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Haggis

A savory dish made from sheep's stomach stuffed with oatmeal, suet, onion, salt, and pepper, then boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

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. Prepare the sheep's paunch by cleaning it thoroughly.

  2. In a bowl, mix the oatmeal, suet, chopped onion, salt, and pepper.

Stuff and cook

  1. Stuff the mixture into the sheep's paunch, leaving some space for expansion.

  2. Sew the paunch closed securely.

  3. Boil in water for about 2 hours until cooked through.

  4. Remove from water, let cool slightly, then slice and serve.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal
Absorbs moisture and fat and gives the haggis its bulk and crumbly texture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Onion
Adds savoury, aromatic flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Leave space in the paunch when stuffing. The oatmeal swells as it absorbs liquid and the filling expands during cooking. Packing it too tightly can cause the paunch to burst while it boils.

“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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