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Scotch Haggis

A savory mixture of sheep's pluck, suet, oatmeal, and spices, encased in a stomach bag and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scotch Haggis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stomach bag

  1. Wash the stomach bag thoroughly in cold water.

  2. Plunge the stomach bag into boiling water.

  3. Scrape the stomach bag well without breaking it.

  4. Soak the cleaned stomach bag in a basin of cold water with 1 tablespoon of salt overnight.

Prepare the pluck

  1. Wash the pluck.

  2. Boil the pluck in cold water for 1 hour.

  3. Let the pluck cool completely.

  4. Grate ¼ of the liver.

  5. Chop the lights and heart finely.

  6. Mix the grated liver, chopped lights, and heart in a large bowl.

  7. Add the Jamaica pepper, black pepper, and coarse sea salt to the bowl.

  8. Chop the suet finely.

  9. Add the chopped suet to the mixture.

  10. Dry the oatmeal in the oven for about 10 minutes.

  11. Add the dried oatmeal to the mixture along with half of the water used to boil the pluck.

Fill and cook

  1. Fill the stomach bag a little more than half full.

  2. Sew the stomach bag up with stout thread.

  3. Place the haggis in a large pan of boiling water.

  4. Prick the skin occasionally to allow steam to escape.

  5. Boil for 3 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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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 liquid and fat, giving the haggis its bulk and crumbly texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Sheep's pluck
Forms the meaty base of the filling, providing savoury flavour and body.
Jamaica pepper
Adds warm, aromatic spice that flavours the filling.

The step that matters

Prick the skin occasionally. Steam builds up inside the sealed bag as it boils; without pricking, pressure can cause the stomach bag to burst.

“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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