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Scotch Haggis

A traditional Scottish dish made by mixing minced sheep's stomach, liver, beef, suet, onions, oatmeal, spices, and stock, then boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scotch Haggis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil the draught (sheep's stomach).

  2. Boil the liver until well cooked and easy to grate.

  3. Dry the oatmeal in front of the fire.

  4. Mince the draught very finely.

  5. Mince a large piece of beef very finely.

  6. Grate half of the liver.

  7. Mince the suet.

  8. Mince the onions.

Make the filling

  1. Mix all ingredients well with a handful or two of dried meal.

  2. Season the mixture with salt and mixed spices.

  3. Make a quart of good stock using scraps of beef and the water from boiling the draught.

Fill and boil

  1. Fill the haggis bag with the meat mixture and stock.

  2. Sew the bag up tightly, removing all air.

  3. If the bag is thin, wrap it in a cloth.

  4. Boil the haggis for at least two hours.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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 + beeftop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together431 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 liquid and gives the haggis its bulk and crumbly texture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Liver
Adds savoury depth and a soft, grainy body to the filling.
Beef
Provides meaty flavour and substance to the filling.
Beef stock
Adds moisture and savoury flavour that the oatmeal absorbs during boiling.

The step that matters

Sew the bag up tightly, removing all air. Trapped air can expand during boiling and split the bag, and a loose bag lets filling leak out and water in. Air removal keeps the filling intact and cooking even.

“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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