Haggis

[trof]

Ever had haggis?

Haggis (Scottish Gaelic: taigeis) is a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and cooked while traditionally encased in the animal's stomach[1] though now an artificial casing is often used instead.

I got a can of haggis from The Caledonian Kitchen on Amazon.
It ain't cheap, but I've always been curious about what it would taste like.
I plan to fry up some and have it with a couple of fried eggs.

BTW, just found that the air fryer make great bacon and fried eggs.

[snowybirdie]

1. Noooooooo

Tried it once in Edinburgh. Spent all next day very very sick! Never again!

[PJMcK]

2. Yeah. Never again

It was disgusting.

No thanks.

[trof]

3. Uh Oh

[TreasonousBastard]

4. I had it somewhere in Scotland (maybe Edinborough) and made...

it clear to the waitress I was an American and curious. Made no difference, though. She was clear about her feelings about haggis and anyone who would try it.

It really did suck, I will say.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Yes, didn't think it was bad. But it wasn't from a can! I had it in Scotland.

[Freddie]

6. Sounds like the Pennsylvania Dutch delicacy Hog Maw

Which is various things (don’t think it includes organ meats) cooked in a hog stomach. Thankfully my PA Dutch family was never “authentic” enough to make this.

[Easterncedar]

7. I had it and liked it a lot!

I wonder what folks found to dislike?

[Retrograde]

9. There are people who refuse to eat organ meats

They do have a stronger taste than muscle meats as a rule (except tongue, which is a pain to cook). And organ meats aren't as easy to find as they used to be, when stores like Safeway carried them as a matter of course. Oh well - more sweetbreads for me!

[Easterncedar]

12. I can't find sweetbreads

I’ve been looking. The local butcher said these and kidneys aren’t available at all anymore.

[Retrograde]

15. I think restaurants get most of them

there's a sheep and goat raiser at the local farmers' market who sometimes has them, and there's a specialty butcher in a nearby town that has frozen ones occasionally. There are some Basque restaurants in Nevada that specialize in them, but that's a bit far to go for dinner.

99 Ranch, a West Coast chain that caters mainly to a Chinese customer base, usually has organ meats, mostly pig parts.

[greatauntoftriplets]

8. No, but I once saw one in a butcher shop window in Edinburgh

I swear the thing was alive because it looked like it was going to pulsate like something in a horror movie.

[peacefreak2.0]

10. A couple of times.

With neeps and tatties in Glasgow and a burger mixed with haggis and whisky sauce at Laphroig. Would do either one again.

[Retrograde]

11. I've had it in Scotland

it was OK, but I thought it would have benefited from more onions and spices. But then I like liver on occasion.

If you substitute chicken livers and gizzards for the sheep pluck, and rice for the oats, you end up with something like Cajun dirty rice. They're dishes meant to use up as much of an animal as possible.

[Warpy]

13. Goetta is the same idea, but without the ick factor of the animal's stomach

encasing bits of its other organs. It's a meat extension recipe from the Franco-German border area, usually sliced and fried up for breakfast with eggs if the hens were laying or without them.

My grandmother used to get whatever hadn't sold at her brother's butcher shop and make a huge batch of the stuff, packed into tin cans with both ends cut out. My grand uncle would get his supply and my grandmother could feed her four kids well during the Depression.

There are as many recipes as there are cooks. The basic recipe is minced meat (whatever ya got, really, it always tastes the same), chopped onions, cooked steel cut oats (no substitution), salt, and pepper. Other ingredients can be allspice, sage, hot pepper, whatever you'd find in sausage, although I've never seen garlic in it. It differs from scrapple in both texture and depth of flavor.

A lot of locally owned,non chain restaurants from western NY through Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois have it on the breakfast menu.

[Mr.Bill]

14. I ground and cooked three lbs of chicken hearts yesterday.

For my dogs.

[AKwannabe]

16. Yes, in Scotland

Several ways

Appetizers
Main dishes
Potato chips

Brought back a couple cans too

I like it best with mashed root veg and a nice gravy. Could be brown or white. Mmm

I like it. But to each their own.