Hands Off Me Haggis!

Scotland’s motto is “Nemo me impune lacessit” which means “No one provokes me with impunity”. The latest rendition may become” Nemo me rapio meus haggis impune lacessit” ,which loosely translated (with deepest apologies to my former Latin major roommate in college) means, “No one steals my haggis with impunity.”

Catherine Brown, a food historian, has found references to haggis in a cookbook of sorts entitled The English Hus-Wife by Gervese Markham which dates from the 1600’s. She asserts that haggis was originally an English dish as the first mention of Scottish haggis she found was 1747.

Of course this is all speculation, those borders saw a lot of crossings and one wonders if good recipes weren’t shared with neighbors then, just as they are now, at “church potlucks” and family gatherings. Robert Burns wrote his poem Address to a Haggis in 1786 in response to the French cuisine that was all the rage in Edinburgh among the upper eschelon of society. The poem sealed the delicacy’s place as a Scottish dish and made it forever a part of the Burn’s supper menu.

James Macsween, of Edinburgh’s famous haggis producer Macsween’s, who has been turning out authentic and award winning haggis for over 50 years put it best, and very succinctly, I believe,when he stated that it will remain a Scottish icon whatever its origin.

He added: ‘Haggis is now renowned as Scotland’s dish largely due to Robert Burns, who made it famous. That’s not to say that, prior to Burns, haggis wasn’t eaten in England, but Scotland has done a better job of looking after it.

‘I didn’t hear of Shakespeare writing a poem about haggis.’

Address to a Haggis