Posted on 01/24/2013 4:44:45 PM PST by the scotsman
'Traditional Scottish haggis is banned in the United States. With Burns Night looming, how do fans satisfy their taste for oatmeal and offal?
For aficionados, it is the "great chieftain o' the pudding-race".
To sceptics, however, it is a gruesome mush of sheep's innards - and for decades American authorities have agreed.
Authentic Scottish haggis has been banned in the United States since 1971, when the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) first took a dim view of one of its key ingredients - sheep's lung.
While millions of people around the world will enjoy, or endure, a Burns Night helping on 25 January, those in the US who want to celebrate Scotland's national bard in the traditional manner are compelled to improvise.
Some choose to stage offal-free Burns suppers, and for most people not raised in Scotland, the absence of the dish - comprising sheep's "pluck" (heart, liver and lungs) minced with onion, oatmeal, suet and spices, all soaked in stock and then boiled in either a sausage casing or a sheep's stomach - might be no great hardship.
But for many expat Scots and Scots-Americans, the notion of Burns Supper without haggis is as unthinkable as Thanksgiving without turkey.'
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Gee, you guys, you’re making all these cracks about it when you admit you’ve never tried it. It’s actually good.
I took a bunch of Boy Scouts to an internation event in Blair Athol, Scotland. Every two years since 1946, the Scottish Council of the UK Scout Association has held a unique Scout encampment on the grounds of Blair Castle in Perthshire. The Blair Atholl Jamborette is made up of international patrols of Scouts - each consisting of half Scottish Scouts and Scouts from overseas. The Scouts function as a patrol during the ten days of the Jamborette, and then each of the international Scouts spends up to a week in the home of a Scottish Scout. Great time. (The dads get 4 days in London while the Scouts visit!)
I did have hagis for the first time, and thanked God I had a nice single malt to wash it down.
I don't know if the particular stuff I ate was good hagis or bad hagis, but either way I will never eat it again.
But their Scotch is the nectar of the gods!
Back in the day of rotary phones, well before caller ID a favorite prank call to the grocery store.
.....ring! ....ring!
Store: “Hello?”
Caller: “Hi. Do you have pickled pigs feet?”
Store: “ I don’t know, hold on, while I check.”
Caller: (giggle, giggle, snort)
Store: “yes mam’m , we do”
Caller: Well, keep your shoes on, maybe no one will notice!”
LOL.... I raise Muscovy ducks and have actually seen them in an orgy. Someday I might find out if I like them for dinner... we have 30 of those ducks. Then geese and chickens, but I don’t plan to eat their feet or guts. ;>)
Polska Kielbasa is ALL American!
I grew up believing all country music sounded like polkas.
Green Bay Packers fan to this day.
My grandmother loved souse. It was sour smelling and looked like meat scraps in jello.
I was always picky about meat products, but I once has some bloodwurst from a German butcher, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. Spicy with nice fat pieces in it. Haven’t been able to find it like that in years.
Searsly...what is up with that toe?
I suppose it all depends on what you grew up eating...
To this day, I LOVE gefilte fish, jellied, ground fish, formed into balls and boiled, served with carrots and horseradish. And Kishke... I’m really not sure what went into that... And lots of schmaltz and gribnits, rendered chicken fat and the “cracklings”... On matzoh or toast. Mentioning these delicacies make my non-Jewish friends ill, and they won’t touch it!
But haggis? I don’t recall the name of the movie, but I seem to recall a quote saying that “Scottish recipes were based on losing bets...”
Mark
that’s a real peeve of mine, when people don’t crop extraneous (and nasty) stuff out of their “cute” photos lol
The practical side of me says that haggis sounds like a good way of making sure nothing goes to waste.
The squeamish side of me is thinking I’d have to be pretty desperate to try it.
Maybe if those same parts were ground up and mixed with other meats in a sausage . . .
I’m normally squeamish, but did develop a serious taste for Irish Black Pudding, a sausage made from beef blood. Fabulous and addictive with fried eggs.
That is served at every B&B my wife and I stayed at while vacationing in Ireland and Scotland. On my wife's advice (she grew up in Britain), I avoided trying the stuff. I'd rather try beans on toast. I do like mushy peas however.
If you ever find yourself dining out in New Zealand....... don’t order the White Bait!
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You must not have eaten in the right places. A friend encouraged me to try it. I thought a White Bait omelette to be quite good. Goat cheese, on the other hand, I think is absolutely vile. I can’t understand how it’s so popular. Reminds me of what it must taste like to suck on an old goat hide.
White Bait was a pulverized patty of some of the most disgusting tasting stuff I have ever been served...... change that....... it was the MOST disgusting tasting stuff ever.
White Bait was a pulverized patty of some of the most disgusting tasting stuff I have ever been served...... change that....... it was the MOST disgusting tasting stuff ever.
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That sounds awful. I only ever had it in omelettes. It had hardly any noticeable flavor- very mild, slightly salty, not much of a seafood taste. I can say unreservedly that it’s unlikely I could eat haggis. I love lamb, but once it starts to go muttony...gag!
With the spiced varieties, you taste the spice.
ODE TO A HAGGIS
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang’s my arm
The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
You pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’need
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead
His knife see Rustic-labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reeking, rich!
Then, horn for horn they stretch an’ strive,
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive
Bethankit hums
Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?
Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither’d rash
His spindle-shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!
But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll mak it whissle;
An’ legs, an’ arms an’ heads will sned,
Like taps o’ thrissle
Ye pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,
An’ dish them out their bill o’fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ pray’r,
Gie her a Haggis!
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