Skip to main content
Main

A Good Scotch Haggis

A traditional Scottish haggis made with beef, liver, suet, oatmeal, onions, spices, and stock, cooked in a sheep stomach.

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

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 the ingredients

  1. Clean the haggis bag thoroughly.

  2. Parboil the draught.

  3. Boil the liver until well cooked.

  4. Dry the meal in front of the fire.

  5. Mince the draught and a large piece of beef finely.

  6. Grate half of the liver.

  7. Mince the suet and onions.

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

Make the filling

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

  2. Season the mixture with salt and mixed spices.

Fill, sew and boil

  1. Fill the haggis bag with the meat mixture and stock.

  2. Sew the bag up tightly, ensuring to remove all air.

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

  4. Boil the haggis for at least 2 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. Beef + livertop 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 stomach (draught)
Forms the casing that holds the filling together while it cooks.
Beef liver
Adds richness and a soft, moist texture to the filling.
Dried meal (oatmeal)
Absorbs liquid and binds the filling so it holds its shape when sliced.
Beef
Supplies the main meaty body and savoury flavour of the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich during long boiling.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savoury depth as they soften into the mixture.

The step that matters

Sew the bag up tightly, removing all air. Trapped air can expand during boiling and split the casing, so the bag must be packed firmly and sealed well.

“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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes