Haggis is probably the least understood but undoubtedly the best known Scottish food. However a lot of Scots will not eat Haggis.

Robert Burns our national poet wrote a poem to the haggis referring to it as “the Chieftain o’ the Pudding race”. Many say that if it wasn’t for that Address to the Haggis poem few people outside of Scotland and Scottish culture would even have heard of the dish. Even although Rabbie Burns died in 1796 the toast to the Haggis is still said throughout the world particularly on Burns Night 25th January of each year.

You will be able to find the full version of “Address to the Haggis” on our ScottishJerk.com website. There is also a sample format for those wanting to hold a Burns Night Dinner. The menu template includes the Selkirk Grace our famous Scottish Grace.

The haggis can also be eaten as a Haggis Supper at local take-away shops. This is simply deep fried haggis with chipped potatoes (French fries outside of Scotland). However this does not tell us what is the secret recipe that makes Haggis so 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! Charles Darwin would have been able to point to this survival of the fittest theory and show scientifically that the shorter legs on one side allows them to run faster round the sides of steep hills in order to escape larger animals like man. Some travel agents will still try to sell tourists tickets for haggis hunting tours and then take them to the local butchers shop.

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.By tradition the ingredients are mixed from several different meats including the heart, liver and lungs (the latter is often called lights) together with some mutton, onion, suet fat and arrange of spices and herbs to local taste and custom. 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.

Today you will also find the sheep’s stomach has been replaced with an artificial cellulose casing and several vegetarian versions of the haggis are being made available in supermarkets.

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