Tim's Tales: Celebrating our haggis

I celebrated the end of last year in the company of good friends and was given a plate of ‘Hogmanay Haggis’, accompanied with clapshot and creamy whisky sauce, a la Chris Yule. It was delicious and, as we sat around the table, I reflected on the fact that eating haggis is such a Scottish way to celebrate. It’s also a very communal meal. I never eat haggis alone, it requires company; at least that’s how I feel.

No space here to go through the detailed history of haggis and how its Scottish identity emerged, and anyway, many others, better informed than me, have done so.

Suffice to say it’s a fascinating and also potentially controversial topic. I recall the stir when it was suggested it was an “English invention” because of the discovery of a recipe for the dish in an English cookbook from 1615.

The truth is haggis is a descendant of many variations of the same idea: using the chopped-up offal of a beast and cooking or keeping it in the lining of the stomach. The basic idea wasn’t invented by any one race or nationality and can even be traced back to ancient Greece.

Even the origin of the name is uncertain. Perhaps it comes from the Viking word haggw, meaning to chop, or the French verb hacher, with the same meaning. But who knows for sure?

So the origins of haggis, like the Scots themselves, are rooted in different cultures and traditions. The earliest Scottish reference to it is in the early 16th century, in a poem by William Dunbar. But he mentions it casually without any sense that it was seen as a special dish associated with Scotland, because at that time it wasn’t.

But by the end of the 18th century, it certainly had become part of Scottish identity, and was soon to become seen as Scotland’s national dish. How’d that happen?

Robert Burns’ Address to the Haggis, written in 1786, was part of it. But this poem was a response to the many derogatory comments of the time, which used Scotland’s diet to characterise it as a backward, uncivilised and poor nation.

A famous example was Samuel Johnson’s reference in his 1755 dictionary, in which he defined oats as “a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people”.

There was some truth in this, as by the 18th century the diet of Scots, at least in the poorer sections of society, was more reliant on oats, as well as offal, than was the case in England.

But Johnson’s comment has an element of humour, I think, but it was using humour as a putdown, as it was part of a common attempt to portray the Scots and Scottish society as inferior, in this case using their diet as evidence.

Hence Burns’ humorous rebuke! Aye, he’s saying, Scots do eat haggis, and are proud of it, because it’s not inferior, in fact it’s the “Great chieftain o the puddin-race”.

He says to the haggis: “Aboon them a’ ye tak your place.”

It’s the posh food of other nations which is inferior, as it doesn’t feed them so well: “Poor devil! see him owre his trash, As feckless as a wither’d rash.”

In contrast, haggis has built the strong character of the Scots: “But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed, The trembling earth resounds his tread!”

Of course this is all done with a guid Scots tongue in the cheek. But Burns brilliantly turned the tables on the inferiorist narrative of Scotland’s diet, and did so in the Scots language, which was also being denigrated as “uncouth” and “uncivilised” compared to English.

Perhaps he couldn’t have known just what an impact his Address to the Haggis would have, helping to make the simple meal of poor folk the proud, internationally recognised, Scottish national dish it now is, with the later help of his friends who ate it in his memory, and of figures like Walter Scott.

So the truth is that haggis is now, undeniably, Scottish. Burns helped us claim it as our own and now we have the copyright!

I suspect January is the month it is eaten more than any other, as Burns suppers are being planned and prepared all over the world to celebrate our national bard. But whatever the occasion, whatever the time of year, a good plate of haggis makes a wonderful communal meal (with the veggie version now making it all inclusive).

As Burns said: “Ye Pow’rs, wha mak mankind your care, And dish them out their bill o fare, Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware That jaups in luggies: But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer, Gie her a Haggis!”