don't knock it until you try it
Will you, for a moment, discard your preconcieved notions of minced offal baked in a sheep’s stomach? Consider American equivalents of foods containing questionable ingredients: hot dogs, spam, bolognas, Vienna sausages. Enter the modern health-conscious movement. Recycle. Reuse. Do not waste anything. Well, considering there are other food products that use animal parts we tell ourselves should be thrown away, I think haggis makes sense. I’ve even seen a lot worse labeled “healthy.” Haggis might have a niche in the “Health Meat By-Product Market,” if the right marketing firm got hold of it. The version I had was pretty tasty. I guess I’ll just come out and say it. “I love haggis.” I still hate blood-pudding, but I love haggis.
Made from scratch low-grade meat ingredients, haggis contains fewer preservatives and other processing chemicals that make popular mashed meat-by products more palatable in texture and appearance. Yes you can taste a difference. You would think maybe a cross between meatloaf and a minced hotdog and some liver bits, but it actually tasted like a rare, peppered steak, smothered in gravy. A bit of spice, oats, salt and pepper added serious kick to a rather bland concoction. It’s normally pressed into a traditional sausage skin (sheep’s stomach) and boiled, baked or fried, but my chef had pity. He served it up without the stomach. The neeps and tatties (mashed potatoes and turnips) traditionally served with haggis are about the same mushy consistency, minus the lumps. Granted, not a hot gourmet item, but the starchy smooth texture was essential to the “Scottishness” of the experience-much like mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving.