Today is the anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Scotland’s great poet of the people. At Burns Suppers all over the world, Scots and wanna-be Scots will be sitting down to a meal whose formula never varies: haggis, tatties and neeps, and wee drappies of whisky.

If you Google haggis (two words which together sound like a cat vomiting, oddly), you are likely to call up an advertisement inoccuously promising a

Traditional blend of lamb, pork,
oats and onions. Shop online today!

Yeah, I’m going to buy a HAGGIS on-line.

I’d prefer to make my own, if I were going to eat one. I’m sure that most of Isoglossia’s readership feels the same way, so as a public service I’m posting the recipe I got from an ancient cookbook I bought in a second-hand shop while visiting the auld sod:

Haggis

1 sheep’s bag and pluck.
2-4 medium parboiled potatoes.
½ lb. oatmeal (pinhead).
¼ lb. minced beef suet.
1 teasp. salt.
½ teasp. pepper.
Cayenne.
1 pt. liquor from pluck.

Wash, scrape, and cleanse the bag and soak overnight in cold water with salt added. Wash, squeeze, and cleanse the pluck; put into boiling water with the windpipe hanging over the side into small pan with water. Boil for two hours. When cold grate and use half the liver. Mince the heart, lungs, onions, and suet, and add the oatmeal (which should be toasted to a golden brown colour), salt, pepper, and cayenne. Stir in one pint of liquor from the pluck. Prepare and sew the bag. Fill about half full, sew up and prick well. Plunge into boiling water, and cook for three hours, pricking occasionally during the cooking.

Enjoy!

What to say to a Haggis
Another great Scottish holiday
Recipes without the word ‘windpipe‘ in them
Slovenia’s version of Burns
A lesser-known but funnier Scottish poet