Haggis

Though the method has remained more or less constant over the years, the ingredients have varied. Fifteenth-century recipes use the liver and blood of the sheep, while later in the 17th century a meatless Haggas Pudding in a Sheep’s Paunch uses parsley, savoury, thyme, onions, beef suet, oatmeal, cloves, mace, pepper and salt, sewn up and boiled; served with a hole cut in the top and filled with butter melted with two eggs.

Another recipe uses a calf’s paunch, and the entrails, minced together with grated bread, yolks of eggs, cream, spices, dried fruits and herbs, served as a sweet with sugar and almonds. Meg Dods has what she calls a ‘finer haggis’, made by parboiling and skinning sheep’s tongues and kidneys, and substituting these minced, for most of the lights (lungs), and soaked bread or crisped crumbs for the toasted meal (oatmeal).