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Sheep’s Haggis

A traditional Scottish dish made from sheep pluck, beef suet, oatmeal, onions, and spices, cooked in stomach bags.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Sheep’s Haggis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stomach bags

  1. Procure and wash the large and small stomach bags of a sheep in cold water.

  2. Plunge the bags into boiling water and scrape them carefully to avoid breaking.

  3. Soak the bags overnight in cold water with a little salt.

Prepare the pluck

  1. Wash the pluck.

  2. Place the pluck in a pan of boiling water, letting the windpipe hang over the side.

  3. Boil for 1.5 hours.

  4. Remove the pluck and let it cool.

  5. Cut away the windpipe and any attached fat or gristle.

  6. Grate a quarter of the liver.

  7. Mince the heart and lights.

  8. Parboil and chop the onions.

  9. Dry or toast the oatmeal.

Make the filling and cook

  1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly, adding black pepper, salt, and ½ pint of the boiling liquor.

  2. Fill the bags slightly more than half full.

  3. Sew the bags shut.

  4. Boil the bags in a pan of boiling water for 3 hours.

  5. Prick the bags occasionally to release air.

  6. Serve in a folded napkin on a hot dish without garnish or gravy.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. 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 liquid and binds the filling, giving it a crumbly, moist body.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich during long boiling.
Sheep's pluck
Provides the main meaty filling, with liver, heart and lights giving body and flavour.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Leave room in the bags and prick them while boiling. Oatmeal and meat swell as they cook, so overfilling can burst the bags. Pricking releases trapped air and steam, keeping the bags intact.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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