[Sca-cooks] 'Tis the season.

[Stefan li Rous]

Selene Colfox replied to me with:
  < Stefan> Anyone know how the lutefisk they sell compares to the  
"real thing"?
Or since it is frozen is it fairly close? The comments on canned
haggis for instance, seem to universally say it doesn't come close to
the real thing. >

  <<< The difference here is that Haggis is a fully composed dish.   
Lutefisk
is pretty much an ingredient.  Nobody in the US is likely to pull a
codfish out of the sea and cure it in lye, whilst a lot of us are
capable of making a credible haggis.  USDA does not permit the sale of
the stomach paunch as "organ meat" but that's life.  The flavor is not
all that affected by use of a pudding bag or pot.  Haggis isn't bad with
copious salt, pepper and onions, the way Eyana used to make it, peace be
to her. >>>

I thought for either the canned haggis or the frozen lutefisk, you  
would basically take it out of the container, warm it up or cook it  
and perhaps serve it with a topping or something. So, either one would  
be mostly affected by the canning or preserving and not as much by the  
cooking/warming up.

Apparently even the Scottish canned haggis doesn't have a good  
reputation. So it is not just the fact of the worst being shipped to  
unknowing customers in the US. From the Florilegium haggis-msg file:

"Regarding canned haggis, or any haggis really: You need to read the  
label
carefully. A surprising number of canned haggis and other haggises  
(ie, the
ones that come with ingrediants tags) are made with beef, without any
sheep, but including other strange things that have no place being in a
haggis. So read the label, make sure it's made with real sheep! I had a
very embarrassing and disappointing experience with Baxter's canned  
haggis.
I had brought some home to the USA to show my friends how lovely haggis
was, but instead of getting Grant's haggis, the canned variety I  
normally
get when a butcher's haggis isn't practical, I bought Baxter's, on the
grounds they were supposed to be this outstanding highland canning  
company.
Big mistake. It tasted like mediocre beef hash, and nothing at all like
haggis. I tried to tell my friends this wasn't at all like *real*  
haggis,
but I worry the damage may have been done! "

I guess if we could get enough different cans of haggis and cook some  
fresh haggis, we could have a tasting session and comparision at  
Pennsic!

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****