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Haggis

A traditional Scottish dish made from liver, oatmeal, suet, onion, salt, pepper, and liquor from boiled pluck, stuffed into a stomach and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Haggis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. In a large basin, combine the liver and toasted oatmeal.

  2. Finely chop the suet and onion, then add to the basin.

  3. Mix in salt, pepper, and the liquor to moisten the mixture.

Fill and cook

  1. Take the stomach bag, keeping the smooth side inside, and fill it without overfilling.

  2. Sew up the opening and place it in boiling water.

  3. Boil gently for 3 hours, pricking the haggis several times to prevent 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).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. 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

Oatmeal
Absorbs liquid and gives the filling a crumbly, bound texture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and rich as it cooks.
Liver
Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the filling.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Filling the stomach bag without overfilling. Oatmeal and other ingredients swell as they absorb liquid and heat. An overfilled bag can burst during boiling, so leave room for expansion.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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