SC - Pennsic Potluck

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> In one of the food classes I was in at Pennsic, taught by Honour Horne-Jaruk
> (Alizaunde, Demoiselle de Bregeuf) she said that haggis within out period
> was the food of the nobility and was composed of dried fruit in the stomach
> rather than the lights. She said that later on it became the food of the
> lower classes and that was when the fruit was replaced by the organ meats
> and lungs and such.

Haggis was _a_ food of the nobility, if we can judge from the extant
recipes, which suggest that foods called haggis were eaten in medieval
England, specifically 14th-15th century. They do seem to bear little
resemblance to th' Graet Chieftain of th' Puddin' Race. It seems likely
that a haggis, in general terms, was a pudding boiled in a stomach bag.
I recall an early recipe for a haggis (presumably a faux haggis or some
kinda warner) made from poached eggs. Another close approximation would
be a fronchemoyle, again, a variant on the white pudding theme, boiled
in a stomach sack.

There are several English haggis recipes that are nearly
indistinguishable from a white pudding recipe, generally involving
breadcrumbs instead of oats (although even now some white puds do call
for oats), with suet, cream, spices, and in some cases, I believe, fruit
such as dried Raisins of Corance.

I don't know that I accept the idea, though, that haggis became a food
of the lower classes; I guess that depends on what one considers lower
classes. In Scotland, the farmers who butchered mutton and ate the
innards that wouldn't keep well, and the nobles who hunted for various
types of deer and made haggis from their innards, aren't what I'd call
especially lower classes.

What I think has happened is either that the dish evolved over time
without especially crossing borders of socio-economic class (at least
none it hadn't crossed long since), or that we have early documentation
of a regional variant distinct from another regional variant, for which
we have later documentation. The two dishes may well have co-existed, in
fact almost certainly did, I think.
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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