Ode to a Haggis

OK my good Norse friends. I. M. Buffaloed about your postings on my Facebook wall that you prefer HAGGIS to my menu for the Greenland Viking Feast. And I’ll never believe the rumor that the recipe came to Scotland on the longboats from Scandinavia.

Do you have any idea of what that Haggis stuff is? I can hardly even speak of it. It’s sheep’s puck. The heart, liver, and lungs of sheep all minced up with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt boiled together in the poor animal’s stomach for three hours. Oh dear! And up until now I thought I admired the Scots.

Here’s their menu for a Robert Burns’ traditional Scottish supper:

1 large Haggis

Neeps and Tatties (rutabaga and potatoes boiled and mashed)

A dram of Scotch whisky

I’ll need more than a dram to get through this supper! But consolation, we can read aloud from Scotland’s greatest poet. The poem I’m thinking of goes—something, something, and then—

“. . . Nine inch will please a lady. . . .” Burns was a great poet.