It’s January 25, and I have not yet managed to find a haggis. January 25 is Robbie Burns Day, celebrating the day of the Scottish poet’s birth. The traditional feast to mark the day is haggis. Only it hard to come by haggis around here. Proper haggis anyway. Although maybe that’s for the best.
If you’ve ever looked at a recipe for haggis, it’s not exactly what most people would think of as appetizing. It calls for things like sheep pluck. Pluck would seem to be an old timey term to mean things like lungs, heart and liver. And it’s that first one that seems to be the sticking point.
Apparently, we’re not allowed to eat lungs in Canada. Well, a few other countries feel the same. Lungs are not to be sold as food. Which means even imported haggis, which you can find, is not proper haggis because it has no lungs in it.
I have often heard people speak in horror about the ingredients of haggis. Those people probably don’t want to know what’s in a sausage or hot dog either. The ingredients are likely similar.
The side dishes to go with the haggis for a Burns supper are far easier to find. Neeps and tatties I even happen to have on hand. That’s turnip and potatoes. And a bit of turnip hash sounds pretty good.
So it might be an adapted Burns supper for me tonight. Sausage and turnip hash. Might not be too terribly Scottish, but neither am I, so that works.
And I do happen to have the most important ingredient. A wee dram. Just to keep from getting thirsty.
