Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Scotch Haggis
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the bag
Wash the sheep's bag in cold water, scrape, and clean it well.
Soak the bag overnight in cold water with salt.
Prepare the pluck
Wash the pluck.
Place the pluck in a pot of boiling water with 1 tablespoon of salt.
Boil for 2 hours, letting the windpipe hang out of the pot.
Once cooled, cut off the windpipe.
Grate half the liver.
Mince the heart, lights, suet, and onions very small.
Fill and boil
In a bowl, combine the minced ingredients with the toasted oatmeal, pepper, salt, herbs, and 1 cup of the liquor from boiling the pluck. Mix well.
Fill the bag slightly more than half with the mixture.
Sew it up.
Place the filled bag in a pot of boiling water.
Boil for 3 hours, pricking it occasionally to prevent bursting.
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.
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 gives the haggis its crumbly, thick body.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich during long boiling.
- Onions
- Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften through the filling.
- Liquor from boiling pluck
- Adds moisture and meaty flavour to bind the filling together.
The step that matters
Pricking the bag while boiling. Steam builds up inside the sealed bag as the filling heats. Pricking releases pressure, and without it the bag can burst during the three-hour 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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