Address to a Haggis; Part II

As the history of haggis and also peoples reaction to this pudding is so interesting I thought it was well worth adding some additional information about this national dish. As I discussed previously the haggis hasn't always been a purely Scottish dish, nor has it been universally loved even in Scotland. One factor in this is that by the end of the 18th century haggis was firmly associated with Scotland and this was a great problem for many people as Scotland had been part of Britain since 1707. Another issue is that a haggis is a great big lump of steaming offal and then as now this is a difficult thing for many people as the following description of meals served in a mid-18th century Scottish nobles household indicates:

"There was a very long table loaded with a great variety of dishes, some of the most luxurious, others of the plainest—nay, coarsest kind : these were very oddly arranged; at the head were all the dainties of the season, well dressed and neatly sent in ; about the middle appeared good substantial dishes, roasted mutton, plain pudding and such like. At the bottom coarse pieces of beef, sheeps' heads, haggiss, and other national but inelegant dishes, were served in a slovenly manner in great pewter platters; at the head of the table were placed guests of distinction, to whom alone the dainties were offered ; the middle was occupied by gentlemen of his own tribe, who well knew their allotment, and were satisfied with the share assigned to them. At the foot of the table sat hungry retainers, the younger sons of younger brothers, who had at some remote period branched out from the family ; for which reason he always addressed them by the title of “cousin”. This, and a place, however low, at his table, so flattered these hopeless hangers-on, that they were as ready to do Lovat's bidding " in the earth or in the air" as the spirits are to obey the command of Prospero"

We should also keep in mind that the haggis of this period were in fact quite different to those of today. If we look at archetypal haggis recipe from the 18th century, this difference isn't at first obvious; in fact the ingredients are still quite typical of a "modern" haggis.

A Good Scotch Haggies

Make the haggis-bag perfectly clean, parboil the draught ; boil the liver very well, so as it will grate ; dry the meal before the fire ; mince the draught and a pretty large piece of beef very small ; grate about half of the liver ; mince plenty of the suet and some onions small ; mix all these materials very well together, with a handful or two of the dried meal ; spread them on the table, and season them properly with salt and mixed spices ; take any of the scraps of beef that are left from mincing, and some of the water that boiled the draught, and make about a choppin of good stock of it ; then put all the haggis meat into the bag, and that broth in it ; then sew up the bag : but be sure to put out all the wind before you sew it quite close. If you think the bag is thin, you may put it in a cloth. If it is a large haggis, it will take at least two hours' boiling.

In fact the only real difference is the "haggis" itself. Confused? Well I guess it is very confusing unless you realise that "haggis" originally refered to both the sheeps rumen which was used as a casing for the pudding and to the finished pudding itself. Now that haggis are rarely made in a sheep's rumen, we only retain the latter sense of the word. Modern haggis are usually stuffed into bovine caecum or artificial casings. Part of the reason for this is that a rumen from an adult sheep is quite large with a total volume of 5-7 litres. This makes a huge pudding, something to feed a very large group of people with. Another reason is that the rumen has quite a distictive aroma, a cleaned bovine caecum or artifical casing doesn't. Part of the irony of this is that many, many of these modern haggis are eaten specifically for Burns Night suppers in which a poem describing the old syle and quite different type of haggis is read. In fact much of the poem doesn't make sense unless you are familar with the old style, offal boiled in a rumen, haggis. Before I move on to the poem, let me just make it quite clear that I do in fact love the modern style haggis, be it deconstructed, sanitized and reformed into a ziggurat on white bistro plates or battered and deep-fried from a chip shop.

The poem in question is obviously Robert Burns' "Address to a Haggis". Writing at the end of the 18th century in a period when Scots were creating a modern national identity, Burns was able to provide a robust, yet romantic ideal of Scottishness which was accessible to most Scots. So popular was Burns as poet, that shortly after his death "Burns Clubs" were formed. To this day the his birthday (25th of January) is celebrated as a national day in Scotland. On this "Burns Night" haggis are consumed in great numbers and his famous "Address to a Haggis"'is read.

As I was interested in how these 18th century haggis which where so associated with Scottish identity tasted, I made one based on the recipe shown above*. Making this haggis made the Burns poem much more clear

Above: The cleaned sheep rumen.

Above: The ingredients for the haggis stuffing. Offal, suet, beef, oats, onions and spice.

Above: The image that helped make the first part of the poem make sense.

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o' need,
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

Obviously a lot of this part of the poem is about the size of the haggis, as discussed above a haggis from a full grown sheep is going to be huge, absolutely as long as an arm and about to fill a trencher to over-flowing. "Hurdies" can be translated as "buttocks" and as you can see, due to the bi-lobed nature of the rumen, with a bit of imagination you can see some "hurdies like a distant hill". Difficult to see in this image, but some of the melted suet does indeed seep through to the surface of the rumen and has absorbed pigments from offal, these are the "amber beads".

Above: Another view of the haggis, showing the bulging, bi-lobed rumen.

Above: The haggis cut open to show the interior (the "gushing entrails bright").

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An' cut you up wi' ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, 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 lyke 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?

At this point in British history the French ragout and fricassee, and the Olio (derived from the Spanish Olla Podrida) were firmly established as popular (if foreign) dishes in Britain. However, many people considered them effete and foreign.

Poor devil! see him ower his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro' bloody 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,
And dish them out their bill o' fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a haggis!

* Note that as I was unable to obtain an adult sheep rumen, I used a rumen from a smaller animal that held about 1.5 litres.

Comments

[Rachel Laudan]

Where does one get a cleaned sheep's rumen?

There was an interesting discussion of haggis on the list serve of the Association for the Study of Food and Society a while back though not as historically informed as yours, Adam. But the net result was that a very wide range of European societies, not surprisingly, had something like a haggis. And as the discussion was going on, I went to an old fashioned Lebanese restaurant in Mexico City that proudly served a stuffed sheep's stomach dish that was first cousin to haggis--chopped meat, spices and grain (barley or wheat in this case I think). I need to go again and take a photograph.

So why did it become so closely associated with Scotland? I'm still not clear about this.

[Rachel Laudan]

Just found my posting on my computer. It's out of context but at least it lets me correct the grain.

Yesterday I had lunch in one of Mexico City's classic Lebanese restaurants founded in 1930. And guess what. One of the specialties was "panza de carnero relleno" stuffed sheep's stomach. Not surprisingly the fillers were rice and chick peas. It was good. There was also stuffed intestine. And as Darra says of the Russian version, this was clearly not the food of the poor. It has always been an upmarket restaurant and still is with rows of nannies and chauffeurs waiting outside.

The Lebanese dish is called "Ghammeh", Anissa Helou gives an excellent version of it in "The Fifth Quarter" (her wonderful offal cookbook). Not surprisingly then, I bought the stomach from a Lebanese butcher!

One point that I would like to make clear is that "haggis" isn't just something stuffed into a stomach, it is specifically the name of the rumen. People often refer to a medieval porpoise haggis recipe, but actually if you look at the recipe it is very specifically not refered to as a haggis, but as a pudding, even though there is a sheep haggis recipe given in the same collection. Also, in some recipes the rumen is minced and stuffed into sausage casings and this is still refered to as a haggis pudding, due to the main ingredient, not because you stuff it into a stomach.

So while there are many stuffed stomach recipes (I have seen a 19th century Mexican recipe for instance), there are relatively few recipes for stuffed rumen (Homer mentions one for instance). Once you make this distinction, a lot of these other "haggis" are seen for what they really are, another type of sausage, not nessarily a haggis. I think that this has come about as most people are unfamiliar with offal etc, so when they hear of a stuffed stomach they automatically refer it to the most famous version in their experience - the haggis.

Why haggis became such a Scottish icon is pretty complicated. From what I can tell, by the early modern period the various haggis had really become a Northern English and Scottish dish. In Scotland it remained a relatively common dish, in England it became a feast day dish (and also made from calf stomach). In the mid-18th century is became associated with Scottish Jacobites and by the end of the century, the Scots in general. The huge popularity of Burns, his poem, and celebrating his like ensured that it became an icon. There are other factors like the relative consumption of mutton in Scotland v England, but I haven't looked into this.

[Rachel Laudan]

Thanks for the clarification Adam. So if you are right, almost nothing that today is eaten as haggis is in fact haggis in the sense of stuffed rumen. Rumen sounds a bit overwhelming.

And does it make a big difference if it is another part of the alimentary canal?

Depends on how fussy you are I guess. The rumen does have a distinctive aroma/flavor (which depends on how much you clean it), which for many people would have been one of the primary flavors of a haggis. But having tasted a broad range I would say that it doesn't matter too much. More important to me is the flavour balance and texture.

[Malar Gandhi]

Hello there,

Its a nice post. I never knew one could make such great recipe with rumen. Actually some people in India do prepare 'goat's rumen'. I hard hard time to prepare that recipe for my friends(cleaning and cleaning...you know). This recipe looks yummy! Great work!

[Keith]

Adam, I've secured all of the necessary offal, but am wondering to the procedure of cleaning the stomach. As it's full of grass at slaughter time, this needs to be removed, but the openings are pretty tight. Is there a trick to this? We don't want to cut the stomach, or can it be stitched up?

[Adam Balic]

Good on you Keith, what a impressive project.

You need to really clean the stomach out well, which involves turning inside out and scrubbing it under running water. In some cases people also rub salt in as they are scrubbing it, which further cleans it. It is a lot of work.

I just stiched and openings up with butchers tine and a large needle (butchers needle). Blanket stitch is good as it is strong and counter acts the tendencey of the thread to tear the stomach as it softens during cooking.

Remember not to overfill it and to poke it with a needle initially to let air out.

Best regards,

Adam