Burns Night and The Haggis

The Haggis

Our fellow friends Tony and Michelle hosted a Burns Night this weekend and it was quite the
culinary adventure. I had never heard of Burns Night before so to bring us all up to speed I did some Googling. Burns night (and the Burns supper) is a celebration of the life and poetry of Robert Burns. He died at the end of the 18th century, and apparently the Burns annual celebration began shortly thereafter and has continued to this day. He was Scottish and a Burns night consists of eating Haggis & Neeps (turnips), drinking Scotch Whisky, and reciting Burns' poetry- all of which we did!

This is just part of the lengthy Address to the Haggis that is recited prior to serving:

 His knife see rustic Labour dicht,
An' cut you up wi' ready slicht,
Trenching your gushing entrails bricht,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sicht,
Warm-reekin, rich!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his wallie nieve a blade,
He'll mak it whistle;
An' legs an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thristle.

Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o' fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinkin ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a haggis!

And then with a huge knife, the host slashes the haggis open. And of course many "toasts to the lassies".

What is Haggis? I had an idea but Wikipedia says it nicely: Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a sausage casing rather than an actual stomach.

They special-ordered it from a place in New Jersey that makes the stuff. I was glad to hear that, since it was made in the US, there were no lungs in the mix (since that is illegal here). They did get a vegetarian one as well.

Now, for anyone that knows me, I really had no intention of eating the real Haggis. However, I wanted to write about it, so i had to try it. And I did. I filled my plate with a little real Haggis, some vegetarian Haggis, and neeps. The girls plates also consisted of the same. I took a bite. It was really quite wonderful! It's no surprise Dave liked it, but the girls snarfed it down as well! We even had seconds (and my second serving was significantly larger than the first).

I have to say I am pretty proud of myself for trying it:)

Slainte!!