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A Good Scotch Haggis

A traditional Scottish haggis made with sheep's pluck, liver, beef, suet, onions, oatmeal, spices, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

A Good Scotch Haggis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the haggis bag thoroughly.

  2. Parboil the draught and boil the liver until well cooked.

  3. Dry the meal in front of the fire.

  4. Mince the draught and the beef very finely.

  5. Grate half of the liver and mince the suet and onions.

  6. Make about 1 quart of good stock using scraps of beef and water from boiling the draught.

Make the filling

  1. Mix all ingredients together with a handful or two of dried meal.

  2. Season the mixture with salt and mixed spices.

Fill and boil

  1. Fill the haggis bag with the meat mixture and stock, then sew it up tightly, ensuring to remove all air.

  2. If the bag is thin, wrap it in a cloth.

  3. Boil the haggis for at least two 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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,420 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Liver + beeftop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep's pluck
Forms the main meaty body of the filling, giving the haggis its characteristic texture.
Oatmeal
Absorbs liquid and fat, helping bind the filling and keep it moist as it cooks.
Suet
Adds fat that melts during boiling, keeping the filling moist and tender.
Beef
Contributes savoury meaty flavour and body to the filling.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they cook into the filling.

The step that matters

Remove all air when sewing the bag. Trapped air can expand during boiling and cause the bag to burst, so the filling should be packed firmly and the bag sewn tightly.

“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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