[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



More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list