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Haggis

A traditional Scottish dish made by stuffing a sheep's stomach with a mixture of liver, heart, onion, oatmeal, and spices, then boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cumin and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,866 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Haggis

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Clean the sheep's stomach thoroughly and soak it in water overnight.

  2. In a pot, boil the sheep's liver and heart until cooked, then chop finely.

Fill and cook

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped liver, heart, onion, oatmeal, salt, pepper, and spices.

  2. Stuff the mixture into the sheep's stomach, leaving some space for expansion.

  3. Sew the stomach closed and place it in boiling water.

  4. Simmer for about 2 hours, ensuring it doesn't burst.

  5. Serve hot.

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. Cumin + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + coriandertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Onion + cumintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + cumintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,382 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. 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 moisture and fat and binds the filling into a crumbly, cohesive texture.
Sheep's liver
Contributes rich flavor and a soft, dense texture to the filling.
Sheep's heart
Adds meaty body and savory flavor to the filling.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it cooks into the filling.

The step that matters

Leave space in the stomach before simmering. Oatmeal and meat swell and release steam as they cook, so overfilling the stomach can cause it to burst. Leaving room for expansion keeps the casing intact during simmering.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, cumin, coriander. 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.

More haggis recipes

Scotch 53Scottish 5Dundee 3Sheep's 3 See all 31 →

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