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Scotch Haggis

A traditional Scottish dish made from sheep's stomach stuffed with heart, lungs, liver, suet, oatmeal, onions, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Scotch Haggis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the organs

  1. Clean the sheep's stomach thoroughly.

  2. Parboil the heart, lungs, and liver for 1.5 hours, then let cool.

  3. Mince the cooled organs finely, along with the fresh suet.

Make the filling

  1. Mix in the browned oatmeal, chopped onions, black pepper, allspice, and salt.

Stuff and boil

  1. Wash the stomach with cold water, then with boiling water.

  2. Fill the stomach with the mixture, leaving it half full, and add a little of the parboiling liquid.

  3. Sew up the stomach and place it in boiling water.

  4. Prick the bag frequently with a large needle to let air escape.

  5. Boil for 3 hours with a plate at the bottom of the pot.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Onion + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,375 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 heart, lungs and liver
Provide the meaty body of the filling, which firms up as it cooks.
Fresh suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Oatmeal
Absorbs liquid and gives the filling its crumbly, grainy texture.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Pricking the stomach while it boils. Steam and air expand inside the sealed bag as it cooks. Pricking it lets trapped air escape, which helps prevent the stomach from bursting.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, allspice. 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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