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: I stand corrected.
RTC,
Not England. The origin of the pipes goes back into the dim mists of history. Some examples are either contemporary with, or even pre-date the bible. They appear to have first shown up in countries around the Mediterranean more than two thousand years ago. The early ones were crude, with reeds stuck in a bag. The stomach of a sheep was one of the most easily accessible form of bag that would do the trick. The pipes are still played in that part of the world, some of them looking and sounding quite different from both the a’ phìob mhòr (Great Highland Bagpipe) and the Uilleann pipes.
Greek bagpipes have only one drone. Some middle eastern pipes don’t have drone pipes at all.
Pork Chop, I live in little Norway. A town I taught high school in, Stoughton, Wi. has Syttende de Mai Festival. Nearby Mt. Horeb is Troll City, USA. They have those lutefisk dinners all over! My point was, you don’t see any Norwegian or Scottish restaurants. Now, there may be one or two, but there are no pure Norwegian restaurants around here of which I’m aware. Oh, there are some w/ the name Norwegian or Norskie, but besides serving lefse[nice edible item], it’s mostly all Midwest food. You know, many cultures serve dried cod dishes. Italians have baccala. But, you dry it w/ SALT, NOT POISONOUS LYE!! Cheap Norskies found lye much cheaper so Ollie said, “Ya’ hey Lena, why don’t we dry up dat dere cod I caught w/ some of dat dere lye, lot cheaper than dat dere salt, don’t ya’ know.”
The very Jewish Coen Brothers have Norwegians down pat, growing up in Minnesota. I was disappointed in the Director of an episode of the TV show, Fargo. They mispronounced Faribault. My son-in-law hails from there, half Norwegian, half Puerto Rican! I love the new mixes of cultures. He and my daughter live in the Cities. His Puerto Rican mother learned how to make lefse from her mother-in-law.
You make it too easy, Schulte.
Irish pipes, called uilleann pipes are a much different form of bagpipe than the Scottish pipes; they’re actually meant to be played indoors and have a greater range.
In any case, pipes originated in England, so…once again.
RTC – even if you mention England they only show up in the Canterbury Tales but that does not mean they are not being used in Scotland and Ireland prior to this.
Lacks meter.
Ramsey for Congress!
What about the poetry, Karen? Could you give us an example/
Harry – Chef Gordan Ramsey should spearhead the investigations into the IRS, Benghazi, and the VA.
There would be lots of cussing, no punches pulled, and things would get done. And there would be marvelous food served at all the hearings.
The Scotts make great whisky. Great textiles. Great music. Love the drums and a good piper. The tartans. The poetry. Fierce warriors with a Claymore.
The cooking, not so much.
Karen – my Irish mother hated bagpipe music and hated it even more when I would remind her that the Scots got the bagpipes from the Irish.
Professor Turley:
WHAT had you done to make your Italian mom feed you 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.” So true! I mean, how hungry do you have to get before offal cooked in sheep’s stomach sounds like something you’d like to try? Is scrapie no longer a concern in the importation of sheep lungs?
If there is no biological risk of disease anymore, than the ban must be lifted. And good luck to the haggis makers in our free market. They’ll need it.
Run this by Chef Ramsay. Hell’s Kitchen Chef Ramsay goes nuts. I was imaging Chef Ramsay in a presidential debate with Hillary. Who would you vote for?
Nick Spinelli,
You obviously have not spent enough time in Minnesota and surrounding states. The Lutheran Ladies’ Aid puts on regular lutefisk dinners.
Chef Ramsey’s press conferences certainly could be interesting. 😉
Chuck,
Haakon’s army fought an inconclusive engagement against a larger force near Largs, and then Haakon got sick and died. Three years later, the Scots paid Magnus IV a lot of money to leave them alone. I’m not sure I see the problem, except for the possibility that the Scots engaged in germ warfare. 🙂 I don’t think the Scots have been keeping up their yearly payments though.
Schulte, I’ll try to find the paper on my dad’s hard drive. As I recall, the human life expectancy was extrapolated from life expectancy of animals. If a wolf, for example, reaches puberty at, say, 2 years but lives to 20, then a human should live 10 times puberty, as well, all things being equal in relatve environments and “natural” diets. My numbers are only guess work now, but you get the idea. Carnivores, such as dogs and cats, have shorter lifespans perhaps because of the toxic load from a protein diet or it’s nature’s design for other reasons such as carnivore over-population that would exterminate all others species. When one studies the distinction of purpose between plant and animal life, all this stuff falls into place like pieces of a puzzle, like why do some plants, like trees, live to be thousands of years old, others, like some insects, days or even hours. Pretty much every myth we have ever clinged to, evaporates.
samantha – humans are reaching puberty earlier and earlier now, does that mean we will die sooner? And longevity is often allied with the speed of life. Tortoises live a long live, longer than humans as do some parrots. It is a rare domesticated dog that would reach 15 much less 20. I think the math may be off.
PCS – careful about turning the stomach; it could tear. Simply prick the stomach a few times then gently boil it for a few hours. 😉
My home town had a Bobby Burns Day every year. Not Robert Burns, but Bobby, that is how close we were to him 🙂 They were kind enough not to offer haggis.
One of my favorite events of the year is a Burns Supper. It comes during the lull between Valentines Day and Spring Break (great timing). The whisky is quite fine, and the food good. The Americanized haggis we get in the states is made from beef tips mixed with potatoes, onions, oatmeal, and seasoning. The tatties and neeps are great when served hot and fresh. And then there’s the “Address to a Haggis”, one of my favorite poems. Here’s a link to a couple of translations that can help you appreciate Burns’ poetry without the benefit of whisky …
https://s3.amazonaws.com/dador_files/personal/address_to_a_haggis.html
Ach, aye, laddie. Ya dinna no ‘at’s good fer ya.
fiver – I do know what turns my stomach 🙂
That is why God created menus.
Who should wonder why every scott looks prematurely aged, far beyond his real years. Eat food like that, urine turns rust colored from the toxic acid that prematurely ages the body. Drinking more water may lighten the urine, but it does nothing to reduce the toxins. Light colored urine comes from a balanced diet, which you can’t prematurely age or die from, but you will certainly from all that protein. Members of the Lewis and Clark expedition consumed up to 10 pounds of animal protein daily. Their life expectancy? Thirty! Tops. Lewis and Clark lived longer because they didn’t do heavy lifting, perhaps eating only two or three pounds of animal protein daily. Had gun powder not been invented yet, they would have been forced to forage, eat more sensibly, not kill an animal for every meal. Amazing, isn’t it, how the animal protein industry has us all conditioned — conditioned to suffer premature aging, incredible illness and suffering, insane medical procedures, and finally bankruptcy from healthcare cost on steroids. The human life expectancy design is 140 years, but it can’t be obtained without optimum diet. For that, you have to swear off your fanatical, zealous, cult worship in the church of technology. To overcome indoctrination, you have to first be aware you are indoctrinated.
samantha – you want to cite something for this 140 year body thingie?