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 ...
Dead sheep lung ping.......
With kimchee.
Although there's no large, well known, self-identifying Scandinavian group in Indiana, the Danes dominate Indianapolis and environs well enough to impose this stuff on everybody else.
All my ancestors except one Irish GGrandmother are Scottish.
Haggis is probably tasty but I just could not get up the nerve to try it. I guess my parents were the last generation who would eat Chitlins, Hogs Head Cheese, Pork Brains etc.
I guess they grew up eating it so it doesn’t seem so bad.
At the risk of provoking a national incident I’d like to suggest that a nice bit of kielbasa will stand in nicely for haggis, in a pinch. Or in a rare moment of lucidity.
I have never eaten haggis and never expect to. Being only one quarter Scot (Burnett), I must say I haven’t missed it.
Comment for all democrats...
If it looks good “eat it”, but if it tastes like crap.. DON’T..
If you’re not a democrat you may not need this information..
I am Scots-Irish by blood, but I would not care to eat haggis. When I get a craving for oatmeal, I simply ask my bride to make cookies. LOL
However, I don’t think that it should have been banned in the U.S.
Some folks eat beef heart, tongue, liver and brains.... oh, and testicles. Then there is chicken feet, fish head soup and the list goes on.
If I knew a real Scotsman that knew how to make haggis, I might try a wee bit of it.
With wasabi would be more appropriate.
Strange that the same folks that would bolt down this delicacy are the ones that in the 1700’s would set up a wonderful distillate industry in West Virginia and environs.
Probably wanted to wash the taste out of their mouths.
One question. How do you Scots convince the English to eat it?
Yuck. Haggis and/or organ meats.
"Get your Haggis right here! Chopped heart and lungs boiled in a wee sheep's stomach! Tastes as good as it sounds. Good for what ails 'ye."
I wish you had not brought this subject up. I’ve been thinking about it, now I think I need to try it. I am wondering what my wife will say when I tell her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1bJkTRawGE
That’s child abuse.
That's possibly the deepest cultural divide in America.
I’ll try anything once. If I ever get to Iceland, I’ll even try that fermented shark that tastes like Windex. Might need to scarf down some haggis to get the taste out of my mouth.
They are quite interesting ~ getting 'muricans to eat them is quite a struggle though.
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