Name: Another Way to Make Haggis
Ingredients: ½ pint of liquor from parboiled pluck; 1 pound tender beef steak, minced; ½ pound fresh beef suet, minced; 3 or 4 large onions, minced; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; a small handful of toasted oatmeal; ⅓ cup catsup

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 ↓

Another Way to Make Haggis

Ingredients

½ pint of liquor from parboiled pluck
1 pound tender beef steak, minced
½ pound fresh beef suet, minced
3 or 4 large onions, minced
pepper, to taste
coarse sea salt, to taste
a small handful of toasted oatmeal
⅓ cup catsup

Directions

Prepare the pluck

Thoroughly cleanse and parboil the plucked; save ½ pint of the liquor.
The following day, mince the plucked very small.

Mix

In a bowl, combine the minced plucked, beef steak, beef suet, onions, pepper, salt, toasted oatmeal, and ½ pint of liquor. Mix all the ingredients well together.

Boil

Put the mixture into a bag, prick it with a fork, and boil for 3.5 hours.
If desired, the haggis can be boiled in a jar tied over instead of in a bag.

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.

Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

Pluck: Provides the traditional offal base, giving the haggis its characteristic texture and savory flavor.
Beef steak: Adds meaty body and substance to the mixture as it cooks.
Beef suet: Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and tender during long boiling.
Onions: Add sweetness and aroma as they soften during cooking.
Toasted oatmeal: Absorbs liquid and binds the mixture, giving it a crumbly, cohesive texture.
Liquor from parboiled pluck: Supplies moisture and savory flavor to the mixture.

The step that matters

Pricking the bag before boiling. Pricking the bag lets steam escape during the long boil, so pressure does not build up and split the casing or bag.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Tomatobetter flavor fit
Carrotabout as good a flavor fit
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. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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Another Way to Make Haggis