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Haggis

A savory mixture of sheep organs, bacon fat, bread crumbs, anchovy, lemon, spices, and eggs, steamed in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Haggis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Weigh and chop the tongue, liver, and kidneys of a sheep.

  2. Add half their weight in minced fat bacon, stale bread crumbs, pounded anchovy, lemon juice, grated lemon rind, pepper, salt, and beaten eggs. Stir well and pour the mixture into a mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 1 hour and then turn out.

  2. Serve hot with a sauce, if desired.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  3. Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Liver + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture so it holds together when steamed and turned out.
Stale bread
Absorbs liquid and adds body, giving a softer, more tender texture.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the mixture from drying out during steaming.
Sheep tongue, liver and kidneys
Form the main body of the dish and give its rich, savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into the mold and steam. The mixture must be packed firmly into the mold without air pockets and steamed gently for the full hour. Gentle steam sets the egg and bread binder so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.

“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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