[Sca-cooks] [SCA-cooks] haggis
lilinah at earthlink.net
lilinah at earthlink.net
Fri Feb 4 11:48:18 PST 2011
Randell Raye said:
> I just need to learn the appropriate Asian language words for Sheep stomach
> and lungs...then I can make a haggis :)
To which Stefan replied:
>Getting lungs in the US will be a problem. I'm
>not sure what your information sources are for
>haggis, but you might wish to look at this file.
>I seem to remember that some of the recipes in
>this file are actually period, as opposed to
>just being "traditional". I also seem to
>remember some vegetarian haggis, or at least the
>filling is.
>
>haggis-msg (106K) 1/29/08 Scottish haggis recipes. comments on haggis.
>http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MEATS/haggis-msg.html
>
>There are also comments on canned haggis. I did
>recently finally taste some canned haggis at a
>fair here in Austin a few months ago. Actually
>not too bad, but much, much stronger tasting
>than the freshly made haggis that I've had.
As i have posted, lungs are not legal to be sold
as human food in the US because of the potential
of spreading diseases.
As for haggis, last August i posted a sort of
synopsis of a recipe for a 16th c. Persian dish
called gipa (hard g, as is good), which is
strikingly like haggis. Here is the current
version of my translation from Fragner's German
translation:
Bert G. Fragner
"Zur Erforschung der kulinarischen Kultur Irans"
(Toward an Exploration of Iranian Culinary Arts)
in Die Welt des Islams 23-24 (1984), pp. 320-360.
gîpâ-polâw (n.40)
pp. 350-351
Know that, cooked according to rule and
regulation, gîpâ is a tasty dish, when it is
prepared properly. Thus it is done: Clean rumen
stomachs, abdominal networks and
mesentery*/chitterlings (shîrdân va charbâ-ye
rudâ va shekanbâ) of sheep several times
and'afterwards rubbed with Iraqi soap (?, sâbûn-e
'erâqî) using a napkin and then rinsed again.
Then shred/chop a lot of meat, and it is
important that it has no bones. Fat-tail from
sheep is used in large quantities, such that
cracklings are processed and removed. [In the hot
fat] put onions in the weight of two mann
according to Tabriz measurement, also fifty
mesqâl of spices, valerian (?, sonbolâ)** and
davâlâ (probably a kind tree lichen) in necessary
quantity, and finally a half-mann of rice. Some
people add saffron as well. The quantity of meat
should be two mann and tail fat equal to one mann
-- these are the ingredients for a whole meal.
All this is mixed [over the fire]. The lower the
liquid, the better it is, because so much onion
is used for this dish. If one uses too much
liquid, the food loses its consistency and is
overcooked. Now the sheep's rumen and the other
[innards] are filled, as should be, so they do
not burst. Once they are filled, they are sewn
shut, placed in a kettle and cooked, until they
are soft. Then wipe them off and wash them in
cold water. If one lines the bottom of the kettle
with sheep ribs, [the gîpâ] is particularly good.
The latter is a creation of my very own self!
Then layer the rumen stomach and the other [guts]
nicely [in a vessel] over one another, drip fat
and clear meat soup (shorba) there over and let
the whole marinade. The fire must be set up so
[low] that the dish simmers very slowly until
morning and, when it is done, is not burned, but
soft and lightly browned. In the morning, place a
thin flat bread on it and the gîpâ done.
40) gîpâ is obviously a very traditional category
of dishes in which rice is combined with offal.
In cookbooks from the 20th century gîpâ-dishes
are no longer mentioned with one exception. Only
Forough Hekmat (The Art of Persian Cooking,
Tehran, 1961, p. 82 f.) describes two gîpâ
recipes. With regard to Boshâq-e at'emâ he says
explicitly, that we are dealing with very
old-fashioned food, that one traditionally used
to eat early morning. (Similar to kallâ-pâchâ,
soup made from sheep's heads and feet). As
already mentioned, Bâ'ûrchî-Baghdadi (1521) still
brings a total of nine gîpâ recipes (Kârnâmâ, p.
166-172).
(my notes)
* Mesentery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesentery
(not sure what American butchers call it, if they
call it anything... anyone know?)
** sonbola = sumbul, which often = jatamansi = spikenard
I have left in the special characters, in this
case a-circumflex, i-circumflex, and u-circumflex
(originally written as those vowels with
macrons), but i know these sometimes cause
problems in e-mail.
--
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita
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