According to the legend, the haggis is a small four-legged Scottish Highland creature, which has the limbs on one side shorter than the other side. This means that it is well adapted to run around the hills at a steady altitude, without either ascending or descending. However a haggis can easily be caught by running around the hill in the opposite direction.
No, its no good, I can’t keep this up. The story you see above (or variations) are frequently told to the gullible tourist visiting Scotland. Should you carry on listening the teller would doubtless regale you with stories of the Haggis Hunt (when they are in season), and how much better wild haggis taste than their farmed counterparts. These stories are untrue: the Haggis is basically a sort of sausage.
A survey in 2003 found that a third of American visitors to Scotland believed the haggis was a creature. A quarter believed that you could hunt and catch it! The full story can be found on the link below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3240190.stm
It is interesting to note that this rumour has spread into the internet age with this site offering live webcams where you can hunt haggis from the comfort on your own bedroom, an appeal to save the haggis here, and sightings of a heap of haggis in Nevada here (‘heap’ allegedly being the collective noun for haggises).
Many articles about the Haggis claim the plural of haggis is haggi. As the word is not from Latin this is incorrect – the plural is haggises.
Anyway, enough of this frivolity; what is haggis?
In fact, it's a logical food for people who once had to feed families on tight resources. Each winter, a farm family would sacrifice an adult sheep or two so the sparse grazing land could support the spring lambs. They'd kill an animal and use every part. The haggis is made with a sheep's stomach as a casing. It is filled with oats, onions, spices and the other edible organs that are cooked first and then chopped up. These are called "pluck," -- things plucked from the sheep carcass -- and include the "lights," or lungs. The haggis is basically a big, round, spicy sausage.
Variations include ‘Mock Haggis’ which is basically all of the ingredients above fried up in an open pan, rather than being stuffed into a sheep’s stomach, and Battered Haggis (Haggis in Batter) which is available with chips in Scottish Fish and Chip shops (ask for a haggis supper)
Vegetarian Haggis is readily available, and recipes can easily be found on the internet.
Haggis is traditionally served with mashed neeps ‘n’ tatties.
Neeps = turnips
Tatties = potatoes
I think we are all clear on what a potato is, but what is a turnip? Over to the Times newspaper for an explanation:
The Times published this letter from Dr Nick O'Donovan, of Havant, Hampshire:"Sir, Here on the South Coast, when I go to my local vegetable shop and ask for swede I am given a large, orange- fleshed vegetable. If I ask for turnip I receive a much smaller, whitish vegetable with a green top. When making the same request for these vegetables when staying at my in-laws¹ in Middlesbrough, the orange vegetable is proffered when requesting turnip and the smaller green-topped vegetable when requesting swede. I wonder at which junction of the M1 this nomenclature changes, and why?"That letter drew these replies from other readers:
"A survey of the company tearoom suggested the border to be Yorkshire, with Nottinghamshire and Cheshire clearly in the 'South'. Lancashire is divided, with Manchester supporting the South but other areas applying the northern interpretation. Middlesbrough and Tyneside clearly follow the northern option but the Central North and Cumbria revert to southern ways. On very small samples the Irish Republic and New Zealand appear to follow the northern pattern while the US opted for southern. Australia is apparently too dry to grow either vegetable. ." Mark Wilson, c/o Delta Biotechnology, Nottingham.
"Here in the far South West we receive a large orange vegetable when asking for a turnip. I understand that if you require what in my youth in the South East was called a turnip you have to ask for a 'white turnip'. Incidentally, turnip of the orange variety is an essential ingredient of a Cornish pasty." - Mrs Ruth Parker, Mousehole, Penzance, Cornwall
"Alas, I cannot answer Dr O'Donovan's question. But perhaps he should note that in Northern Ireland the big orange thingy is a turnip, the small whitish one a white turnip, and a Swede is the England football coach. - Peter Tray, London N12.
So there you have it. Glad we cleared that one up. I guess we will just have to wait and see what gets served up on Saturday….