Dearest gentle reader… 😉 In lieu of responding to one of your inquiring minds this week, and largely because I’m trying to finish this column to head the door to the VMAs – #SabrinaCarpenterAndChappellRoan4Lyfe – because you know I love my Espresso! 

After watching the debates this week, I got to thinking about cooking… and while we didn’t eat cats and dogs, the ingredients we had to work with were pretty gross!  Coincidentally, an email later that night alerted me to the fact that the Ladies Auxiliary is putting out a new parish cookbook for the 125th Anniversary year.  So, I pulled out my Ye Olde Better Homes & Moors cookbook to dig up my family’s favorite recipe to send in for my entry.  I thought I’d print it here in advance.  Enjoy (and fingers crossed Jays International can help you out with some of these recipe items)!

TRADITIONAL HAGGIS

Ingredients:

• 1 ox bung, soaked for 4 hours and cleaned
• 3 1/16 lb of lamb’s pluck (heart, lungs, and liver)
• 1 1/8 lb of beef, or lamb trimmings or stewing steak
• 7 1/16 oz of suet
• 1 1/8 lb of oatmeal (coarse)
• 2 tbsp of black pepper, ground
• 1 tsp nutmeg, finely grated
• 4 tsp coriander seeds, freshly ground
• 4 tsp fine sea salt

Directions:

1. Serve with mashed potatoes and swede. Or neeps and tatties.
2. Rinse the whole pluck in cold water. Trim off any large pieces of fat and cut away the windpipe
3. Place in a good sized pot and cover with cold water. The lungs float, so keep submerged with a plate or a lid. Bring to the boil and skim the surface regularly. Gently simmer for 2 hours
4. Lift the meat from the pot with tongs or a slotted spoon, and rinse in cold water to remove any scum. Place into a bowl and leave to cool
5. 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.
6. Whilst the stock reduces, finely dice the cooked heart and lungs. Grate the liver using the coarse side of the grater. Finely dice the trimmings. Mix together in a large bowl, along with the suet, oatmeal and spices (adjust seasonings to taste).
7. Measure how much stock remains from cooking the pluck, and make up to 1l with cold water. When cool, add to the haggis mixture.
8. To check the seasoning, pan fry a tablespoon of the mixture for 2–3 minutes and taste. Add any extra salt, pepper or spice if needed.
9. Spoon the haggis mixture into the soaked, rinsed ox bung. Be aware the filling swells as it cooks, so pack quite loosely, and keep a little bung at each end.
10. When the haggis is the size required, expel any extra air, pinch, tie with string and cut with scissors.
11. Tie the new end of the bung, and continue stuffing. Freeze any spare haggises
12. 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 74°C.

BON APETIT!