On January 25th the Scottish celebrated the birthday of Robert Burns, a Scottish poet who lived between 1759 and 1796, probably most famous for writing Auld Lang Syne. As part of the celebrations the Scottish like to eat Haggis, but not before reciting one of Burns' poems, Address to a Haggis.
Fair fa' yer honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the pudden race!
Scottish Folklore would have you believe that Haggis is a bird with vestigial wings, three legs (each of a different length), but is still a very good swimmer, and has a mating call similar to the bagpipes.
Haggis is in fact made of sheep's offal (or pluck) - the windpipe, lungs, heart and liver - which is boiled, minced, and mixed with lightly toasted oatmeal, suet and seasoning. The mixture is then stuffed into a sheep's stomach and sewn closed. Traditionally, it is then boiled for up to three hours, but it can also be cooked in the oven to prevent the risk of the stomach splitting and spoiling. (It happened to me once.) (Haggis Recipes)
Haggis is most commonly served with Neeps 'an Tatties - mashed swede and potatoes. People often get swede and turnips muddled up. To me, Swede is a large root vegetable with a yellow/orange flesh, a turnip is much smaller and has white flesh.
For those of you that can think of nothing worse than eating sheep's offal, and I can fully understand, I can assure you that it is wonderful. The first time I ate Haggis I had been showing a friend around Edinburgh one morning in February with snow beating on our faces and frostbite setting in on our toes. We popped into a restaurant who's special of the day was Haggis Neeps 'an Tatties. Neither of us had had the pleasure before so we both tried some, followed by a wee dram of whisky. (Scotch.com is a great place to learn about whisky.) After being in the cold for so long, nothing could have been more perfect.
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