Tried Some Haggis Today!

[Spastik_Roach]

I went to a Scottish festival in my town and they were selling Haggis sandwiches! I was actually suprised about how nice it tasted.

Have any of you guys tried something new lately?

[whiteballz]

ive recently ... nah, wont say that.

yes, i have. :P

[Esperante]

yes, very goo isn't it? Like sausage pudding :D

[Spastik_Roach]

I likened it to stuffing...

[lithuanianmafia]

i've had it a few times, always love it :D

the best day to have it is Rabbie Burn's day

[Matra et Alpine]

Haggis SANDWICH - oh my god :(

Please tell me at least the haggis was boiled and not sliced and fried ?
The latter is still nice but it's not "the real stuff"

Mind you, nowadays we have it battered and deep-fried - no surprise given our penchant for choclate bars that way :) ( Anyone NOT know that Scotland has the highest heart disease records in Europe ? )

[Spastik_Roach]

I'd say it was boiled...

[spi-ti-tout]

Though it was a kind of chicken at first... :p

[UCR]

Ive had it, tastes like soil.

[Matra et Alpine]

over-cooked then :)

It shoudl be moist !!!

[SlickHolden]

What is it really like ?

[SilverG35SportC]

I had Haggis when I was in Scotland and it was putrid. The taste is aweful..Maybe im not used to that kind of diet because im North-American lol. i dunno but it tasted bad.

[Matra et Alpine]

It should be spicy and has a distinctive flavour from theose and the oats.

The problem with haggis is if it's overcooked it becomes a horrible gooey stick consistency like porridge. THEN it should just be sent back to the kitchens !!

Also cheap haggis doesn't usually get the spiciness right and it can end up bland.

Get both and it's good for filling holes in walls and not much else :)

Mind you most Americans dont' like curry or REAL chines/thai etc cooking either :) So it might just have been the spices

[Rockefella]

Mind you, nowadays we have it battered and deep-fried - no surprise given our penchant for choclate bars that way :) ( Anyone NOT know that Scotland has the highest heart disease records in Europe ? )
Saw a movie about that in my chem. class... You guys were #2 to some Scandinavian country I think but took over the throne. (this could be wrong :p )

[Esperante]

Nah...NYC always deep fried stuff. Here in Mil-wa-kay we like to make fun of NYC's obsession with deep frying stuff by bringing up the deep fried twinkie :p
http://www.wirk.com/jd%20and%20the%20wake-up%20crew/funstuff/Fried%20Twinkies/twinkie2.jpg

[SlickHolden]

Well i hate snags, porridge, But i like curry only as curry steak on rice:D
So whats the chances of me likeing hag ??

[Falcon500]

Never had haggis but ive tried all kinds of kraut food :p ...and here i was thinking that offal was used for bait and pet food :rolleyes:

Sourkraut wasnt as bad as i thought...but 90% of people wouldent know a good potato salad if it bit them in the arse...that sloppy crap thatyou get in tins and from most bufets is nothing like the way the real stuff is...its rocks to have a foreign family :D

I love my currys and tai food (all expect for ryus...friggng msgs :( ) but if haggis does taste like stuffing it would be vile....i hate the stuffing in chickens and stuff.

[Matra et Alpine]

:)
Gotta try a decetn one and find out !!

Also curry around the world is a different proposition.
I went to an American "traditional Indian curry house" in Seattle and it was the mildest I'd ever encountered. Even their hottest daal was mild. The chef came out to see us eat his hottest daal as nobody had ever ordered it. We got talking and he said American palate cannot handle strong Indian Curry. Now Britain is kinda funny in that we have stronger curries than the original dish ! So it can be difficult to 'compare' curries. Hottest in UK are in Glasgow where it used to be the "macho" thing to see how hot a madras someone coudl cook and anyone would eat. The advantage was it usually took 6-8 beers per curry JUST to cool yo down enough to THEN enjoy a pint :)

Go try a haggis, but try to get McSweens - the best IMHO :)

[Matra et Alpine]

WHile we're getting off the haggis line ( lovely food ) and ont 'gross' fodd then the WORST is a Norwegian fish.
Can't remember the name. basically fish stuffed in a barrel and kept cool for months/years. it goes rotten, basically. The fish version of sauerkraut.
One of the few "local specialities" i"ve tried the world over that i will NEVER repeat again. ( Well it actually "repeated" all that night and most of the next morning )

[SlickHolden]

I'm a curry fan i'm half indian in that way :p
I use keens curry powder, There is mild and hot and it don't take much to get it hot:D
About 3 tablespoons will get most bums towards the dunny:p So i use 5 tablespoons:D.
Curry eggs, Curry chow mein, Curry 2min nodles, Curry steak on rice, Curry hot pot yum yum:D

Matra can you pick some food that can discribe to me what haggis is like:)

[Matra et Alpine]

Matra can you pick some food that can discribe to me what haggis is like:)
Hard to explain the spices in words :)
Cayenne and Jamaican pepper and salt and onions are the main spices.
But different butchers and towns add differing spices for a range of flavours.

Consistency is like nothng else as the oats 'clump' together in 2-3mm chunks with the 'meat' which is all minced to same size.

Lots of suet so has some of the consistency of black or fruit pudding. But not all stuck together !!

Again, different haggis producers use more meat or suet or stock or oats or etc etc. So there are as many haggis flavours as there are whiskies :)

All have a lingering taste - some dont'; liek it as it is a little "sticky" - all that suet and soaked oatmeal !!!

You have to try it :)

[SlickHolden]

See i hate snags, And hate oats and fruit pudding, But i love my stuffing and love spices in meat i cook, But my stuffing is only made from bread crumbs and herds onions nothing over the top,
But to be honest the picture i have in my head of haggis is not what you said, So it can't be all that bad:) I eat bubble and squike lol:p

[Matra et Alpine]

Everythingf is minced down, some folks hear the ingredients and think they're gonna find identifiable lumps in it ( I wont' say of what ) :)

"Modern" haggis variants exist using prime meat cuts - still minced :)
But it's not the same !!!!!!!!!!

[SlickHolden]

Yeah my mum was telling me something about guts and shit:p
But i told her that you explained it different and it's not like that anymore or you don't have to go the old way, More modern way, I think i might go the fried way:)
My Auntie's husband is Scottish, But he has never talked about it, But he loves his curry like me hot hot hot:D

[Matra et Alpine]

Those who are squeamish do NOT read this :)

Not the true 'guts'. But the heart and liver for sure and usually the lungs. All good meat anyway !!