Mad Cows and Scotsmen

HaggisFrom my blog, Old World Swine;

Remember, January 25th is Burns Night!

I pray our government will lift this ban
on Haggis before a corrupt and violent black market has a chance to
develop. Haggis smuggling would have to be a dirty business.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

63 thoughts on “Mad Cows and Scotsmen”

  1. Sheep’s heart, liver, and lungs wrapped in a sheep’s stomach? I wouldn’t fret over a black market, Tim.

  2. If it were served in our prisons, the ACLU would probably bring a civil rights lawsuit, claiming it was cruel and unusual punishment. For once, I might agree with them.

  3. I was in Scotland last June, playing golf where the game began. For dinner, I passed on haggis and stuck to steak(I was, after all, in Angus country).

  6. I tried haggis in a restaurant in Edinburgh some eight and a half years ago.
    I have no desire to repeat the experience.

  7. You know, I’ve always wanted to try haggis, ever since I was introduced to it in that one episode of Earth Worm Jim (you know the one). It’s rather odd that we in the modern Occident have this strange aversion to organ meats, which many other cultures (e.g. the ancient Romans) actually preferred to steaks. I actually really liked liver, the one time I ate it (and would like to eat it again), and so I can only assume that liver, heart, and lung, contained in a sweet stomachy-shell, will be just as appetising, if not more so. Rather like a big, meaty M&M (only with candy-outside and chocolate-inside replaced with the internal remains of dead sheep)!

  8. I’d like to try it. I sometimes eat tripe tacos here at the local taqueria, but they actually cost MORE than the steak or pork tacos!

  10. bill912,
    I’m disappointed in you. I was in Aberdeen recently, and the haggis balls were quite good.
    (Much, much better than the shirako I was tortured with last night.)

  15. (Much, much better than the shirako I was tortured with last night.)
    Shirako? . . . *checks link*
    ಠ_ಠ
    You know, Esquire, I hope you weren’t eating caviar along with that there shirako. Otherwise things could get interesting.
    Now I’m off to enjoy a nice writhing helping of freshing casu marzu!

  18. I think you may be right, Joanna. For one, it seems an AWFUL lot of trouble to go to just to preserve fish. Heck, why not just dry it and salt it like normal people? Seems like it would take two weeks to prepare and cook the stuff, and apparently, hardly anyone can stand it.
    Haggis, on the other hand… I have eaten liver and like it okay. Heart, well, I don’t think that would be a big problem, considering I’ve probably eaten plenty of it in hot-dog form. It’s just muscle. Lungs may be getting into a weird area. I can’t say, never having tried it. And as sausages have been wrapped in gut for who-knows-how-long, that part doesn’t especially shake me up, either.
    I would certainly give Haggis the old college try. I have real doubts, though, about Lutefisk.

  19. Not to mention, it sounds like you need to wear a haz-mat suit just to cook the stuff. The Wikipedia article talks about how critical it is to clean all the utensils involved IMMEDIATELY, and never, ever to use silverware, as it will apparently dissolve completely in the time it takes to get the Lutefisk from the plate to your mouth (which may be God’s way of trying to bring you to your senses).

  20. Lutefisk sounds like a James Bond nemesis.
    I linked to the Wiki site for lutefisk, and this entry was a bit disconcerting:
    “The Wisconsin Employees’ right to know law regarding toxic substances specifically exempts Lutefisk (Wisc. Stat. 101.58(2)(j)(2)(f)[2])”
    Kinda makes you think that there are some in Wisconsin who are convinced otherwise.
    I’ll just stick to healthier foods, like Jalapeno Pringles and Limited Edition Elvis Presley Banana Creme Reeses’ Peanut Butter Cups.

  23. Lutefisk isn’t bad, though it’s a lot of work and a mess. Of course, our was prepared by a priest, Wisconsin native and all. Not that I want it again or anything, but it wasn’t bad.

  24. I would try Lutefisk. I’m part Norwegian after all, and it sounds like it might not be so bad…maybe.
    I have not cultural reason to try haggis though, and I know I don’t like liver. Then again the only time I had liver was MSU bio-camp food in Russia so it may not have been the best. I still don’t know what animal the liver came from. Still, from what I’ve heard haggis is terrible for anyone who didn’t grow up on it.

  26. When I was younger I used to love the “giblets” from the Thanksgiving turkey. I’d give haggis a go, and hope it wasn’t merely the gross out effect of eating turkey hearts that intrigued me as a kid.

  27. All these strong opinions from the uninitiated!
    Methinks the biggest poo-pooers of this dish of custom have likely never seen sausage (of the variety we get in any market here!) being made.
    I worked in a Scotish pub (here in the US) and have tried haggis many a time.
    Here is the awful truth:
    It is neither as awful as detractors say, or as heavenly as dye-in-the-tartan fans claim it to be.
    Where we served it, the option to drizle a “wee bit” of Scotch over it was frequntly taken…
    Most people who did not know what it was on platters where it was offered as a side in a ramekin ate it and commented it “had interesting flavor and texture, not bad, what is that?”
    “Haggis”
    “Oh”
    Nothing to write home about OR run from. If I was offered some right now, I would eat it. If I never see it again in my life, I will live.
    Now the deepfried beer-battered Mars bars with a scoop of ice cream… HEAVEN!

  52. I’m not even asking how we got from Haggis to that other topic. Crazy. Tried haggis twice. Once I loved it, the other really not. Seems as if there’s no hard-and-fast rule as to haggis making, so the recipes vary. The one I liked was very much like a nice pate. The other was lukewarm, served at a highland games on a really hot day, and was disgusting. I’m not sure how to reconcile those two experiences.

  53. Haggis is great, especially with potato waffles. Sanitised, additive-laden food is a poor substitute for real traditional food. Less obesity then, too…

  55. “The other was lukewarm, served at a highland games on a really hot day, and was disgusting.”
    Dare I offer that the equivalent of “Carnival food” is not always the best representation of a given culinary delicacy?
    I don’t think I could be entreated to try “festival fois gras”

  56. Lutefisk is eaten as a reminder of the hardships your great-great-grandparents had to undergo to leave the old northern shore for the prairie. It is like eating the bitter herbs in the Pesach.
    Lefse, now, that is good stuff.

  57. I have not had the experience of eating Haggis. I actually hope that the ban by the US government is kept, for now. We know far too little about vJCD (variant-Jakob Creutzfeldt Disease) to be exposing ourselves to things Cow-related, especially from the English isles, seeing as how this has been the site of most of the cases.
    I hate to be a party-pooper.
    As Lent is starting next week (can you believe it!), how about posting some yummy recipes for low calorie non-meat dishes.
    The Chicken

  60. There’s nothing wrong with organ meat, as long as you know how to cook it. Same thing with oatmeal.
    Of course, the best use for liver is braunschweiger. Cow heart is very tasty, and used to be a staple of my childhood when it was cheap meat. Chicken gizzards are lovely, and you can get both livers and gizzards in fast food form at Church’s Chicken.

  61. Another 12 days without Jimmy… I appreciate Tim’s entries, but its jimmyakin.com not Old World Swine (a site I am happy to visit), and this used to be an apologetics site. Not to complain too much, of course; it’s just nice to have Jimmy’s voice present.

  62. Lefse, now, that is good stuff.

    Agreed! My mother makes it homemade every year and it’s incredible good, especially fresh of the grill and slathered with butter and white sugar. Mmmmmm….
    I’m also a big, big fan of rommegrot. 🙂

  63. I’ll never forget my husband asking one of his uncles about haggis about ten years ago. Uncle W’s response is not one that should be uttered here. Let’s just say it was more colorful than the haggis itself.
    When I asked my father-in-law’s wife about the interesting dish, she wrinkled her nose up and then began explaining. Considering the things she has found appetizing, I knew that I didn’t want to try haggis. She tried to neutral about it. Tried. Just didn’t quite manage.
    For those of you who appreciate it, God bless. For those who’ve tried it and don’t appreciate it, God bless you! You’ve got more guts (no pun intended) than me!

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