THE GUTS OF THE MATTER.

            Haggis is a savory pudding made with sheep's heart, liver and lungs; minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and  traditionally stuffed in the animal's stomach.

            Yum, yum. Right. . . Wrong. You’’ American stomach probably rebels at eating “innards” or animal guts.

            Back in the early 1940s, the U.S. was shipping much of the nation’s meat supply to Europe and the Pacific to support troops fighting in WWII. Here at home, the meat supply started to dwindle. By 1941, New York restaurants were using horsemeat for hamburgers and there was a poultry black market.

            The impending meat shortage worried the Department of Defense. The first thing they did was ration meat but then they did something that made sense.  They called on the nation’s leading sociologists, psychologists and anthropologists and asked them to figure out how to convince Americans that they should eat organ meats, the protein-rich livers, hearts, kidneys, brains, stomachs and intestines that were left behind after the steaks and pork loins went overseas.

            Organ meat wasn’t popular in America. A middle-class woman in 1940 would sooner starve than despoil her table with tongue or tripe. Those experts had to convince Americans to eat livers and kidneys, housewives had to know how to make the foods look, taste and smell as similar as possible to what their families expected to see on the dinner table each night.

            They tried, they tried hard. They printed and passed out thousands of recipes showing how to camouflage innards to make them appear like something familiar. They took adds in local newspapers extolling the virtues of tongue, brains, and tripe. They even went to Hollywood and had several short subject movies made showing beautiful dishes such as Brains and Eggs and Tongue in Gelatin Aspic.

            The promotions must have shown some success. Liver and Onions has become fairly popular and  I know people who will knowingly eat kidney pie  or brains and eggs.  My Uncle Eddie was one of them but I also remember that he pretty much covered these dishes with catsup. but I degress. . .Back to Haggis.

            Haggis has been around for a long time but it didn’t go back as far as our friends, living in a cave, Agnes and Biff. I am sure they ate animal innards, but haggis was a bit more sophisticated.

            Their son, Fast Eddie or more likely one of his offspring might have ended up in early Greece where a kind of primitive haggis is referred to in Homer's Odyssey.

            The Ancient Romans were known to have made products of the haggis type. Whenever they had the guts.

            The name "hagws" or "hagese" was first used in England around 1430, but the dish came to be considered traditionally Scottish but there is a lack of historical

evidence that could conclusively attribute its origins to any one place.

            Haggis was "born of necessity, as a way to utilize the least expensive cuts of meat and the innards as well."

            Haggis is popular in England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and , of course, Scotland but not so much here in the United States.

            Many Scottish shops and manufacturers make what they call vegetarian haggis, substituting various pulses, nuts and vegetables for the meat..

            Haggis is widely available in supermarkets in Scotland all year, the cheaper brands are normally packed in artificial casings, rather than stomachs. Any Scotsman will tell you that the stomach casing is essential.

            However haggis is also sold in tins. Similar to our own Spam.

Just in case you have the stomach for it and want to give it a try. . .

Ingredients

·                         1 sheep's stomach, cleaned and thoroughly, scalded, turned inside out and soaked

·                         overnight in cold salted water

·                         heart and lungs of one lamb

·                         1lb beef or lamb trimmings, fat and lean

·                         2 onions, finely chopped

·                         8oz oatmeal

·                         1 tbsp salt

·                         1 tsp ground black pepper

·                         1 tsp ground dried coriander

·                         1 tsp mace

·                         1 tsp nutmeg

·                         water, enough to cook the haggis

·                         stock from lungs and trimmings

 

Method

1.                       Wash the lungs, heart and liver (if using). Place in large pan of cold water with the meat trimmings and bring to the boil. Cook for about 2 hours.

2.                       When cooked, strain off the stock and set the stock aside.

3.                       Mince the lungs, heart and trimmings.

4.                       Put the minced mixture in a bowl and add the finely chopped onions, oatmeal and    seasoning. Mix well and add enough stock to moisten the mixture. It should have a soft crumbly consistency.

5.                       Spoon the mixture into the sheep's stomach, so it's just over half full. Sew up the stomach with strong thread and prick a couple of times so it doesn't explode while cooking.

6.                       Put the haggis in a pan of boiling water (enough to cover it) and cook for 3 hours without a lid. Keep adding more water to keep it covered.

7.                       To serve, cut open the haggis and spoon out the filling. Serve with neeps (mashed turnip) and tatties (mashed potatoes).