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Scotch and Lamb S Haggis

A Scottish sausage made with lungs, liver, heart, oatmeal, onions, and spices, cooked in a sheep's paunch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon 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 ↓

Scotch and Lamb S Haggis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meats

  1. Boil the lungs in water for a few minutes, then change the water and boil for another half hour.

  2. Boil half of the liver until it can be grated easily.

  3. Trim and mince the heart, half of the liver, and part of the lights, removing all skins and black parts.

  4. Mince the beef-suet and onions.

  5. Grate the other half of the liver.

Fill the bag

  1. Mix the minced meat with the scalded small onions and the toasted oatmeal.

  2. Season the mixture with pepper, salt, and cayenne.

  3. Prepare a clean sheep's paunch, ensuring there are no thin parts.

  4. Add the meat mixture to the bag with the beef-gravy or broth, leaving room for expansion.

  5. Add lemon juice or vinegar, press out the air, and sew up the bag.

Boil

  1. Prick the bag with a large needle when it first swells in the pot to prevent bursting.

  2. Boil slowly for three hours if large.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Onion + livertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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 filling a firm, crumbly body.
Beef-suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Liver
Adds depth of flavour and a dense, smooth texture when grated.
Beef-gravy or strong broth
Supplies moisture that keeps the filling juicy during long boiling.
Lemon juice or vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meats and balances their flavour.

The step that matters

Prick the bag when it first swells. As the contents heat, steam and air expand inside the bag. Pricking it when it first swells releases that pressure, so the paunch does not burst in the pot.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Avocadofits about as well
  4. Grapefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, liver, 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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