Author Topic: Haggis  (Read 7621 times)

Re: Haggis
« Reply #50 on: 26 January, 2021, 07:02:08 pm »
I'll eat haggis if I'm offered it or given one,  it's OK , but not a particular favourite.   


M&S black pudding slices are by McSweens & are very nice.    But I got this at the weekend (also M&S) & had some last night, luvverly stuff...






Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: Haggis
« Reply #51 on: 26 January, 2021, 07:19:46 pm »
Quote from: Jaded
<snip>
McSweens, Bruntsfield...?
The very same.
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Haggis
« Reply #52 on: 26 January, 2021, 07:36:16 pm »
Quote from: Jaded
<snip>
McSweens, Bruntsfield...?
The very same.

Now an Oddbinns or similar. Was my local butchers too... about 150m
It is simpler than it looks.

Re: Haggis
« Reply #53 on: 26 January, 2021, 08:05:24 pm »
It's been "McSween's of an industrial unit in Loanhead" for a long time now.

Anyway:
Haggis Pakora.

It's great.

ian

Re: Haggis
« Reply #54 on: 26 January, 2021, 08:26:55 pm »
I used to love the wonderfully named Brain's Faggots as a child, in their little metal tray, wobbling in their fragrant gravy. Having just googled to confirm they're a thing, it's Mr Brain to you. I never knew there was a cheery butcher behind the random pork parts concoction that I have also assumed were produced in some giant porcine hadron collider. And it's not gravy, it's West Country sauce. I can't say I've had one since I was a child. I think I'm working up a craving. I'm not big fan of offal, words I'm comfortable saying, no one gets a t-shirt that reads '#1 OFFAL FAN.' I do like steak and kidney pie though. I had horrific experiences of liver as a child, my mother would cook it to indestructibility. It wasn't cooking so much as tanning. I remember once managing to sever a portion with my incisors, but a vessel remained, which snapped right back into my eye. I actually bled from my eyeball because of liver.

I'm greatly enjoying Parts Unknown on Netflix at the moment, every episode I swear he gets served tripe, which means we have a competition to be first to shout TRIPE! when the bowl arrives. (In last nights episode, he made a Frenchman eat spicy food – many years ago we took our French flatmate out for a vindaloo, oh my, I've never seen a human being turn that shade of red before.)

I have tried tripe once, but it was a posh tripe and bits, I forget the chap, one of the famous chef places in Soho. I figured he'd been cooking it since he was five to tenderise it. Even my grandparents wouldn't eat tripe. Anyway, it wasn't worth the effort.

I also used to love tongue sandwiches, made by my gran, I blame rationing, so do they I imagine. It was actually quite late in my development that I realise that tongue was literally tongue, sliced for my delectation. I was a slow developer, you should have seen the look on my face when I realised that the Durex on display at the local barbers wasn't a haircare product*.

*seriously, we were dared to go and buy a packet of 'johnnies' from the machine in a pub toilet, don't ask me why, we were about thirteen and in no position to use them, girls being a theoretical concept and magazines or the lingerie section of Freemans really not demanding you came prepared, and there on the prophylactic dispenser the familiar word – Durex).

Re: Haggis
« Reply #55 on: 26 January, 2021, 08:34:07 pm »
Most popular dish in Venice (for the locals) is liver and onions allegedly.
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

ian

Re: Haggis
« Reply #56 on: 26 January, 2021, 08:48:08 pm »
Least popular dish of my childhood, not helped by the fact that my mother just overcooks everything and when she's done overcooking something she overcooks it some more. She thinks the correct time to fry a thin piece of sirloin is 35 minutes. No joke, I timed her once, it should have taken three, four minutes tops for medium.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Haggis
« Reply #57 on: 26 January, 2021, 09:02:38 pm »
I'm not allowed black pudding, or haggis in the house (apart from whe she's not here) so i tend to sniff it out in hotels when I'm there.

I'm reliably informed that Mr MacDonald himself takes an interest, and it's pretty good black pudding.
The Aberdeen Mercure on Union Terrace is passable haggis

Worst haggis I've ever had was on the sleeper from Aberdeen to London, the half bottle of burgundy helped though

I'm with Ian on faggots though, used to be a post-match staple when I played rugby in Somerset, supplied by the butcher who played second row
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: Haggis
« Reply #58 on: 26 January, 2021, 09:03:51 pm »
Good old Hilary Briss

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Haggis
« Reply #59 on: 26 January, 2021, 09:23:20 pm »
English <-> Scottish
Swede. <-> Turnip,neep
Turnip. <->   White turnip,neep

You can convert one turnip variety into the other by boiling with sweaty socks.

Haggis is traditionally served in batter with chips.


I'm not sure if I've ever eaten a white turnip.
It has possibly appeared on my plate somewhere with me taking a puzzled look of wondering "WTF is that thing a bit like neeps but the wrong colour"

Careful.

My children are 1/4 Stirling, and if you don't watch what you say I'll send them round to yours for the old surprise visit


A town that at face value looks nice, but then you discover Raploch and Cornton aren't in Weegieland
Seriously, one of my mates lives in Denny and it's nicer (now that the infamous carbuncle has been demolished).

Worst haggis I've ever had was on the sleeper from Aberdeen to London, the half bottle of burgundy helped though

Microwave reheated haggis  :sick:

Davef

Re: Haggis
« Reply #60 on: 26 January, 2021, 09:40:34 pm »

Always important to keep an emergency haggis in the saddlebag.

Re: Haggis
« Reply #61 on: 26 January, 2021, 09:45:25 pm »
Least popular dish of my childhood, not helped by the fact that my mother just overcooks everything and when she's done overcooking something she overcooks it some more. She thinks the correct time to fry a thin piece of sirloin is 35 minutes. No joke, I timed her once, it should have taken three, four minutes tops for medium.


Our mothers must have read the same cookery books.  No juice or trace of pinkness allowed.  All meat shall be burnt on the outside & bone dry in the middle.  Veggies should be soft.


Liver was school,  vile.  I used to like the kidneys you'd get on a good pork chop though, and the little plastic bags of them in gravy were a treat.


We used to get blocks of frozen tripe as dog food,  a special freezer to store it & a separate microwave to defrost it,  the smell   :sick: :sick:


Now liver & onions just cooked until it's pink, with a honey & vinegar sauce,  that's lush. 
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Haggis
« Reply #62 on: 26 January, 2021, 10:27:55 pm »
Aaahh! Crumbly liver - those memories  :sick:
It is simpler than it looks.

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: Haggis
« Reply #63 on: 27 January, 2021, 09:36:26 am »
Most popular dish in Venice (for the locals) is liver and onions allegedly.


Unlike the French, the Italians (and the Spanish) know how to cook offal.
Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

ian

Re: Haggis
« Reply #64 on: 27 January, 2021, 10:23:02 am »
Sadly no tripe in last nights Parts Unknown, but he got to feed the Obama chap (back in his president days) random porky parts and spicy noodles – he wasn't scared of the chillis – I'd have been scared to tackle noodles in a shirt that white though. I guess the Secret Service have spares.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Haggis
« Reply #65 on: 27 January, 2021, 11:16:55 am »
Re French offal cookery, I do like a nice salade de gésiers. Never got on with andouilette though.

When I was growing up, my dad would occasionally have Brain's faggots for a treat - though for some reason my mum never inflicted them on me and my siblings, which is a shame because when I eventually got the opportunity to try them for myself I found that I really liked them. This was a pleasant surprise because I had been labouring under the misapprehension that they were actual brains, rather than just a kind of large meatball.

And like ian, I was also surprised to discover that tongue is made of actual tongue. That's another one of those cuts that requires careful cooking to avoid being turned into leather. The best tongue I've ever had (stop it!) was at the French House.

Unlike ian, I'm lucky that my mum knew how to cook liver. However, I discovered that not everyone has that skill when I was in hospital aged 10. The other kids in my ward were all going for the burger and chips option and the nurse asked me if I was really sure I wanted the liver. I was adamant that yes, I really did want liver! I regretted it.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: Haggis
« Reply #66 on: 27 January, 2021, 11:32:53 am »
I confess that I've never eaten liver in anything other than pate form since I left home. I still remember the gruesome chewing challenge it presented. Getting it down was a marathon of mastication. And I had the sort of upbringing that entailed eating what you got, if you didn't, you went without or it came back as the next meal. None of that modern 'if you eat that you can have dessert.' Claiming liver-intolerance would have fallen on deaf ears.

Tongue only hot me when I saw a big tongue lolling in the butcher's window and then he picked up and started to slice. I thought it was like haslet (which admittedly is probably made from the butcher's porcine floor sweepings). (I've always wondered about oxen, you get the tongue and tail, what happens to the middle?)

Overcooking was the bane of my mother's attempt at cooking. Everything was overcooked so it was either chewy beyond belief or mush. My father always takes the overcooked food and puts it back in the oven for another 30 minutes to 'make sure it's warm.'

Re: Haggis
« Reply #67 on: 27 January, 2021, 11:54:48 am »
I've had andouliette in France a couple of times, doubt I'd bother again.    The last time I ate at http://www.uniontavernlondon.uk in Clerkenwell they had something with sweetbreads on the specials board, and they were rather nice.
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: Haggis
« Reply #68 on: 27 January, 2021, 01:54:23 pm »
I'll eat haggis if I'm offered it or given one,  it's OK , but not a particular favourite.   


M&S black pudding slices are by McSweens & are very nice.    But I got this at the weekend (also M&S) & had some last night, luvverly stuff...





I've had that before as well... very nice!   :thumbsup:

However, the best black pudding I've had in the UK was from a butcher in Bury*.   But the best black pudding ever to date was a morcilla we had in a little cafe in Guernica.  I also rather enjoyed a morcilla Gallega (even though I'm not a huge fan a sweet savoury dishes).






*As an aside a friend of ours, who went to med school with Jon, is one of the authors of the somewhat notorius Bury black pudding/occult fecal blood study published in the BMJ
Quote from: clarion
I completely agree with Reg.

Green Party Councillor

Davef

Re: Haggis
« Reply #69 on: 27 January, 2021, 02:00:26 pm »
Re French offal cookery, I do like a nice salade de gésiers.
Bag of salad, pack of gésiers, frying pan, bottle of wine.

I think I will have to stock up with frozen when the borders open.

bairn again

Re: Haggis
« Reply #70 on: 27 January, 2021, 02:09:11 pm »
Picked up a McSweens haggis in a flying masked visit to Tesco to pick up something else (parsley and bay leaves - neither of which my regular shoppe Aldi stocks if you must know)

To be consumed in the coming days with mash.