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Scotch Haggis

A traditional Scottish dish made by stuffing a cleaned sheep's stomach with liver, heart, lung, oatmeal, onion, and spices, then boiling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scotch Haggis

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Clean the sheep's stomach thoroughly.

  2. Parboil the sheep's lung.

  3. Boil the liver until well cooked, then grate the liver.

  4. Dry the oatmeal in front of the fire.

  5. Mince the lung, heart, and a large piece of beef.

  6. Chop the onion finely.

Stuff and cook

  1. Mix the chopped onion with the minced meat, grated liver, oatmeal, salt, pepper, and spices.

  2. Stuff the mixture into the cleaned stomach, leaving some space for expansion, then sew the stomach closed.

  3. Place the closed stomach in boiling water.

  4. Simmer for about 2 hours, ensuring it doesn't burst.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, sliced open.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal
Absorbs moisture and adds body and texture to the filling.
Sheep's liver
Adds rich, savoury depth and a firm, crumbly texture to the filling.
Sheep's lung
Forms the soft, bulky base of the minced filling.
Sheep's heart
Contributes meaty body and savoury flavour to the filling.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic flavour when cooked into the filling.

The step that matters

Leave space in the stomach before simmering. The filling expands as it cooks and the starches in the oatmeal absorb liquid. Without room to swell, the casing can split under pressure, so the stuffing must not be packed tightly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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