What Exactly Is Haggis ?

What Exactly Is Haggis?

• Haggis is Scotland's national dish and the crowning glory of a traditional Burns Supper. While it is a source of gastronomic intrigue for Scots around the world, it may not be the most visually appealing dish. However, take our word for it: what haggis lacks in appearance, it more than makes up for in flavor! Are you intrigued yet?

What Is It Made Of?

• This enduringly popular dish is a type of savory pudding that combines meat with oatmeal, onions, salt, and spices. Often served with the classic sides of bashed neeps and mashed tatties (that’s Scots for turnip and potatoes), haggis is traditionally cooked in a sheep's stomach, a historic way of preserving meat. However, most haggis nowadays is sold and cooked in synthetic sausage casings. While it may not win the title of the most elegant dish on the planet, it is undeniably delicious! Need more convincing?

• As strange as haggis may sound, the end result is a culinary masterpiece. Meaty, oaty, fiery, and moist, haggis makes for a scrumptious meal. Largely made from oatmeal, it gives haggis its soft, crumbly texture—similar to stuffing—and earthy flavor. When combined with salt and spices, it has a spicy, rustic hint with a peppery kick! Now, that certainly sounds delicious, doesn’t it?

25 January and Burns Supper

• Haggis is really thrown into the spotlight around Burns Night, when Scotland and the world pay tribute to one of the greatest writers of all time, Robert Burns, Scotland's National Bard. Burns was a fan of the national dish, and in 1787 he dedicated an entire poem—*Address to a Haggis*—to the "great chieftain o’ the puddin’ race." Nowadays, haggis, neeps, and tatties are the focal point of every Burns Supper.

• Celebrated annually on Robert Burns' birthday, 25 January, Burns Night gathers Scots around the world to honor the great poet's life and works, along with Scottish culture. The celebration features a delicious meal, ceilidh dancing, rousing songs, poetry, drams of whisky, and, of course, heaps of haggis. Most importantly, it’s a time for good company and loads of fun!

Not Only for Burns Night

• This versatile food is also used as a focal ingredient in contemporary dishes across restaurants and pubs in Scotland. 

• From traditional haggis, neeps, and tatties with whisky sauce to modern dishes with a twist—like haggis Scotch quail's eggs, haggis-topped nachos, or the excellent Balmoral Chicken (a succulent chicken breast stuffed with spicy haggis and wrapped in sizzling bacon)—haggis is favored year-round in Scotland and beyond.