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Scotch Haggis

A traditional Scottish dish made by boiling sheep's pluck, stomach, and organs with oatmeal, suet, onion, salt, pepper, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 organs

  1. Wash the sheep's pluck.

  2. Place it in a pot to boil, allowing the windpipe to hang out to release impurities.

  3. Boil gently for 1.5 to 2 hours.

  4. Have the butcher clean the sheep's stomach.

  5. Wash it thoroughly.

  6. Boil it in cold water until it contracts.

  7. Remove the stomach.

  8. Wash it again.

  9. Soak it in saltwater until needed.

Make the filling

  1. Mince the lungs and heart, discarding gristly parts.

  2. Grate the liver.

  3. Combine the liver with the minced organs in a large bowl.

  4. Toast the oatmeal.

  5. Add the toasted oatmeal to the bowl.

  6. Finely chop the suet.

  7. Add the suet along with the onion, salt, pepper, and 1 cup of the boiling liquid, then mix well.

Stuff and cook

  1. Fill the stomach with the mixture, leaving some space.

  2. Sew the stomach closed.

  3. Boil gently in water for 3 hours.

  4. Prick the haggis several times to prevent bursting.

  5. Place a plate under it to avoid sticking.

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. 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 liquid and gives the filling its crumbly, firm texture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Sheep's stomach
Acts as the casing that holds the filling together while it boils.
Sheep's pluck
Provides the main meaty body and savoury flavour of the filling.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the filling.
Cooking liquid from the pluck
Supplies moisture that hydrates the oatmeal and keeps the mixture loose.

The step that matters

Prick the haggis several times. As the filling heats, steam and expanding air build up inside the sealed stomach. Pricking lets the pressure escape gradually, so the casing does not burst during boiling.

“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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