|
Subject: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Cluin Date: 04 Feb 03 - 03:15 AM Well, our band Blarney played a couple of Burns Night suppers again this year. At the last one--last Saturday night--the hostess came over and presented us with a few helpings of leftover haggis from the meal (which we didn't attend), in styrofoam take-out containers. I asked her how we had offended her, but didn't get much of a rise out of her. Anyway, I took my portion home, but didn't much like the smell of it. It sure stunk up my vehicle and it was too cold to roll down the window. I'm not sure how long it sat cooling before it was wrapped up, but I just put it into the fridge when I got home. I thought the dog might eat it next day but he wasn't interested in it either. So it went out in the trash a few days later. Anyway, today I got a call from my band-mate, Bill, whose daytime gig is as a local health inspector. He asked me if I still had any haggis left. I told him: "Sorry, no! It all went out in the garbage Wednesday. Maybe Tim (another band-mate) still has some though. He took most of it." Well, Bill didn't want any. He was calling to tell me not to eat it. He said there was a recall(???) of the meat supplied (by Opie's Quality Meats, no less) for the haggis locally. He said there weren't any reports of people getting sick locally and that he had spoken to Tim who'd already had a meal from his share and felt fine. But he was just playing it safe and thought he'd warn me. Like me, he'd thought the stuff was prepared at the hall where the supper was located, but it turns out it was some pre-fab haggis. Here's a link with the poop on the haggis scare: Haggis Health Hazard Alert And another concerning some other Haggis-related problems:Och! Nae mair haggis! Was it Billy Connolly that said all Scottish cuisine is based on a dare? |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Steve Parkes Date: 04 Feb 03 - 03:48 AM Scots cuisine is basically desigend to get at the English. We English have a perfectly respectable offal-based dish called the faggot (No sniggering from across the pond, please), which is very similar in flavour, texture and composition, but which is safe to eat. We eat porridge made from oats, which is pleasantly runny, and which we enhance with milk and sugar; the Scots make and pour it into a drawer, for heaven's sake, where it sets it like silicone rubber, so they have to cut it up with a knife, and then they can put enough in their sporrans to save them having to eat proper--English--food until they get back from stealing our cattle. Steve |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Ella who is Sooze Date: 04 Feb 03 - 03:59 AM Our Haggis and Tatties and neeps we had at our Burns night was delicious! The best yet, peppery neeps, fluffy tatties, and fresh and feisty Haggis. YUM! Everyone got smashed on Electric Porridge (athalbros) and a rare old time was had by everyone. Not all bad at that! Ella |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Dave Bryant Date: 04 Feb 03 - 04:25 AM The story I always heard about haggis was that the Scots would sneak across the border to steal an Englishman's sheep. They would then slaghter the sheep, butcher it, and sell the mutton and skin back to the Englishman. The Scot then made haggis from the bits that the Englishman wouldn't buy. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: banjomad (inactive) Date: 04 Feb 03 - 05:47 AM I think haggis is great but mutton pies are joke that the Scots play on us English. Dave |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Rapparee Date: 04 Feb 03 - 08:59 AM So my friend Kate (from Minnesota) was at a meeting at the U. in Glasgow where they piped in the haggis. Not a problem, but then they brought in a *vegetarian* haggis! What do you make a vegetarian haggis from? Oatmeal and parts from marrow? Potato peelings and oatmeal? My mind has been searching for an answer ever since Kate told me about this. My interest is curiousity only.... |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: GUEST,Claymore Date: 04 Feb 03 - 09:06 AM I once played in a pick-up group of musicians at a Burns Night Scottish Country Dance, and we aptly named our group, "Haggis Amongus". When they brought in the "Chieftain of the Pudding Race", and we got a wiff, one of the fiddlers started checking the bottoms of his feet... |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: mack/misophist Date: 04 Feb 03 - 11:10 AM By any other name, Haggis is tripe. Boiled tripe stinks. Where I live, Menudo (tripe soup) is a popular Sunday breakfast. I have to stay hiome to avoid the smell. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Lyndi-loo Date: 04 Feb 03 - 11:12 AM You make vegetarian haggis from vegetarians of course |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Beccy Date: 04 Feb 03 - 11:37 AM I actually really like Haggis. Whilst growing up, my best friend's Scottish parents used it as a test of my worthiness as a friend for their daughter. I passed with flying colors and was henceforth invited to their personal Burns' Night celebration replete with Haggis, Scotch and Cigars. Lyndi-loo you made me giggle. I have a family full of vegetarians- I'm going to use that one. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: meg Date: 04 Feb 03 - 12:21 PM I made a vegetarian haggis this year. It had minced carrots, mushrooms and onions in it, as well as ground oatmeal, red lentils, mashed kidney beans, hazelnuts and peanuts. The whole thing was seasoned with soy sauce, lemon juice, thyme, rosemary and something called "mixed spice," which had cloves and nutmeg and cinnamon and ginger in it. Then I molded it into a loaf and baked it. Edible, certainly, but it went down better with a little HP Sauce on top. It's a much better story to say it's made of vegetarians. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: GUEST,Martin Ryan Date: 04 Feb 03 - 12:28 PM My son, who now lives in Edinburgh, insists on smothering haggis with tomato ketchup, which upsets his Scottish friends. Me? I think he's right - the acidity cuts through the more glutinous elements of the taste... Regards |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Kim C Date: 04 Feb 03 - 12:29 PM I likes me some haggis. Being in the USA I didn't have much choice of haggis. It was either 1)make my own (yeah, RIGHT!), or 2) buy a beef-based haggis in a can from the Caledonian Kitchen in Louisiana. I opted for #2. It's good. It is not unlike a decent corned beef hash, with oats instead of potatoes. Everyone at the table tried some, and proclaimed it worthy. Some of us even had seconds. I think just about every cultural group has a food at which others sneer. Whale blubber doesn't sound very appetizing to me, but there's people what eats it. The highlight of our Burns supper, though, was my normally very quiet and reserved (or so I thought) friend Howard, reading Burns' Address to a Haggis in a pretty darn good Scottish accent. I didn't know he had it in him. Anyway his theatrics had us all in stitches by the time he was through. :-) |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Beccy Date: 04 Feb 03 - 01:04 PM KimC- Option #3... find a local Celtic/Gaellic festival- with Irish and Scottish being ever so popular now I'm sure you can find it wherever you live. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Kim C Date: 04 Feb 03 - 01:15 PM Beccy, believe it or not, Nashville isn't much of a hotbed for things Gaelic. I think there's a Scottish festival in Murfreesboro, just down the road, but not until March or May or some such. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: GUEST,Melani Date: 04 Feb 03 - 01:46 PM I once made a vegetarian haggis for a going-away party for a co-worker headed for Scotland, who was a vegetarian. We got the recipe off the internet by searching on haggis--it came from a Scottish vegetarian guest house. It was soaked in whiskey and baked as a casserole. Unfortunatly, in contained ground nuts, and unknown to me, the guest of honor's girlfriend had one of those life-threatening nut allergies. Even more unfortunately, she took a big bite before inquiring about the ingredients. She managed to spit most of it out and we dosed her with benedryl, so she avoided a trip to the emergency room. Otherwise, it was a great party. The haggis was pretty good, a less complex recipe than the one above. But I think next time I'll just leave the nuts out. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Dave Bryant Date: 05 Feb 03 - 04:59 AM I thought that it was usual to remove the nuts from a male haggis within hours of it's birth because caponised haggises (haggi ?) grow plumper. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Kim C Date: 05 Feb 03 - 01:00 PM Then would you have Scottish Mountain Oysters? Or Haggis Fries? |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Beware the Killer Haggis! From: Schantieman Date: 05 Feb 03 - 01:17 PM During the haggis season (September to August, and it's illegal to hunt them outside this season), they hide around the blooming heather on the banks and braes o' bonny Doon, I believe. When flushed from their cover, they always run the same way round the mountain when they run - either clockwise or anticlockwise. Consequently they have evolved the legs on one side longer than those on the other. (Some take the high road, and some take the low road of course). When shot, it's usually at short range so the shotgun pellets make a mess of the skin, which is why you never see them in their natural state in the shops. When restuffing them into their hygienic wrappings the legs are removed so that they fit in better, which is why you never see the asymmetricality. Just off to check a point ot two with my mate Hamish..... S |
