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A Good Scotch Haggis

A traditional Scottish dish made from minced sheep's pluck, beef, liver, suet, onions, oatmeal, and spices, cooked in a sheep's stomach.

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 the filling

  1. Parboil the draught.

  2. Boil the liver until well cooked.

  3. Dry the meal in front of the fire.

  4. Mince the draught very finely.

  5. Mince a large piece of beef very finely.

  6. Grate half of the liver.

  7. Mince the suet.

  8. Mince the onions.

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

  10. Season the mixture with salt and mixed spices.

Make the stock

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

Fill and cook

  1. Put the haggis mixture into the bag along with the stock.

  2. Sew up the bag. Remove all air before sealing.

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

  4. Boil the haggis for at least 2 hours if large.

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 pluck (draught)
Provides the main meaty body and texture of the haggis filling.
Beef
Adds savoury meat flavour and richness to the filling and stock.
Liver
Adds depth and a rich, earthy flavour to the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and tender as it cooks.
Dried meal (oatmeal)
Absorbs liquid and fat, binding the filling and giving it a crumbly texture.

The step that matters

Remove all air before sealing the bag. Trapped air can expand during boiling and cause the bag to burst, so pressing out the air before sewing keeps the filling contained.

“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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