Following on from the Clan Hunter Burns Celebration 2021, Lucy shares the experience of how to make a haggis from scratch in this wonderful video.
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Lucy shares just how to make a haggis!
As a member of Clan Hunter and with my ancestral roots at Hunterston, I felt that it was my duty to tackle one of the most traditional of Scottish recipes, the haggis. Now I’m a keen cook and always up for a culinary challenge, but the haggis always seemed a bridge too far. To get it wrong, seemed to me, was letting down a strong Scottish tradition. However, throwing caution to the wind…….I had a go!
Living in the Netherlands where the cuts of meat are disciplined into neat, lean portions and beautifully displayed in well-organised vitrines at the butcher’s counter, I felt that making a haggis might be fraught with difficulty. Offal is not widely eaten here and is not considered to be appropriate food. However, my butcher (Keijzer en van Santen in Wageningen) is always up for a new project. They sell organic meat from animals that have had a much better life than many of their peers for one thing.
The recipe I used is from the Great British Chefs website and, intriguingly, the chef states in his recipe, that it is also his first attempt at making a haggis! I immediately felt less nervous and set about the first stage of haggis-making that would lead to a surprisingly easy and successful result!
This evening, Burns Night, my husband and I have eaten one of the haggises (or is it haggi?) and really enjoyed it. A lovely blend of slightly gamey meat, nutmeg, coriander, oats and stock – very tasty! Couple that with mashed tatties and neeps and wash it down with a wee dram of whisky. Make sure you are hungry before eating as it really fills the gap. It’s good, honest nourishment!
How to make a haggis: https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/traditional-haggis-recipe
