[NVDave]

Tatties - potatoes cut up and then mashed with milk and butter. Sometimes spices are added.

Neeps - Swede (a green leafy vegetable that grows in cold climes - from the turnip family - turnip greens come in all sorts) with salt and pepper.

I’ve seen other sorts of tatties that are spuds cut into eights and allowed to fry in about 1/2” of oil, seasoned to taste.

The thing to remember about Scottish cuisine: there’s a reason you don’t see “Scottish Restaurants” in the phone book, despite the number of Scots ex-pats who have come to the US over the last 250+ years: most Scottish cuisine is very poor fare. The Highlanders were a poor and persecuted people, and their food was more or less than what was left over. Traditional haggis is but one example of this: offal, oats and spices, served up in a sheeps stomach.

You’re not about to see that served up on the Food Network by any of their shiney-happy-people chefs.

Even malt whisky is the result of poverty. Most people don’t know this, but the Scots used to drink ale, not whisky, as their national drink.

Then the English levied a malt tax on all products made from malted grains - by volume. You pay more tax on beer than whisky and so the nation of Scotland became moonshiners up in the hollows and glens. US moonshiners in the south have as their heritage the Scottish tax avoidance of the malt tax - US moonshiners just use corn instead of barley as their feedstock. Anyway, you get the idea — the Scots were poor, they weren’t about to pay a tax on their booze, so they went to whisky as a means of avoiding the malt tax and the rest, as they say, is history.

[Ditter]

The results of the Scots poverty was still evident 20 years ago when I visited Scotland. A post office employee in a small town refused to accept a book that I wanted to send home to the US because it was too heavy and would cost to much in postage. I had the money in my hand (rich American) but according to her it was ‘too dear’ (too expensive) and she refused it.

[glock rocks]

You’re not about to see that served up on the Food Network by any of their shiney-happy-people chefs.

Actually...

Haggis

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown
Show:	Good Eats
Episode:	Oat Cuisine

1 sheep stomach
1 sheep liver
1 sheep heart
1 sheep tongue
1/2 pound suet, minced
3 medium onions, minced
1/2 pound dry oats, toasted
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried ground herbs

Rinse the stomach thoroughly and soak overnight in cold salted water.

Rinse the liver, heart, and tongue. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook these parts over medium heat for 2 hours. Remove and mince. Remove any gristle or skin and discard.

In a large bowl, combine the minced liver, heart, tongue, suet, onions, and toasted oats. Season with salt, pepper, and dried herbs. Moisten with some of the cooking water so the mixture binds. Remove the stomach from the cold salted water and fill 2/3 with the mixture. Sew or tie the stomach closed. Use a turning fork to pierce the stomach several times. This will prevent the haggis from bursting.

In a large pot of boiling water, gently place the filled stomach, being careful not to splash. Cook over high heat for 3 hours.

Serve with mashed potatoes, if you serve it at all.