If I ever write my own “Mommie Dearest” book, Chapter One will be “The Night She Made Me Eat Haggis.” It was actually both parents but the evening still makes me wake up at night screaming. Given this traumatic childhood encounter, you can understand my alarm with the news story that Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has come to the United States to seek the ban that was imposed on the importation of haggis in 1971. The “Return of the Haggis” could soon come to a restaurant near you. I just fail to understand. We have always been so nice to the Scots and this is how they repay us. Isn’t it enough that we have tried so hard to like soccer this year?
Paterson (left) is trying to convince US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to free the haggis. In order to make haggis, you basically take all the parts that you want to eat from an animal, toss them, and eat what is left. Haggis uses sheep’s pluck or the heart, liver, and lungs mixed with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt and then stuffed and cooked in the sheep’s stomach. This obnoxious concoction is then simmered in the stomach for three hours. The problem for the U.S. has been the sheep lung which has been banned for importation.
Peterson recently proclaimed that “I share many haggis producers’ disappointment that American diners are currently unable to enjoy the taste of Scotland’s wonderful national dish in their own country.” The promise to allow Americans “to enjoy the taste” of haggis sounds more menacing than enticing.
As many on the blog know, I tend to favor free market principles and I must admit the effort to free the haggis has lift me torn between my economic principles and my personal disgust. For my part, I would prefer to drop the Burns poetry, toss the haggis, and drink the Scotch. With enough Scotch, I can begin to barely understand the Burns poems but there is no amount of Scotch in the world to kill the taste of haggis.
Source: Sky
Chuck that’s one way to spread the word.
I’m going to go throw-up now. *gag*
Actually, haggis is really quite tasty. Just as when one first encounters sushi, it’s necessary to get past the idea of what one is eating. And think about it: not everybody relishes the idea of eating burnt dead cow.
Stuart – I have a friend who has no sense of smell so he seems to be able to eat almost anything. Food taste is very cultural. I was raised on slightly warmed beef. My wife likes sushi, but raw fish is a food too far for me. 🙂
Never heard of haggis before. It sounds awful. I had an unforgettable encounter with lutfisk.
One set of my great-grandparents were Swedish. For Thanksgiving one year when I was about 7 or 8 they were getting old and my grandmother – their daughter – thought it would be a good idea to celebrate a Swedish tradition of eating lutfisk as part of the holiday (along with the traditional turkey, thankfully). Just smelling it induces nausea. Yet the adults insisted everyone take at least a bite, supposedly for good luck. Every time it got near my mouth I LITERALLY started to gag. I finally forced a small amount down, which was the closest I ever came to being abused as a child. Disgusting. Noxious. Putrid. The progressives who got a constitutional amendment ratified forbidding alcohol because they wanted to control what we put in our own bodies would have done better to make lutfisk unconstitutional. Maybe the current era of progressives will take it up as a cause. For the good of the nation.
There is a bakery in Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard called, The Scottish Bakery. The Black Dog Bakery is where the hipsters and politicians go. The Scottish Bakery is a little[at least it was last I was there] unpretentious old house.They make incredible shortbread, scones, and all types of baked goods. That is a bit of redemption for an otherwise horrid food culture.
The best of Scotland are the scones and the shortbread. Haggis could me move from usually vegetarian to always vegetarian.
Tyler:
“You don’t need to have the stomach for it. It’s already cooked in the sheep’s stomach, so it comes with one.”
**********************
Then I really don’t have the stomach for it.
PS, I looked at it on my plate while attending the British Open in Scotland in the 97. Believe me I know. I know.
Harry, I worked @ Leavenworth and the food was very good. Besides the max prison, they had a minimum security farm. That’s where Michael Vick served his time. The farm had pigs. The freshest and best pork I ever ate.
Haqgis and lutefisk are examples of why the Scot’s and Norwegian cultures never left their small countries. There’s a reason people never say, “Let’s have Norwegian or Scottish, tonight.”
When I did drink, Scotch was my drink of choice and I did love Bobby Burns, but haggis is going too far. As someone whose father participated in the annual ‘Rocky Mountain Oyster Eating Festival’ I am not sure I can take a stand against people eating haggis. As long as I do not have to eat it I am fine with what others eat. Intellectually, I can deal with the fact that the Chinese raise my breed of dog for food and hunting, so what is the problem with eating offal or tripe?
Porkchop,
Good luck with that. Don’t forget what happened to the army of King Haakon IV back in 1263.
I’m going for prison food instead. It’s free and tasty. Yum, yum.
You don’t need to have the stomach for it. It’s already cooked in the sheep’s stomach, so it comes with one.
Well, I’m Scandinavian, and I eat lutefisk with relish — that is, I relish eating lutefisk. Eating it with relish would be wrong — just melted butter, salt,and pepper, thank you very much.
I strongly favor allowing people to eat their own gut-wrenching, stomach-churning, gorge-raising traditional foods.so as to train their children in the ways of self-mortification and national pride.
Free the haggis! Also, as soon as soon as Scotland votes for independence, we Norsemen will invade and take all of the good parts of the sheep away from the Scots, just like the old days! That’s why they had to start eating haggis in the first place. 🙂
Susan,
Legend has it the real reason for the diaspora of young Scots all over the world was that their parents were trying to force haggis on them at mealtimes. They fled the country instead.
Ah, come on now. Haggis is soul food for the Scots. And by the way, if anyone is in the vicinity of Grandfather Mountain, NC weekend after next, you will find me at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, probably having a wee bit o’ haggis and some Irn Bru to rinse it down. I will be taking a large batch of my homemade shortbread cookies. I usually take what I think will be plenty, but always come home empty handed.
I just don’t have the stomach for it.
Prof. Turley, Please check your spelling. I trust your thoughts are more carefully considered than your spelling. After all, you’re a teacher and, hopefully, held to higher standards. You’re lack of care in the area, and I’m not nit picking, is a turnoff for some readers who consider your carelessness a possible indicator of your analyses. Congratulations, though, on the humour of the Haggis….
My husband and I are traveling to Scotland next year, and while I understand haggis is almost considered a national treasure, it’s one delicacy I’ll be skipping for sure.
I was not familiar with this dish and I do not think that I want to experience it now. I usually like to try most foods but I am sure I can do without this one!