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A Scotch Haggis

A haggis made with calf or sheep heart, suet, soaked French roll, spices, raisins, wine, egg yolks, and chitterlings, boiled in a stomach.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

A Scotch Haggis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Blanch and finely chop the heart and lights of the calf or sheep.

  2. Mix in the shredded beef suet, soaked French roll, spices, sweet wine, raisins, flour, egg yolks, salt, and chitterlings.

Cook

  1. Stuff the mixture into a cleaned sheep's stomach or bag, tie it tightly.

  2. Boil for three 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Melts during boiling to add richness and moisture to the filling.
French roll
Soaked in cream, it absorbs liquid and keeps the filling moist and tender.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together and help it set as it cooks.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the filling.
Flour
Thickens the filling and helps hold its shape when sliced.

The step that matters

Stuff and tie the casing tightly. Loose packing leaves air pockets and a loose seal, so the filling can burst or cook unevenly. Packing firmly lets the mixture hold together and cook through evenly during the long boil.

“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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