Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 38 on 11/04/2008.

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Great chieftan o'the puddin'-race

Sue Lawrence looks at the traditional Scottish haggis and provides some more of her delicious recipes.

One cold, frosty day in Scotland, I went down into the bowels of an Edinburgh butcher’s shop to see Jonathan Crombie plop some blood-red lamb lobes into bubbling water in a gargantuan boiler.

It was haggis-making day and as I watched the entire procedure, it occurred to me you need a strong stomach to watch haggis being made.

And that is not only as a receptacle for the offal and oatmeal stuffing.

Once the lungs (there are two lobes in each lung) have cooked for two hours, great lumps of beef fat, bacon ends and boney lamb flanks (the latter adds sweetness) are added, they all bubble away for a further hour. Then it is all minced with onions, oatmeal (both medium-grade and pinhead), then this is hand-mixed and seasoning added according to taste. And although every butcher’s haggis has more or less the same ingredients, it is the seasoning that differentiates.

The Crombie family friends, the Macsweens at their haggis factory on the outskirts of Edinburgh, have a special seasoning which contains white pepper, mace, salt and coriander. All I was told at Crombie’s was that it included: “all the peppers” and salt. But as I sniffed the air, I asked, could I detect mace? An enigmatic smile and a “maybe” was the only response.

Once combined with lamb stock, the mixture is squished into the natural casings of beef intestine (ox bung) in the sausage machine, tied or clipped with metal clips then pricked and cooked in the steamer for 40 minutes. These days the traditional sheep’s s.....

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By Sue Lawrence

Section : Scottish Food

Page number : 49