hill in the opposite direction. Surprisingly, the humorous myth is believed by many tourists until they are told the truth.

Taste the Haggis, you will not regret it !