Americans of Scottish extraction - not allowed to eat haggis?

[Phalex]

Originally Posted by tekdiver500ft

No...

Okay, I admit it, you lost me on that one. Unless it's a reference to where I live.

Yeah. It kinda is. I was like "hey! That dudes in St. John's!" Then I realized I'm probably not going to St. John's for haggis. Then I realized that I have in fact been to St. John's, then I remembered I was there for the big mint festival........

Sorry man. That's just kinda how my brain works.

[tekdiver500ft]

No sweat. I just realized that you're in G.R. Send me a PM next time you're out this way, we'll get together for coffee or lunch or something.

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by tekdiver500ft

Not "allowed" to eat haggis??? No, we're allowed to eat haggis. We can't buy it with lung so we must make it ourselves (I do), but we're allowed to eat it. Personally, I love it, but I was trained as a chef at the Marine Hotel in Troon, so I know how to make it properly.

Okay - "not allowed to buy haggis with sheep lungs in" it is. My apologies.

Do you make yours with lungs in? What difference do they make to the texture or flavour?

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by Avalon

Now, I do understand that traditional haggis is served in a stomach, but I think I can get passed that. As I've seen it, most people are just eating the pudding from the stomach and not the stomach itself. I have eaten scrapple (a Pennsylvania Dutch meat scrap pudding of sorts) and I find it quite tastey. Assuming you have tried it, would haggis bear any simlarity to scrapple?

Never had scrapple, but it looks kind of similar in idea. Though haggis isn't usually sliced, it's usually just kinda heaped in there and it's whole oats instead of a flour.

You're right on the stomach part, that isn't usually eaten, it's just used as a casing, not everyone uses it as a casing these days either.

[bongomania]

Speaking of "not allowed", a few years ago Scotland turned the tables and banned the importation of haggis from the US! It was part of the general trouble the EU has with US meat inspection, and fears of mad-cow-like livestock plagues.

I tried to find a link about it, but Google is cluttered with page after page about the long-standing US ban on the lung meat.

[pedroims]

so what is the reason for banned sheep's lungs?

[tekdiver500ft]

Originally Posted by bassybill

Do you make yours with lungs in? What difference do they make to the texture or flavour?

Yes, I do. I can't say what difference there is, as I've never had it without.

Originally Posted by Avalon

Now, I do understand that traditional haggis is served in a stomach, but I think I can get passed that. As I've seen it, most people are just eating the pudding from the stomach and not the stomach itself. I have eaten scrapple (a Pennsylvania Dutch meat scrap pudding of sorts) and I find it quite tastey. Assuming you have tried it, would haggis bear any simlarity to scrapple?

So anyway, any thoughts on what establishment I should look for while in London?

No, you don't eat the stomach. My father is German, so I was raised on scrapple (at least twice a month). I prefer haggis, as I like the flavor and texture of the oats more than the flour. However, that preference is slight. My favorite way of eating scrapple is to slice it, pan fry it, then serve it with syrup and bacon. Mmm, bacon...

[tekdiver500ft]

Originally Posted by pedroims

so what is the reason for banned sheep's lungs?

Tubeculosis.

[bongomania]

Originally Posted by pedroims

so what is the reason for banned sheep's lungs?

Sheep in the UK smoke too much.

[tekdiver500ft]

Ah, but smoked sheep's lung is to die for...

[TexasTodd]

I'm of Scottish and Scotts-Irish ancestry and a vegetarian...

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by bongomania

Sheep in the UK smoke too much.

As do many others...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz2LaJOVAiA

[pedroims]

I did a research and seems like haggis is very similar to the ''machitos'' we eat in Monterrey Mexico , yummy... the internal organs of the kid goat and the goat's intestines used to wrap and tie the resulting mixture. The finished product resembles a large sausage. Machito, which is a traditional Mexican dish, is similar to haggis, a dish of Scottish origins...

here is a Mexican machito...machito, tortillas salsa and a beer

[fdeck]

Half the people I know of Scottish extraction are vegetarian.

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by fdeck

Half the people I know of Scottish extraction are vegetarian.

I would guess you're talking about Americans, right? All the folks I know from Scotland eat meat like it's going out of style.

The area where I live is also well known for the folks eating just about any bit of an animal you can think of. They say that round here the only bit of a pig that you can't eat is the "oink".

[TexasTodd]

Originally Posted by fdeck

Half the people I know of Scottish extraction are vegetarian.

We probably have some kind of genetic memory of our ancestors eating haggis!

[Tituscrow]

So do you Americans eat crackling?

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by Tituscrow

So do you Americans eat crackling?

They do have scratchings over there - they call them "pork rinds".

[mellowinman]

I'm an American with two Scottish parents, which makes me "full blood Scot," I guess. (I've always just thought of myself as an American.) No one ever threatened to make me eat Haggis, so I have never ventured to try.

I feel pretty safe in saying I will most likely go to my grave having never tasted it.

The only thing truly Scottish I can recall from childhood is my dad's whiskey, and if I'd drank any of it, there is no doubt he'd have killed me.

I do have a vague childhood memory of a tall, hair-legged man in a kilt playing bagpipes in the house, and my reaction to him being to scream my head off, and cry for the rest of the night.

[Tituscrow]

Originally Posted by bassybill

They do have scratchings over there - they call them "pork rinds".

I don't mean the little bag of snacks, I mean full on strips of hairy pig leather to be dipped in gravy!