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In honour of Robbie Burns Day, we ask: What exactly is haggis?

'It's the equivalent of the Scottish brown bag lunch, wrapped in a stomach lining,' said Peter Hummel
2019 01 20 GT – Robbie Burns at Guelph Civic Museum 2019 – TB 09
A carved haggis. Troy Bridgeman/GuelphToday file photo

FERGUS – Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!

Aboon them a' ye tak your place,

Painch, tripe, or thairm:

Weel are ye wordy o' a grace

As lang's my arm.

These are the opening lines of Scottish poet Robbie Burns’ widely-known work Address to a Haggis.

The legend is that Burns came up with this poem on the spot when he was at a wealthy merchant’s house and people were turning their noses up at the dish. 

“Burns on the spot wrote this poem about the fabulousness of haggis and how only the Scots can eat it because they’re the strong people, they’re the ones that can take it,” said Peter Hummel, chair of the Guelph Pipe Band’s Robbie Burns committee. 

Although this story might be hard to verify, it is now spoken at homes around the world before cutting into a haggis for a traditional Burns supper, often held around Robbie Burns Day on Jan. 25.

But what goes into the dish that people are eating with their neeps and tatties?

“Basically, it’s the equivalent of the Scottish brown bag lunch, wrapped in a stomach lining,” Hummel said. 

Derek Roberts, co-owner of Fraberts in Fergus, explained it is essentially a forcemeat made traditionally with lamb offal, or organ meat. 

“So you’re looking at liver, heart and kidney,” Roberts said. “Some traditional recipes will actually add the lungs.”

Roberts explained making a haggis involves boiling the organs, cooling and then grinding them. 

This mixture is mixed with oats, fat and spices, which are often allspice, salt and black pepper. 

Roberts said traditionally this would be stuffed into a sheep’s stomach but this is hard to get and, in some cases, illegal to sell. 

“I think it’s because they say they’re really hard to clean,” Roberts said. “So what they typically use now is something called a beef bung, or it’s like beef intestines.”

Roberts said it’s hard to source the organ meats to make large batches because a lot of lamb farmers aren’t large producers. 

“When I do a batch I’m looking at almost 25 to 30 pounds of liver, heart and kidney to do a huge batch,” Roberts said, adding it is also a time consuming process.

Roberts said the key to a good haggis is to get the seasoning right, use fresh ingredients and to poach it in lamb or beef stock instead of water. 

Like a lot of people, Fraberts co-owner Jackie Fraser said despite her proud Scottish heritage she was a bit intimidated by the ingredients.

“We actually went to Scotland about five years ago on holiday and I tried it there and it was delicious,” Fraser said. 

“I have had the stuff that we get in here and it’s good too. So it sounds scary when you listen to the ingredients but if it’s made well and it has a nice whiskey cream sauce it can be very delicious.”

Hummel said he has had all different kinds of haggis and he loves it, even making haggis macaroni and cheese with leftovers from Burns suppers. 

“Every culture has a form of this and it’s all the stuff that you don’t think of using up,” Hummel said. “Back in the day, nothing went to waste right? It’s basically the poor man’s meal, you can feed a lot of people with it.”


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Keegan Kozolanka

About the Author: Keegan Kozolanka

Keegan Kozolanka is a general assignment reporter for EloraFergusToday, covering Wellington County. Keegan has been working with Village Media for more than two years and helped launch EloraFergusToday in 2021.
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