Some hae meat and CANna eat...

While I can't lay claim to any Scottish heritage (or at least am not aware of having any), I am partial to a bit of haggis, and have in the past served it up around the time of Burns Night with the traditional neeps and tatties - and whisky too, naturally. I might not have bothered again this year, had it not been for spotting some time ago that Waitrose actually stock Grant's tinned haggis all year round in most of their branches, in addition to the fresh haggises (or should that be haggai? Oh no, wait - that's a book from the Bible) which gain prominence in their chiller cabinets towards the end of January. A snip at just 99p for 220g, I couldn't resist giving the tinned version a whirl.

 

As to the neeps, a quick internet search revealed that these too are available in tinned form, but the few stockists I could find were asking for around £3.50 for a 410g tin, with delivery at least another £5 or 6 on top of that. The Scottish are a people renowned, and sometimes unfairly mocked, for their thriftiness (haggis itself being a case in point, using up every possible part of the animal), so paying the best part of £10 for a tin of swedes or turnips or whatever you want to call them doesn't really seem to chime with the traditions of the meal. An alternative had to be found.

Thankfully, most supermarkets sell tins of 'mixed vegetables' - potatoes, swede, carrots and peas - which will have to suffice in this case. I buy one tin from Waitrose while buying my haggis, then worry that this might not be enough, so buy another tin from Tesco on the way home. The Tesco tin proudly sports the Union Flag and describes its contents as British Mixed Vegetables - "100% British, grown throughout the UK, from the south coast of England to the east coast of Scotland". Given that the Scottish will be voting on whether to stay in the UK later this year, it seems quite appropriate to be using a tin of 'British' veg this time; things could be somewhat different by Burns Night next year, though somehow I highly doubt it.

I suppose I could have just served up the vegetables as they were, but for the traditional Burns Night experience, the neeps and tatties should be 'bashed'. Mashing up the whole lot would just make a weird-coloured mess with all those peas and carrots in the mix, so I tip out the contents of the two tins and get going on separating them out. This takes somewhat longer than expected, not least as the carrot and swede are not as easily distinguishable in real life as they appear to be on the label of the Waitrose tin. A good twenty minutes later though, I have four distinct piles on my chopping board. Inevitably, the carrot and pea piles are far bigger than those of the neeps and tatties, but such is life.

And so, on to the main event - the "great chieftain o' the puddin-race" itself. Traditionally, haggis is made from a sheep's heart, liver and lungs, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet and spice and stuffed into the stomach of the animal. The only meat part listed in the ingredients for the tinned version is the somewhat sinister-sounding "Lamb Lobes" - presumably just the lungs, therefore. I think even the most hardened of offal-eaters would probably opt for the lungs last if offered that, the heart and the liver separately. Call me cynical, but I can't help but think that Grant's might have gone for the cheapest possible ingredient option for the tinned version, which doesn't fill me with great hope for the taste. It does however contain "Scottish water", which no doubt will be discernible upon eating.

Opening both ends of the tin as the label instructs, I push the haggis out onto a plate. At first it looks as if it is encased in a stomach or some kind of other sausage lining. On closer inspection though, it turns out this is just a layer of fat that has seeped to the sides of the tin, as you often get with tins of corned beef. Yum. I scrape off and discard the worst of it, then take a slice off the top ("wi' ready slight, trenching its gushing entrails bright, like onie ditch", as Burns himself might say) to try as it is , before heating the rest up. I'm not sure if it would be advisable to do that with haggis in its usual form, but seeing as this is from a tin and hence already cooked, I assume it is ok to do so. It looks and tastes like a very coarse pate - much as you might expect, really. Not unpleasant at all. 

 

I break up about half of the beast into a pan to warm through. Meanwhile, the vegetables are also heated up separately, and 'bashed' with butter, salt and pepper. "For a real Scottish flavour," the haggis label suggests, "add a 'wee dram' of whisky before serving". This would probably be the moment to recite the 'Address to a Haggis' too, but I leave it at just the whisky, with an additional 'wee dram' to drink alongside the meal.

 

The haggis may have looked a little uninspiring straight from the tin, but I am pleasantly surprised with it on the plate alongside the neeps and tatties; apart from the somewhat unorthodox peas and carrots (which I didn't want to waste) it looks like a real Burns Night supper - "Oh what a glorious sight, warm-reekin', rich!". The tinned potatoes make for a surprisingly good mash, and the neeps, while a little watery, ("Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies") still have a good strong taste to them. In fact the carrots taste a bit swede-like too - either they have taken on some of the flavour while in the tin, or my separating out of all the pieces wasn't quite thorough enough. The haggis doesn't really have the same depth of flavour as some of the ones I have had in the past, for which I think not having any heart or liver in it may be to blame. It feels a little greasier on the tongue too, though not excessively so - indeed that may just be my imagination, having seen how much fat there was to be scraped off the outside of it first. Overall though, it is a very enjoyable meal - not least with a good bit of whisky to wash it down with.

As to the remainder of the haggis, I have yet to decide how to use it up - perhaps stuffed into a chicken breast as Chicken Balmoral, or as part of a traditional Scottish breakfast, or maybe I will dust off the Breville and have it with some cheese in a toasted sandwich - a different take on 'toasting the haggis'...