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Homemade Haggis, and how to serve it!

With Burns Night just around the corner, it’s the time to hole up in the kitchen, shut out the dreary winter weather, and perfect this quintessentially cosy winter dish.

Cooking Haggis from scratch is not for the faint hearted, but if you’ve got the patience for it, you’ll reap the benefits of this deliciously fresh, warming meal. Still not sure? That’s ok! Store bought haggis will work a treat with the recipes below.

What’s more, we believe that hearty meat eaters (or anyone for that matter) benefit from knowing how to cook with the whole animal, so very little is wasted. Here in our little corner of the country, we’re very fortunate to have so many butchers with the freshest, finest produce and the knowledge of how best to cook them. Be sure to ask questions when you’re getting ingredients to make your very own haggis from scratch!

Ingredients

1 ox bung (sausage-like casing) soaked for 4 hours (or overnight) and rinsed thoroughly
1 lamb’s pluck (hear, lungs and liver) approximately 1.4kg
500g beef or lamb trimmings (you can make a haggis without the lamb trimmings, but replace with 200g-300g of suet)
200g suet
500g coarse oatmeal

Seasoning (adjust to taste)

2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp freshly ground mace, alternatively, finely grated nutmeg
4 tsp freshly ground coriander
4 tsp fine sea salt

Method

Cooking the meat

Rinse the whole pluck in cold water. Trim off any large pieces of fat. Cut away the windpipe and put it straight in the bin.
Place the pluck into a large stock pot and cover with cold water. The lungs will float, so you will need to fill the pot such that using a lid keeps the pluck mostly submerged, or cover with a plate.
Bring the pot to the boil, skimming the surface regularly. Gently simmer for two hours
Using tongs or slotted spoon, lift the meat from the pot and rinse each piece in cold water to remove any scum. Place all the meat in a bowl and leave to cool.
Strain cooking liquid through a fine sieve and put back on the stove to reduce until you have roughly 500–1l of stock. Leave to cool.

Mixing the Haggis

Now that the meat has cooled, finely dice the cooked heart and lungs. Grate the liver with a coarse grater. Finely dice the trimmings.
Mix the meat together in a large bowl, along with the suet, oatmeal and spices
In cold water, thoroughly rinse the ox bung, making sure to turn it inside out and rinse again.
Measure how much stock remains from cooking the pluck, and make up to 1l with cold water. When cool, add to the haggis mixture.
To check the seasoning, pan fry a tablespoon of the mixture for 3 minutes before tasting. If required, add extra salt, pepper or spices to taste.
Spoon the haggis mixture into the soaked, rinsed ox bung. Be aware the filling swells as the oats soak up the juices, and the casing will naturally contract as it cooks, so pack quite loosely, and keep a little bung at each end.
When the haggis is the size required, expel any extra air (again making sure there is a little extra casing), pinch, tie with string, and cut away from the rest of the bung.
Tie the new end of the bung with string, and continue stuffing. Repeat this process until all the haggis is all neatly tied. Any spare can be frozen and kept for another day!
Before cooking, pierce the haggis several times with a needle. Place in a pan of cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 1.5–2 hours. When ready, the internal temperature should read at least 75°C. Remove and serve!
Traditionally served with neeps and tatties (and a healthy serving of scotch whiskey) on Burns Night, this meal is the perfect addition to bagpipes or poetry recitals. However, if you’re bagpipe playing isn’t as proficient as you’d like, we’ve listed some recipes below so that you can enjoy haggis all year round!

Recipe from Nicola Lando at Sous Chef.

Haggis stuffed portobello mushrooms

Cook the haggis as normal (if from frozen ensure they are fully defrosted)
Put your mushrooms in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper until they soften
Remove the mushrooms, cut open the haggis casing and stuff the mushrooms, top with goats’ cheese and buttered breadcrumbs.
Give it another drizzle of olive oil and return to the oven for another 10-15 minutes.
Drizzle with a balsamic glaze or pomegranate molasses, dice up some fresh coriander and serve!

Recipe from blog, Scottish Scran.

Tip

The casing will be thick, we recommend using it as a bowl for the haggis, however it’s best left on the side of your plate when you’re done!
If the haggis skin does split. you can very quickly remove the whole haggis from the pan and wrap tightly in foil. Simmer the carefully wrapped parcel in an inch or two of water to continue cooking.