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Scotch Haggis

A traditional Scottish dish made from beef, suet, liver, onions, dried meal, and spices, encased in a haggis bag and boiled.

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 ↓

Scotch Haggis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the haggis bag thoroughly.

  2. Parboil the pluck.

  3. Boil the liver until well cooked.

  4. Grate half of the liver.

Make the filling

  1. Mince the pluck, beef, suet, and onions very finely.

  2. Mix the minced ingredients with dried meal, seasoning with pepper, salt, and mixed spice.

  3. Combine with the gravy.

Fill and cook

  1. Fill the haggis bag, pressing out all the air before sealing it.

  2. If the bag seems thin, wrap it in a cloth to prevent bursting.

  3. Boil the haggis for about two hours if it is 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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. 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

Beef
Provides the main meaty body and texture of the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Dried meal
Absorbs moisture and binds the minced filling so it holds together.
Liver
Adds deep, savoury flavour and richness to the filling.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour, loosening the mixture.

The step that matters

Pressing out the air before sealing the bag. Trapped air can expand during boiling and cause the bag to burst, so the air should be pressed out before sealing.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, liver, pepper):

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, liver, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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