Yesterday was my fathers birthday, and I had bought him one of those established titles certificates and found out yesterday afternoon when I got home that it was all a scam.... I’ve thankfully gotten my money back from them without any questions from them... apparently they’ve recently RAMPED up their advertising by paying a bunch of big name youtubers AND news organizations... needless to say I panicked a bit when I saw your video about haggis. If they hit you up to pay for advertising don’t do it! It’s apparently a scam that’s been going on for like a hundred years!!!!
@@TastingHistory I've been watching the channel since last fall. Your video form and editing are excellent. I have a couple early 1900 cook books that I enjoy exploring. Keep up the good work.
I gotta say as a Scot this video is a delight to watch. Haggis is such a maligned dish but it is actually wonderful. One of my friends once pranked someone by telling them that haggis grew on trees, and the poor sod went up to a stranger on the streets of Edinburgh asking where the haggis orchard is. This gem of a bloak could smell a prank and played along, saying that the orchard was near the pallace.
@@dubuyajay9964 Exactly. So is the haggis. So was the prank/hoax/inside joke haggis growing on trees. Need me to walk you through it again??! 😏 MY JOKE ✈️ YOUR UNDERSTANDING 🧠
You deserve a hulu or netflix show where you get to visit the area where the recipe is from and I think the local input was really awesome. You already got the show made.
I do know a show like this does exist, though not with historical recipes. I forgot the name but there's a show where this guy goes around to places to try out weird food from around the world (usually street food)
Just a little note, pudding in the UK doesn't technically refer to sausages, but certain things that are steamed or boiled. So we have savory puddings such as steak and kidney pudding (meat wrapped in a suet pastry) and pease pudding (yellow peas wrapped in cloth and boiled), as well as sweet puddings such as Christmas pudding (dried fruit mixed with suet, flour and spices wrapped in cloth and steamed or boiled)
Jup, used to be like that in germany, too. Nowadays, if you say "pudding" in germany, you´ll get what the belgian and dutch call "Flan" or "Vla", but originally, the thing was that it is boiled in some form of cover (cloth, intestine, sheetmetal, doesn´t really matter, except is has to be a closed container), and keeps together after boiling. Could be sweet or savoury, that originally didn´t matter, if it was boiled in a closed mold into some kind of mass, it was a pudding. Some old houses and museums have really nice, decorated "pudding molds". You can tell them apart by the lid. Pudding molds have tightly closing lids, cake pans don´t. There is actually something similar to haggis in some varieties along the river Rhine: In Northrhine-Westphalia, there is a thick, soft liver-blood-meat sausage that contains barley gruel, that is boiled, sliced, fried and eaten with syrup and/or mustard, and in Palatina, there is the (in)famous "Saumagen" (sow stomach), that is exactly that: pig´s stomach filled with minced meat, potatoes, chestnuts and herbs. Super tasty, super filling. I wonder if these are related to haggis. It is the region where the roman legions were stationed, after all.....hmmm....
It seems like a lot of medieval recipes are rhymes, not sure why. Maybe it helped people remember the recipes since fewer people could read and write in those days?
@@warriant96 Yup, rhymes are easier to remember, so anything that needed to be memorable-from recipes to moral guidance-tended to be in verse. Think of how many modern mnemonics use rhyme and/or alliteration.
Made haggis one day when my brother's girlfriend was visiting. We told her the story of the wild haggis with the short left legs and how it is hunted by chasing it around a hill until it has to turn around and then tumbles down the side. Kept this ruse up for hours, she even googled it, and google came through! Best laugh we had in ages.
Cool i didn't believe a old friend of mine knew the tale too here in Saskatchewan Canada, he'd try scaring me on night shift out in the field for a alfalfa pellet mill and we'd combine some pretty hilly fields at night RIP old Alf my friend ✌👍
I told that same story to kids at school when I moved to England as a young teen I still can't believe how many kids in Huddersfield believed me. They honestly thing Scotland's some far off wild place full of strange natives and weird animals not people just like them two hours drive away. This isn't a dig at English people but an observation on how divorced from reality city kids are.
Haggis is a heavenly food. I'm from Northumbria on the English side of the Scottish border and we love it here too. We make sure to have it every year on burns night with neeps & tatties, but we can even get deep fried haggis from the fish & chip shop.
As a Native Texan where we believe everything is better deep fried, I am shocked it never occurred to me to try deep fried haggis. I have a new mission in life.
@@ParkerUAS Deep fried haggis is lovely, you should deffo try it. We have deep fried giant spring rolls here too, called chop suey rolls. These two things are my two favourite things that are deep fried.
@@northumbriabushcraft1208 both sound absolutely delicious. My favorite things deep fried are Chicken Fried Steak (yes, deep fried, not pan fried) and deep fried beer. Beer? Yes. At the Texas State Fair (and now likely elsewhere) they took Shiner Bock (Texas brewed Bock style beer) and mixed it with a non sweetened batter very similar to what is used for funnel cakes. The result is a non alcoholic, but absolutely delicious, dessert.
My favourite memory of Haggis in Media is an episode of ‘Lizzie McGuire’ where all of them go to a Scottish Society Event and the moment Gordo learns what Haggis is, he denounces his Scottish Heritage after proclaiming himself to be part-Scottish.
I’m from the Northwest of Brazil, and we have a dish sort of like Haggis, we make it with goats, not sheep, and we call it “buchada de bode”. And I love it, by the way …
The folk tale of the mythical Haggis- the beast that can freely run across the hillside without falling, but only in one direction, is probably one of my favourite things
He didn't mention that they come in two varieties, clockwise and anticlockwise, which can't interbreed because when the male turns round to mount the female it always falls over. ...by the way, the illustration of the haggis used in the animation for that is the stuffed haggis on display in the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow. It's well worth a visit if you're there.
Never realized how similar Cajun Boudin and Haggis are when being made. Very similar type ingredients (Rice vs Oatmeal and Savory vs spicy). Great show. Try making Boudin please!
The English word pudding actually comes from the word boudin, and originally always referred to sausages before the organ casings were replaced with the more genteel "pudding cloth"
I think pretty much every nationality makes some king of blood sausage. Norwegians call it klub and it's made with blood and flour. The Chinese also have a blood sausage but I don't know what's in it.
I would love to see some Medieval African foods! I betcha there were some amazing dishes done in Mansa Musa's court, or maybe a look at the backstory of Shakshuka!
@@SimuLord Right??? I believe it was in Egypt or specifically Cairo where he spent so much gold he screwed their local economy like 4 or 5 times over cause it was THAT much gold spent all at once
i get the feeling none of that was really presentable, which is why it wasn't presented. my guess is that the butcher was controlling and treated Max like he was an incompetent fool. just a guess tho.
@@flannelpillowcase6475 that’s a long negative walk to take to get to that conclusion. There were probably legal reasons he couldn’t help in this guy’s shop, in case of injury.
Max, thanks for the film. Another thing to know about the illustrious Haggis is that if you let it cool, you can slice it like Deli meat. It is DIVINE in sandwiches.
What an absolute joy. Two of my favourite RUclipsrs - Max and Bruce Fummey - in the same video. The week just got a bit brighter (which, considering it's 5.30pm here and pitch black outside is no small achievement). For people who don't know, as well as hosting a superb history channel, Bruce is a magnificent stand-up comedian and he's doing a tour of Australia early next year and I can't recommend him highly enough. Many thanks for making the video, Max - it was really, really enjoyable.
I've never met him - I've just seen a couple of his shows. He always comes across as someone you'd loe to go for a beer with. Lots of intelligence - and a mountain of wit - but no malice.
@@joanhoffman3702 Drop Bear - no question. They live only to attack, plunge from above, and have no leg-length disparity. Plus, they're notoriously savage with tourists. Smear yourself with Vegemite for best protection.
Haggis neeps and tatties with whiskey sauce is legitimately one of my favourite, if not my favourite dish in the world. I’m English but have been going to Scotland every year since I was born, and it truly is one of the best things about Scotland. Given the process and ingredients, I don’t know anyone who actually makes it though- most people eat Macsween’s brand Haggis, which is delicious and easy to prepare. They even have a vegetarian version which is good too. It’s truly a wonderful and balanced dish that everyone should try.
One of my favorite parts of ancient recipes is that many of them rhyme, presumably because most people couldn't read, so it would be essential for recipes to be very easy to memorize
That explains why I have a crappy Rebekah Black meme song from over a decade ago rattling around in my head. The haggis recipe would be more useful. And more entertaining. And of more artistic value.
I really dig how Max went to Scotland. Sure, there are plenty of reasons to go, but hey you _gotta_ go for the channel. I mean, you don't have much of a choice in the matter!
For Hagese, A classic dish Much maligned Due to the concept Being a challenging type To modern palate And it's wanderings The recipe guide For this famous food Is practical poetry To maketh gode Pepper and tyme Fulfil the flavour Where spice sits now An oath of truth That attachs well To the conditional values Of olde Europe's power By the cross The meal has been central As bonny Scotland grew That lyrical badass ness Be part of that brew That sat on a table When I last Saw beautiful Edinburgh A decade ago Against summer eaves And flights of wynter snow A hearty meal Kept us in good health The haggis A centre piece To a cuisine And a memory I hold so well
Oh, thank you for this... Listening to the Scotsman recite to poem... I tried but even reading it didn't help entirely. Nice poem. If I was going to write a poem to food it would be to my home made pizza!
@Kathleen Hensley ooo can I please see your homemade pizza poem? That sounds amazing. My poems in Max's comments is kinda of a joke agreement between me and Max. He liked a piece I wrote for him during Titanic month and said "so I'm gonna expect this every week". He was kidding but it's actually been a nice way to surprise him each week and I love practicing. He seems to still enjoy it and every now and then it makes him laugh so I'm happy to do it
The wild haggis bit had me rolling, perfect execution. Bruce absolutely knocked it out of the park, too, both in poem recital and in being the hunting guide.
Omg, I was laughing so hard I was crying. That scotsman is going to make the best grandpa ever with his fantastic yarns about haggis hunting in the wild highlands with his trusty dog.
Max when he discovered that you can't make authentic Haggis in the US: "Jose pack your bags, we're off to Scotland for the sole reason of I need to feature Haggis on the channel!"
The RUclips crossover we know we all needed! So glad you were able to meet up with Bruce in Scotland. Absolutely brilliant YT channel and I've learned so much about Scottish history from it that just isn't taught in schools, even where I am in England (probably because a lot of it is about how much the English nobility f*cked over the Scots - and we wonder why they hate us so much...). Really hope you had time to see some of the Highlands and explore some of the country's incredible history while you were there, and also maybe a distillery or two for some Drinking History supplies while you're at it!
In México, specially in the Yucatán Peninsula, there is something called Bofe and it's basically Haggis but with slightly different spices. It goes hard as Tamales filling and it's amazing.
Max adding salt and pepper with Ewan deep into the haggis meat looks like a dad who's just wanting to get done but the missus says their son has to help make it. its cute and i love it
I love haggis, despite being a sassenach, and you're absolutely right about the oatmeal texture - it's wonderful. We used to have sheep and I once slaughtered one myself at home. After butchering it I decided to boil up the lights (lungs) for the cat. But the aroma from the stove was really appetising and reminded me of something: haggis! So I googled a recipe and I had all the necessary ingredients: liver, lights, heart, oatmeal, onion, spices, but no intestine or stomach - I'd already chucked those. So instead of boiling it I baked it in a deep dish with a butter paper over the top. It was delicious!
I made Ukrainian beef kasha, a kind of buckwheat meat porridge, a while back and was astonished to discover that it has a very similar texture. It is, by the way, delicious. Super satisfying comfort food.
I have to say Max that this may be my favorite episode yet. It had history, humor, epicurean delights and a hunt! It's wonderful to see your channel growing. Keep it up!
Speaking as a Englishman, i have had Haggis on several occasions, with a variety of recopies, and can honestly say I mostly loved it. The ony one I didn't really like was made by a big company and sold at a supermarket so its probably not the most authentic. The one I liked most was bought from a butcher in a town on the Borders, and frankly could have eaten until I burst. I think people who allow what it is made from to put them off are missing out on something really great, and all things considered it is a delicacy that is cheap and delicious compared to some others that frankly are over-rated, like truffles and caviar.
Heh, as a full-on gourmand, I don't care what something is made from or what kind of reputation or social standing it has -- if it's tasty, that's all I need to know! 😉
@@ragnkja Thats true, I've had some very expensive caviar in the past and it was fun and made a statement - I just think its over-rated as a luxury experience compared to other things. People should take the chance to experience different things if they get the chance, I just think you would get more bang-for-buck from trying things like Haggis than spending a lot of money on caviar. Luckily a company spent their money so I could try it, and I am glad I took the opportunity.
@@IanSlothieRolfe For flavour, I’m leaning more towards cheap roe paste (and not even the brand-name one, but the store-brand version) than fancy caviar, even if it’s not as pretty, because the salty, smoky roe paste goes perfectly with boiled egg, whether soft-boiled in a cup or hard-boiled and sliced. And yes, I am aware that it’s all just different kinds of eggs.
I loved this episode so much. The haggis hunting was hysterical, they poem reading with that wonderful Scottish accent everything was superb, Thank you for a great time
My favorite part of that movie is well explained on another RUclips channel, Cinema Therapy, that shows how they’re the absolute relationship goals couple from movies. So many toxic marriages and relationships in film, and Morticia and Gomez are just so wholesome. I mean, they have weird hobbies and kinks, but their relationship is absolutely adorable.
@@Justanotherconsumer That's what I liked about the TV show when I was a kid. They really were a devoted, romantic couple, and the family was so warm and supportive of each other. It didn't matter how weird they seemed to the neighbors.
My wife and I went to Scottland for our honeymoon this year. One of the first things I did after arriving in Edinburgh was to go to a restauant and try some haggis. I actually liked it a lot! Back home in Germany, when my friends asked me how it tasted, I described it as a cross between liver pate and oatmeal.
Have never tried haggis, but the Icelanders have something similar called slátur. Would be interesting to see Max visit Iceland some day to try it and compare the two.
@@OlEgSaS32 Maybe I have the name wrong then? I was an exchange student on a farm in Iceland, and my host mom made something with innards and cooked in a sheep's stomach. When you cut it open, it looks like potting soil, is the way I'd describe it. I Googled "slátur is similar to haggis" and found some articles using that name before commenting, but I've seen other names, too. Do you know the name of what I described?
@@NeonTumbleweed No, I don't, i know what slatur from a specific travel channel show but thats basically the extent of my icelandic food knowledge😅 , but it wouldnt surprise me to learn iceland has a 1:1 equivalent of haggis but maybe with different animal organs and a different name, its seems like one of those things cultures instinctively learned to make without really any outside influence
@@OlEgSaS32 @OlEgSaS32 True. For some real controversy, there's a Scottish butcher, Joe Callaghan, who actually says Haggis is an imposter, brought to Scotland by the Vikings. Fighting words, right? Maybe some day Max will travel to Iceland to investigate. Fingers crossed 🤞
I was really curious about it when I visited Scotland and then was disappointed that with all the hype about it, it just tastes like a savoury sausage. It's quite yummy.
I put off eating Haggis most of my life because I knew what was in it (I’m 50 now) but I finally went up to Edinburgh Castle in my early 40’s and they had it in the cafe there so I thought why not and I absolutely love it, so tasty.
Fascinating! In Wyoming we have a similar tall tale to the "Haggis beast". We have the Side Hill Wampus cat that is also described as have two legs longer than the others so that It can run across the hills
There is a similar dish here in the northeastern region of Brasil called Buchada de Bode (Stuffed goat stomach), wich was derived from a portuguese dish called Maranho.
I so should mention both dishes to my maternal grandma (who is from Terceira in the Açores/Azores), especially having opened up a can of haggis we once got from a Celtic shop around the area
Haggis is my favourite of the “sausage” family but recommended you try a similar one from France called “andouillette”if you want a maxed out offal sausage. I loved it but it’s even more niché than haggis! A local in France described it (jokingly!!) as “the scrapings of a slaughterhouse floor shoved into a used condom”
Andouillette is a _very_ different sausage, though, huwjones. I mean, it's my absolute favourite sausage of any kind, but a much more divisive sausage than mere haggis, despite haggis's reputation. It's _really_ pungent, being made from chitterlings. By contrast, haggis is mildly flavoured. And its texture is completely different.
Haggis reminds me of our scrapple here in the US. As a kid my family made it homemade every fall when we slaughtered the hogs. We included the lights. After all the scrapple ingredients were cooked it was poured into loaf pans to set. Then you take it and slice the loaf and pan fry it to eat.
I get canned haggis from a specialty store here in Chicago and I absolutely love it. If you like corned beef hash, you'll like haggis. Super high in Iron also.
Garchomp is a contender for my favorite pokemon. I randomly noticed a blue Gibble in the middle of normal play in Scarlet. It's the first shiny I've ever stumbled upon in the wild, only other shiny I know I got legitimately is an egg'd Dratini for that green dragonite. Shame shiny Garchomp is a garbage tier shiny that's hard to even notice is different at a glance. Just an orange belly instead of red, and a lighter blue instead of a darker blue for the skin.
I just visited Scotland (from the U.S.) and tried haggis several times. I found the taste to be a sort of cross between breakfast sausage and liver mush. Very tasty. No one mentioned wild haggis hunting, though. That would've been hilarious.
As the son of a Scottish immigrant, I am so happy to see this recipe! I finally went to Scotland this past summer and tried it, and am definitely gonna have to make it for this Hogmanay or Burns' Night. Alba gu bràth agus fada beò taigeis!
Both my parents are Scottish and while we were visiting family in Scotland in the late '80s, I had haggis several times. Every fish and chip shop had their own version. The nicest one I ever tasted though was made locally here in New Zealand. On a side note, I did not know that rutebager (sp?) was turnip. You learn something new every day. 😁
@@benmacdui9328 Location does not alter the nature of food, mate, unless perhaps you're relying on wild yeasts and molds (though you can capture and inject those).
More than ever this reminds me of Kieshka (blood sausage) that I grew up with, only this uses oatmeal and blood sausage uses buckwheat as the binder. I’ll bet it’s great with a mushroom ketchup on it ala Townsends. Your channel is still my favorite “cooking show” with Mrs Crocombe in second place but you really satisfy the nerd in me and I appreciate all of the knowledge you have *bedighted* upon our lives. I have told numerous people about your channel and a few are finally starting to watch and they love it too! Especially with the “Easter Eggs” in the background like the drambuie in this one. Keep up the great work laddie. You make us all smile and we appreciate you!
This haggis reminds me of "Maranho", a portuguese dish from Beira Baixa (central region) that uses goats stomach/intestines to wrap a mixture of rice, goat meat, chorizo and herbs (expecialy mint, that give a wonderful taste to it). If you ever planning of tasting anything portuguese, you need to try this regional dish, or else you will regret leaving Portugal without meeting Heaven.
Everything BUt the mint sounds delicious. I've only had goat once, and I find it MUCH better than lamb, but unfortunately here in Denmark goat is impossible to come by.
The Haggis legend is a retold of the legend of the Dahu from the alps (france, italy, Switzerland). A joke told to "foreigners" back then. My father played this joke on me when i was little, and waited weeks, weeks i spent looking for dahu at every occasion available, then he finally explained it to me. Those were good times.
@@dubuyajay9964 I may have expressed myself poorly. The Dahu is a mythical animal, a kind of Chamois with 2 legs shorter on one side, giving it the ability to run on very steep slopes. So, very similar to the joke with haggis being an animal as told in the episode.
I started the video thinking, "Oh, no, you're going to be living with that unique haggis aroma in your kitchen for a few weeks", so I was glad to see you didn't inflict that on yourself. Hope you had a great trip!
American here, I make a version of haggis with ground lamb and calf liver, I LOVE the way it makes my kitchen smell. Cooked it last night and it smells vaguely like Christmas still 😀
@@cleverusername9369 I've ordered Haggis online, before. It's easy to find on a Google search; there are several options for freshly made Haggis. But next time, I think I want to make it myself. Didn't look as if it wood be too difficult to do. Do you have a recipe you can recommend?
I live in Tomahawk Wisconsin U.S.A. In Rhinelander a half hour away, we have a legend of the Hodag. We have statues etc, the Scottish guy talking sounded like our legend. Love your show
The hunt for a Haggis was priceless! Apparently, they are just as hard to catch as Snipes. This was a great video. Thank you for showing us this most curious dish.
I'm glad you had Bruce read that! He is one of my favorites! I can say, I don't want to try haggis because I don't eat innards and I'm not fond of sheep but I'll not fault anyone for their food choices.
Just discovered you on RUclips and I am loving it! Been binge watching. Love all the history and your sense of humor. And Thank You for the "hard tack" moments.
I guess it's because of the region I'm from (east coast/Atlantic Canada) but I always love seeing savory pop up as a mention! They have a more peppery taste, with summer savory being pretty strong. My family tends to grow some every year and dry it to add to stews. And rutabaga is pretty common addition to a turkey dinner for us too. They taste the best after they've been in contact with freezing temperature first.
I've kept a pot of winter savory on my windowsill in my kitchen for more than 5 years. It just keeps growing! It can get a bit leggy over the winter, but I cut it back to the ground in spring, give it a dressing of some more soil, and it's soon growing like a triffid again! Flavour somewhere between thyme and oregano, fantastic with beans and slow-cooked meat dishes.
@@JuniperBoy it's really delicious with chicken! I cook it in a stew along with potatoes and onions (sometimes carrots) with flour dumplings and the savory makes it super comforting
Curious how you prepare the rutabaga..? Growing up (1960s-70s), we'd also have it with turkey dinner, mixed into the mashed potatoes. (Actually, we'd have one batch of plain mashed potatoes and a second batch mixed.) My grandmother was of Welsh-English extraction, originally from Scranton, PA, and I always thought this was an English tradition, but it could have been immigrant/coal country tradition, or even an inexpensive ingredient incorporated during the Great Depression. Once in a while, I'll buy a rutabaga, but (since I'm usually cooking for myself after the holiday dinner elsewhere with family), I don't usually get around to cooking it along with my turkey. (Ditto this year; made plain mashed potatoes to accompany the turkey first day, added the dressing & finished the mps 2nd day, had dressing and yams 3rd & 4th day, but still have my Brussel sprouts and rutabaga hanging around uncooked.) I've cut up & boiled rutabaga before and had with butter, but that and the mashed potato mix are essentially the only recipes I have. If you have some other ways of eating rutabaga, I'd love to hear it!👍
I had to translate savory (the Dutch name is bonenkruid or bean-herb), and I put it in with the water when I cook green beans, for extra flavour. I think I got that fom an old cook book and I like it. Certainly an oldfashioned herb, but a lovely one! Hyssop I've grown too, and it's very minty, though different from mint. I suspect that some of the minty flavour in the haggis they made came from the hyssop.
This is actually similar to a Romanian recipe called "Trandafiri" (Roses) where I come from. They're actually sausages made of mixed pig organs (as opposed to sheep) and minced together and stuffed together in pig's intestines after they're cleaned and processed. Typically, you can smoke them and keep them somewhere cool in raw form until you fry them in the pan and eat them. They're delicious! Nice video by the way!
I absolutely adore haggis. I've tried it twice and both times it has tasted different. The first was extremely spiced and almost tasted like cheese. The second was the one I had this year and it was a lot more mellow in flavour. Both were delicious.
Loved this. I'm from southern California, but I did my graduate studies in St. Andrews, Scotland. While there, I resided in a flat above a butcher's shop whose shop window always included a display of multiple trays of fresh made, uncooked haggis that would always be sold out by midday. The restaurant I worked at part-time also sold it, and I have to say it was delicious, if not a bit mushy because of the oats. It was usually purchased by American and Canadian tourists who wanted something really Scottish. The restaurant also sold vegetarian haggis that we all tried once so we could tell people about it if they had questions while ordering. I am grateful that most of the words I heard from the cooks were in deep northern Scottish slang covered in brogue, because it was foul. Ha, I'm pretty sure the very few people who ordered that while I worked there were from the Bay area here in CA. 😅
In my country, Romania, we have a really similar dish, named Drob, that is basically Haggis with more vegetables. I think its funny that we had no interaction whatsoever with the scots or normands yet we have a dish so similar.
yeah, we have several different, but similar things in germany, too. I thought the explanation that if you hunt a deer, the innards spoil very fast, so you´d wrap them in the container the stomach provides and boil them to make them last while you drag the meat back home, really made sense. But then I also realized, that there is one thing Scotland, Germany and Romania have in common: Roman Legions were stationed there!
Oh my the two shorter legs reminds me of my grandfather's stories of the side-hill gougers (their clockwise and widdershins subspecies) and how hunting them required chasing them onto flat ground, but avoid letting them roll into a ditch, or they're off like a shot!
Yes finally, haggis! It was inevitable that this will be on this channel. The first time I heard about this dish was probably watching the first Highlander movie. Ya know, the movie where a French stars as a Scottish guy, the Scottish stars as an Egyptian with a Spanish name (who hates haggis!) and I dunno what Clancy Brown was supposed to be 🤪
I've had haggis in Edinburgh twice and really enjoyed both times. It felt like alot of places take a modern spin on the dish, so it wasn't served in a split open stomach/intestine.
In the Kelvin Grove Museum in Glasgow there is a taxidermy of this "haggis" you were trying to hunt. With full details in the description ( wink, wink, nudge, nudge...Scottish humour...)
I finally had haggis in a visit to Scotland and I loved it. I'm just annoyed by how draconian our food laws are (even if the aims are good). It feels like a way to cover for larger food corporations and it slights to smaller food providers. Now I want to go back to Scotland. **sigh**
There is a philosophy that if you kill an animal you should use all of it. Haggis uses organs that you might not want to eat "pure". I have eaten it & it's tasty with a crumbly texture.
Yeah but you definitely don't want to be eating dirty offal from a massive industrial farm, and even hunted animals you need to take caution if you're going to eat the organ meats these days... Can't cook out a prion
Not allowed to have sheep lungs in American food because of "health reasons," but By God, they'll cram it full of chemicals banned in all the other civilised countries, and throw in a bucket-load of high-fructose corn syrup for good measure! 🤣
Would you do an episode on potatoes and their story ? You could make a dish with chuño ! (Traditional freeze dried potatoes from the Andes) Also, we have a mythical beast that has 2 short legs and 2 long in France, it’s called Le Dahu !
many years ago I spent a few months in Scotland and came to love haggis! It’s so damn hearty, it’s meaty, it’s potentially the most filing food I’ve ever eaten… some day some hipster company is going to figure out how to make like a “trail” haggis and make a mint from healthy people who want a full meal in the palm of their hand.
Lower Saxony has a similar style of sausage with oat groats called Knipp, which is not usually offered in an intestine, but cast into thick rolls from which to cut slices as it is very firm when cold. To eat it you'd fry it up in a pan and enjoy with some pickles, fried eggs and bread.
Almost 30 years ago, the first meal I ate in my (then future) husband’s home town was Knipp. He and his friends wouldn’t tell me what it was, trusting soul that I am, I ate it (all) and loved it. Then he told me it was prepared with a boiled pig’s head, onions, oats and spices! I had just started eating meat after being a vegetarian for many years, so that was a bit intense! Now that we live in that same home town (Bremen), we eat it pretty regularly, especially in the cold winter. Here it is served with applesauce and “Bratkartoffeln”, which are the yummiest ever fried potato slices. We always follow it with a “Bommi mit Pflaume”, which is aquavit with a preserved plum. Delicious!! Thanks, Max, as always, for such a great, interesting, show!!
I am a US Navy Submarine veteran. Of all of the countries I have visited while deployed, I spent more time in Scotland than any other. I absolutely loved the haggis, both fried (like a sausage) and lose with a whisky gravy, served with tatties and 'neeps. The fish and chips were also amazing (this coming from a Bostonian) and the fried Mars bars!!! The beer!!!! The Whisky museum in Edinburgh (must visit if you like whisky/whiskey). Time for me to visit again. Cheers.
A wonderful video, as usual. The poetry reading by Bruce and haggis hunting made it all the more fun. Growing up we often said the grace penned by Bobby Burns.
The Haggis hunting reminded me of a creature we have here in the Swiss Alps: the Dahu. It also has two short and two long legs. Of course it's an imaginary animal, but hunters around here like to collect bones of different animals, combine them to make a skeleton of the mythical beast. They then show this trophy to children or gullible tourists. Dahu hunts are sometimes organized as a prank to mock a particularly gullible person.
Here in Brazil we have a dish in northeast called "Buchada de bode" wich seems alike haggis: It is made of goat guts put inside his own stomach skin and seazoned with a lot of condiments. I think you should give it a try! And i guess that Minas Gerais(the region that i live) is the place that looks more like Scotland of all. You should do an recipee of "Pão de queijo"! You certainly will love!
Oh my goodness, I loved Bruce's reading! What a cool and authentic way to present that poem. It's these little details that make your videos go above and beyond.
Came across you channel recently. Been enjoying your channel for many reasons. Since 1980 (A.S. XV) I have enjoyed a group known as the Society for Creative Anachronism. A medieval recreation group. Professional cook for 20 years. Produce clerk for nearly 20 years. Ran around the Pirate community a few years too. History buff for over 5 decades :) Love your approach on your content and depth of information.
Fascinating Max! I grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch Country (York County) and my grandmother would make Hog Maw - a local delicacy much like the haggis, tho' it was the offal of pigs stuffed into a pig maw or stomach with potatoes, onions, and herbs, salt and pepper (as I recall). This idea seems to have been nearly global! Your video is enlightening! Thank you!
I regret only taking a tiny spoonful of haggis during a Scottish night fundraiser. I really enjoyed it but sadly it was all gone and I couldn’t get more 😑
A haggis hunt sounds like a Scottish snipe hunt. Great guests in this episode. Personally, I would have just stayed in Scotland rather than return home. For a great song search here on YT for 'The Drunk Scotsman' by The Irish Rovers!!!!!
The bit about having the legs shorter on one side reminds me of that famed beast French kids hunt : the Dahut. It also has legs shorter on one side to run around mountains and hills (it's probably a cousin of the Haggis) and you hunt it by spooking it. The silly animal then turns around to run away and falls over because of the unevenness of its legs !
Quite a few great songs to be found... "Jock McGraw" and "Johnny Jump Up" among favorites of mine, BUT I'll let you hunt about for the singer/group with YOUR favorite variant... haha!!! If you're ever in a mood to feel a bit low, "The Wind That Shakes The Corn" is a fine melancholy tune... They don't ALL have to be bright, lively and funny... ;o)
@@Ozuhananas Reminds me of a tall tale told in the US about a family that had a farm with super rich dirt and a twister (tornado) sucked all the dirt out of the farm leaving a perfect square hole, which was then populated by very rare mountain goats with the uneven legs, (and a bunch of other odd animals) and the family made money from showing them as a zoo. edit: clarity
Thanks to Wondrium for sponsoring today's video! Signup for your FREE trial to Wondrium here: ow.ly/KZnW50LnlWk
Yesterday was my fathers birthday, and I had bought him one of those established titles certificates and found out yesterday afternoon when I got home that it was all a scam.... I’ve thankfully gotten my money back from them without any questions from them... apparently they’ve recently RAMPED up their advertising by paying a bunch of big name youtubers AND news organizations... needless to say I panicked a bit when I saw your video about haggis.
If they hit you up to pay for advertising don’t do it! It’s apparently a scam that’s been going on for like a hundred years!!!!
I am once again asking you go to Iceland to try whale meat and rotten shark
Something wrong with the sound. It feels like the speed is x1.25 or so
Were you higher pitched this episode?
Bruce’s recitation seems to only have Right channel audio?
The haggis hunting skit was totally worth the time you invested in filming it.
It was one of the best days of the trip, and every day was amazing!
@@TastingHistory I've been watching the channel since last fall. Your video form and editing are excellent. I have a couple early 1900 cook books that I enjoy exploring. Keep up the good work.
Class stuff! 💚
Laughing out loud at this as well
It's too bad he didn't catch one, though.
I gotta say as a Scot this video is a delight to watch. Haggis is such a maligned dish but it is actually wonderful.
One of my friends once pranked someone by telling them that haggis grew on trees, and the poor sod went up to a stranger on the streets of Edinburgh asking where the haggis orchard is. This gem of a bloak could smell a prank and played along, saying that the orchard was near the pallace.
"Haggis grew on trees" / The Wild Haggis; cool leprechaun story bro.
But I don't like oatmeal. :(
@@emwhaibee Leprechauns are Irish, fam.
@@dubuyajay9964 Exactly. So is the haggis. So was the prank/hoax/inside joke haggis growing on trees.
Need me to walk you through it again??! 😏
MY JOKE
✈️
YOUR UNDERSTANDING 🧠
😂
You deserve a hulu or netflix show where you get to visit the area where the recipe is from and I think the local input was really awesome. You already got the show made.
That sounds great, and a lot of work haha. The upside of doing the channel alone is i'm my own boss
I'd watch every episode!
he dose. he reminds me of a modern alten brown
@@TastingHistorytrue
I do know a show like this does exist, though not with historical recipes. I forgot the name but there's a show where this guy goes around to places to try out weird food from around the world (usually street food)
" But Ewan was a professional and he assured me that he would not let hot sheep innards explode into my eyes"...This line was pure gold 🤣
That’s what I said to her last night
When the guts hits your eye like a big meaty pie, that's a haggis.
@@patrickmccurry1563 Max needs to pin this comment!! I 😆
@@patrickmccurry1563 When a sheep's lung is spiced and it's offal-ly nice, that's a haggis.
@@patrickmccurry1563 😂
5:19 The SPECIFIC tone of “I’m helping!” in this instance deserves a standing ovation because it’s hilarious 😂
😂
it should be combined with the hardtack bit.
Reminds me of Goblin Slayer Abridged
It brought back memories of cooking with my children! Lol 😆
Made me think of the old Shake-N-Bake commercial.
Just a little note, pudding in the UK doesn't technically refer to sausages, but certain things that are steamed or boiled. So we have savory puddings such as steak and kidney pudding (meat wrapped in a suet pastry) and pease pudding (yellow peas wrapped in cloth and boiled), as well as sweet puddings such as Christmas pudding (dried fruit mixed with suet, flour and spices wrapped in cloth and steamed or boiled)
Thank you kindly. That's always been a vague puzzler.
@@dcmcgeee8688 It's also used as a general term for dessert by some areas of the country, just to add to the confusion.
Y’all food bland AF 😂
What about Yorkshire pudding?
Jup, used to be like that in germany, too. Nowadays, if you say "pudding" in germany, you´ll get what the belgian and dutch call "Flan" or "Vla", but originally, the thing was that it is boiled in some form of cover (cloth, intestine, sheetmetal, doesn´t really matter, except is has to be a closed container), and keeps together after boiling. Could be sweet or savoury, that originally didn´t matter, if it was boiled in a closed mold into some kind of mass, it was a pudding. Some old houses and museums have really nice, decorated "pudding molds". You can tell them apart by the lid. Pudding molds have tightly closing lids, cake pans don´t.
There is actually something similar to haggis in some varieties along the river Rhine: In Northrhine-Westphalia, there is a thick, soft liver-blood-meat sausage that contains barley gruel, that is boiled, sliced, fried and eaten with syrup and/or mustard, and in Palatina, there is the (in)famous "Saumagen" (sow stomach), that is exactly that: pig´s stomach filled with minced meat, potatoes, chestnuts and herbs. Super tasty, super filling. I wonder if these are related to haggis. It is the region where the roman legions were stationed, after all.....hmmm....
I love how the recipe for Medieval Haggis is a rhyming masterpiece😆📜
Interesting how it sounds closer to modern English than Chaucer, even though it's only about thirty years after The Canterbury Tales.
They were spitting bars back then. I wonder just how many houses burned down because the recipes were so fire
It seems like a lot of medieval recipes are rhymes, not sure why. Maybe it helped people remember the recipes since fewer people could read and write in those days?
@@warriant96
Yup, rhymes are easier to remember, so anything that needed to be memorable-from recipes to moral guidance-tended to be in verse. Think of how many modern mnemonics use rhyme and/or alliteration.
Putting down bars like they’re French cavalry
Made haggis one day when my brother's girlfriend was visiting. We told her the story of the wild haggis with the short left legs and how it is hunted by chasing it around a hill until it has to turn around and then tumbles down the side. Kept this ruse up for hours, she even googled it, and google came through! Best laugh we had in ages.
Cool i didn't believe a old friend of mine knew the tale too here in Saskatchewan Canada, he'd try scaring me on night shift out in the field for a alfalfa pellet mill and we'd combine some pretty hilly fields at night RIP old Alf my friend ✌👍
That's amazing cooking skills 😲
This is like that joke abt going bologna hunting
I told that same story to kids at school when I moved to England as a young teen I still can't believe how many kids in Huddersfield believed me. They honestly thing Scotland's some far off wild place full of strange natives and weird animals not people just like them two hours drive away. This isn't a dig at English people but an observation on how divorced from reality city kids are.
Hey, look, there's even a website dedicated to Haggis hunting. Fun times it is.
Haggis is a heavenly food. I'm from Northumbria on the English side of the Scottish border and we love it here too. We make sure to have it every year on burns night with neeps & tatties, but we can even get deep fried haggis from the fish & chip shop.
Deep fried haggis sounds heavenly 🤤
@@corvimaystorm5723 had it when I went to Scotland and can confirm its wonderful!
As a Native Texan where we believe everything is better deep fried, I am shocked it never occurred to me to try deep fried haggis. I have a new mission in life.
@@ParkerUAS Deep fried haggis is lovely, you should deffo try it. We have deep fried giant spring rolls here too, called chop suey rolls. These two things are my two favourite things that are deep fried.
@@northumbriabushcraft1208 both sound absolutely delicious. My favorite things deep fried are Chicken Fried Steak (yes, deep fried, not pan fried) and deep fried beer.
Beer? Yes. At the Texas State Fair (and now likely elsewhere) they took Shiner Bock (Texas brewed Bock style beer) and mixed it with a non sweetened batter very similar to what is used for funnel cakes. The result is a non alcoholic, but absolutely delicious, dessert.
My favourite memory of Haggis in Media is an episode of ‘Lizzie McGuire’ where all of them go to a Scottish Society Event and the moment Gordo learns what Haggis is, he denounces his Scottish Heritage after proclaiming himself to be part-Scottish.
How cringeworthy.
"This is haggis, made from the innards of a sheep, sewed up in its stomach, and cooked. 😁" has lived in my mind rent-free for 20 years.
They did a similar treatment in an episode of the "Earthworm Jim" cartoon. 😉
The 90s had a strange obsession with haggis and I completely understand
@@aznSeddie You’re a person of art and culture. Bonus points on a direct quote.
Max making friends with a nice lady named Bridget who grows a Tudor style garden on his vacation is very on brand and I love it 💯👌👩🌾
I’m from the Northwest of Brazil, and we have a dish sort of like Haggis, we make it with goats, not sheep, and we call it “buchada de bode”. And I love it, by the way …
The folk tale of the mythical Haggis- the beast that can freely run across the hillside without falling, but only in one direction, is probably one of my favourite things
He didn't mention that they come in two varieties, clockwise and anticlockwise, which can't interbreed because when the male turns round to mount the female it always falls over. ...by the way, the illustration of the haggis used in the animation for that is the stuffed haggis on display in the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow. It's well worth a visit if you're there.
They have tartan hides you know, it's how highland warriors got the idea. 😁
@@mrhedgebull1658 this little detail is new to me
@@hjalfi this reply could've come real handy 5 years ago
it must be something in the line of Serows or Gorals
Well, as they say "when there's a will, there's a way" and Max definitely found a way to make haggis.
Where there’s a Max there’s also a way.
This Will guy gets on my nerves, but people fire at him all the time so I guess I’m not alone in that.
Never realized how similar Cajun Boudin and Haggis are when being made. Very similar type ingredients (Rice vs Oatmeal and Savory vs spicy). Great show. Try making Boudin please!
The English word pudding actually comes from the word boudin, and originally always referred to sausages before the organ casings were replaced with the more genteel "pudding cloth"
Nothing like a good cajun boudin!
I love boudin
Great observation!
I think pretty much every nationality makes some king of blood sausage. Norwegians call it klub and it's made with blood and flour. The Chinese also have a blood sausage but I don't know what's in it.
I would love to see some Medieval African foods! I betcha there were some amazing dishes done in Mansa Musa's court, or maybe a look at the backstory of Shakshuka!
I can do that!
@@SimuLord Right??? I believe it was in Egypt or specifically Cairo where he spent so much gold he screwed their local economy like 4 or 5 times over cause it was THAT much gold spent all at once
I'm still shilling for Ugali. As a half Zimbabwean I really do want to see more of the continent covered
@@TastingHistory woooo!!
"Hey look at this new thing I learned via RUclips - I bet no one else even knows about this:"
The “I’m helping!” Caused me to do a spit take with my tea! Bravo!
And it sounded so adorkable that I love it.
i get the feeling none of that was really presentable, which is why it wasn't presented. my guess is that the butcher was controlling and treated Max like he was an incompetent fool. just a guess tho.
That sounds like me at thanksgiving, lol
@@flannelpillowcase6475 that’s a long negative walk to take to get to that conclusion.
There were probably legal reasons he couldn’t help in this guy’s shop, in case of injury.
I nearly choked on fruit flavored marshmallows.
Max, thanks for the film. Another thing to know about the illustrious Haggis is that if you let it cool, you can slice it like Deli meat. It is DIVINE in sandwiches.
🏴😮 I've never thought of that. Cheers 🍻
I’m honestly impressed in how this channl has grown through time.. how professional it has been.. how fun, educational and spot on!
Thank ya Elvis
What an absolute joy. Two of my favourite RUclipsrs - Max and Bruce Fummey - in the same video. The week just got a bit brighter (which, considering it's 5.30pm here and pitch black outside is no small achievement).
For people who don't know, as well as hosting a superb history channel, Bruce is a magnificent stand-up comedian and he's doing a tour of Australia early next year and I can't recommend him highly enough.
Many thanks for making the video, Max - it was really, really enjoyable.
He's also an incredibly nice chap.
I've never met him - I've just seen a couple of his shows. He always comes across as someone you'd loe to go for a beer with. Lots of intelligence - and a mountain of wit - but no malice.
If he's coming down under I wonder if he'd like to be taken for a drop bear hunt? They're at least as fierce as any wild haggis!
@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 In a fight between a drop bear and a haggis, who do you think would win? They are both very fierce!
@@joanhoffman3702 Drop Bear - no question. They live only to attack, plunge from above, and have no leg-length disparity.
Plus, they're notoriously savage with tourists. Smear yourself with Vegemite for best protection.
Haggis neeps and tatties with whiskey sauce is legitimately one of my favourite, if not my favourite dish in the world. I’m English but have been going to Scotland every year since I was born, and it truly is one of the best things about Scotland. Given the process and ingredients, I don’t know anyone who actually makes it though- most people eat Macsween’s brand Haggis, which is delicious and easy to prepare. They even have a vegetarian version which is good too. It’s truly a wonderful and balanced dish that everyone should try.
Stay out of Scotland coloniser
One of my favorite parts of ancient recipes is that many of them rhyme, presumably because most people couldn't read, so it would be essential for recipes to be very easy to memorize
That explains why I have a crappy Rebekah Black meme song from over a decade ago rattling around in my head. The haggis recipe would be more useful. And more entertaining. And of more artistic value.
Bruce reciting the poem and the hunt for the wild haggis had me in tears here, from so much laughing hahahaha😂🤣
I was so glad he got the wild haggis runaround.
I really dig how Max went to Scotland. Sure, there are plenty of reasons to go, but hey you _gotta_ go for the channel. I mean, you don't have much of a choice in the matter!
For Hagese,
A classic dish
Much maligned
Due to the concept
Being a challenging type
To modern palate
And it's wanderings
The recipe guide
For this famous food
Is practical poetry
To maketh gode
Pepper and tyme
Fulfil the flavour
Where spice sits now
An oath of truth
That attachs well
To the conditional values
Of olde Europe's power
By the cross
The meal has been central
As bonny Scotland grew
That lyrical badass ness
Be part of that brew
That sat on a table
When I last
Saw beautiful Edinburgh
A decade ago
Against summer eaves
And flights of wynter snow
A hearty meal
Kept us in good health
The haggis
A centre piece
To a cuisine
And a memory
I hold so well
Oh, thank you for this... Listening to the Scotsman recite to poem... I tried but even reading it didn't help entirely. Nice poem. If I was going to write a poem to food it would be to my home made pizza!
@Kathleen Hensley ooo can I please see your homemade pizza poem? That sounds amazing. My poems in Max's comments is kinda of a joke agreement between me and Max. He liked a piece I wrote for him during Titanic month and said "so I'm gonna expect this every week". He was kidding but it's actually been a nice way to surprise him each week and I love practicing. He seems to still enjoy it and every now and then it makes him laugh so I'm happy to do it
The wild haggis bit had me rolling, perfect execution. Bruce absolutely knocked it out of the park, too, both in poem recital and in being the hunting guide.
Omg, I was laughing so hard I was crying.
That scotsman is going to make the best grandpa ever with his fantastic yarns about haggis hunting in the wild highlands with his trusty dog.
Max when he discovered that you can't make authentic Haggis in the US: "Jose pack your bags, we're off to Scotland for the sole reason of I need to feature Haggis on the channel!"
José is Sancho Panza to Max's Don Quixote.
If my eyes don't deceive me, behind Max that's a bottle of Drambuie, a liqueur from the Isle of Sky. It is absolutely phenomenal!
Good eye!
Aye its no bad, whiskey and orange a nice combination for sure.
Sweet!
The RUclips crossover we know we all needed! So glad you were able to meet up with Bruce in Scotland. Absolutely brilliant YT channel and I've learned so much about Scottish history from it that just isn't taught in schools, even where I am in England (probably because a lot of it is about how much the English nobility f*cked over the Scots - and we wonder why they hate us so much...). Really hope you had time to see some of the Highlands and explore some of the country's incredible history while you were there, and also maybe a distillery or two for some Drinking History supplies while you're at it!
He's awesome!
In México, specially in the Yucatán Peninsula, there is something called Bofe and it's basically Haggis but with slightly different spices. It goes hard as Tamales filling and it's amazing.
Max adding salt and pepper with Ewan deep into the haggis meat looks like a dad who's just wanting to get done but the missus says their son has to help make it. its cute and i love it
I love haggis, despite being a sassenach, and you're absolutely right about the oatmeal texture - it's wonderful. We used to have sheep and I once slaughtered one myself at home. After butchering it I decided to boil up the lights (lungs) for the cat. But the aroma from the stove was really appetising and reminded me of something: haggis! So I googled a recipe and I had all the necessary ingredients: liver, lights, heart, oatmeal, onion, spices, but no intestine or stomach - I'd already chucked those. So instead of boiling it I baked it in a deep dish with a butter paper over the top. It was delicious!
I made Ukrainian beef kasha, a kind of buckwheat meat porridge, a while back and was astonished to discover that it has a very similar texture. It is, by the way, delicious. Super satisfying comfort food.
This is an English recipe not a Scottish one
This episode is a gem from beginning to end. The hunt for the wild haggis brought tears to my eyes, from laughter and joy. Thank you for this!
I have to say Max that this may be my favorite episode yet. It had history, humor, epicurean delights and a hunt! It's wonderful to see your channel growing. Keep it up!
Speaking as a Englishman, i have had Haggis on several occasions, with a variety of recopies, and can honestly say I mostly loved it. The ony one I didn't really like was made by a big company and sold at a supermarket so its probably not the most authentic. The one I liked most was bought from a butcher in a town on the Borders, and frankly could have eaten until I burst. I think people who allow what it is made from to put them off are missing out on something really great, and all things considered it is a delicacy that is cheap and delicious compared to some others that frankly are over-rated, like truffles and caviar.
Caviar is mostly about texture and aesthetics. It doesn’t taste all that much, but it’s pretty and has a fun mouth-feel.
Heh, as a full-on gourmand, I don't care what something is made from or what kind of reputation or social standing it has -- if it's tasty, that's all I need to know! 😉
@@ragnkja Thats true, I've had some very expensive caviar in the past and it was fun and made a statement - I just think its over-rated as a luxury experience compared to other things. People should take the chance to experience different things if they get the chance, I just think you would get more bang-for-buck from trying things like Haggis than spending a lot of money on caviar. Luckily a company spent their money so I could try it, and I am glad I took the opportunity.
Was the town Jedburgh?
@@IanSlothieRolfe
For flavour, I’m leaning more towards cheap roe paste (and not even the brand-name one, but the store-brand version) than fancy caviar, even if it’s not as pretty, because the salty, smoky roe paste goes perfectly with boiled egg, whether soft-boiled in a cup or hard-boiled and sliced. And yes, I am aware that it’s all just different kinds of eggs.
I loved this episode so much. The haggis hunting was hysterical, they poem reading with that wonderful Scottish accent everything was superb,
Thank you for a great time
oh that was some prime blarney. I'm so glad you were taken hunting for haggis.
It would have been quite wonderful to hear it, but my audio cut out for his portion.
Omg not Max flexing the community effort in making Haggis. That’s awesome!
Meanwhile, I can’t get my friend to watch ‘The Addams Family’.
My favorite part of that movie is well explained on another RUclips channel, Cinema Therapy, that shows how they’re the absolute relationship goals couple from movies.
So many toxic marriages and relationships in film, and Morticia and Gomez are just so wholesome. I mean, they have weird hobbies and kinks, but their relationship is absolutely adorable.
@@Justanotherconsumer That's what I liked about the TV show when I was a kid. They really were a devoted, romantic couple, and the family was so warm and supportive of each other. It didn't matter how weird they seemed to the neighbors.
My wife and I went to Scottland for our honeymoon this year. One of the first things I did after arriving in Edinburgh was to go to a restauant and try some haggis. I actually liked it a lot! Back home in Germany, when my friends asked me how it tasted, I described it as a cross between liver pate and oatmeal.
thats a pretty fair assessment! but with extra pepper!
Have never tried haggis, but the Icelanders have something similar called slátur. Would be interesting to see Max visit Iceland some day to try it and compare the two.
I think slátur is just a blood pudding with some chunks of fat, no organs involved, similar but not quite
@@OlEgSaS32 Maybe I have the name wrong then? I was an exchange student on a farm in Iceland, and my host mom made something with innards and cooked in a sheep's stomach. When you cut it open, it looks like potting soil, is the way I'd describe it. I Googled "slátur is similar to haggis" and found some articles using that name before commenting, but I've seen other names, too. Do you know the name of what I described?
@@NeonTumbleweed No, I don't, i know what slatur from a specific travel channel show but thats basically the extent of my icelandic food knowledge😅 , but it wouldnt surprise me to learn iceland has a 1:1 equivalent of haggis but maybe with different animal organs and a different name, its seems like one of those things cultures instinctively learned to make without really any outside influence
@@OlEgSaS32 @OlEgSaS32 True. For some real controversy, there's a Scottish butcher, Joe Callaghan, who actually says Haggis is an imposter, brought to Scotland by the Vikings. Fighting words, right? Maybe some day Max will travel to Iceland to investigate. Fingers crossed 🤞
I was really curious about it when I visited Scotland and then was disappointed that with all the hype about it, it just tastes like a savoury sausage. It's quite yummy.
I put off eating Haggis most of my life because I knew what was in it (I’m 50 now) but I finally went up to Edinburgh Castle in my early 40’s and they had it in the cafe there so I thought why not and I absolutely love it, so tasty.
While on holiday in Scotland, once I tried haggis, I had every chance I could.
Fascinating! In Wyoming we have a similar tall tale to the "Haggis beast". We have the Side Hill Wampus cat that is also described as have two legs longer than the others so that It can run across the hills
There is a similar dish here in the northeastern region of Brasil called Buchada de Bode (Stuffed goat stomach), wich was derived from a portuguese dish called Maranho.
I so should mention both dishes to my maternal grandma (who is from Terceira in the Açores/Azores), especially having opened up a can of haggis we once got from a Celtic shop around the area
That sounds interesting. I like haggis, and I like goat, so if I ever see some offered, I'll give it a try. Thank you!
@@tktyga77 …can? I hadn’t really considered they can some of them but I suppose it makes sense, all other sausages get canned versions.
Haggis is my favourite of the “sausage” family but recommended you try a similar one from France called “andouillette”if you want a maxed out offal sausage.
I loved it but it’s even more niché than haggis!
A local in France described it (jokingly!!) as “the scrapings of a slaughterhouse floor shoved into a used condom”
Andouillette is a _very_ different sausage, though, huwjones. I mean, it's my absolute favourite sausage of any kind, but a much more divisive sausage than mere haggis, despite haggis's reputation. It's _really_ pungent, being made from chitterlings. By contrast, haggis is mildly flavoured. And its texture is completely different.
Haggis reminds me of our scrapple here in the US. As a kid my family made it homemade every fall when we slaughtered the hogs. We included the lights. After all the scrapple ingredients were cooked it was poured into loaf pans to set. Then you take it and slice the loaf and pan fry it to eat.
Many thanks to Bruce for lending his voice and accent to the history of haggis. You just can't get more Scottish than that!
I get canned haggis from a specialty store here in Chicago and I absolutely love it. If you like corned beef hash, you'll like haggis. Super high in Iron also.
A similar Greek Cypriotic dish is Seftalia.
Never had haggis, but OMG I LOVE Seftalia.
I'm searching for a shiny mareep on Scarlet and Violet. Congrats to Jose for completing his dex too.
You bought both? Or you have a friend you're trading with?
Garchomp is a contender for my favorite pokemon.
I randomly noticed a blue Gibble in the middle of normal play in Scarlet.
It's the first shiny I've ever stumbled upon in the wild, only other shiny I know I got legitimately is an egg'd Dratini for that green dragonite.
Shame shiny Garchomp is a garbage tier shiny that's hard to even notice is different at a glance. Just an orange belly instead of red, and a lighter blue instead of a darker blue for the skin.
@ZipplyZane I bought both. I'm playing violet. Wife's playing scarlet.
@@asitallfallsdown5914 I haven't found a shiny yet, but my wife found a shiny murkrow a few hours in.
@@DrIgnacious So you also do have a friend you're trading with. 😁
I just visited Scotland (from the U.S.) and tried haggis several times. I found the taste to be a sort of cross between breakfast sausage and liver mush. Very tasty. No one mentioned wild haggis hunting, though. That would've been hilarious.
As the son of a Scottish immigrant, I am so happy to see this recipe! I finally went to Scotland this past summer and tried it, and am definitely gonna have to make it for this Hogmanay or Burns' Night. Alba gu bràth agus fada beò taigeis!
Both my parents are Scottish and while we were visiting family in Scotland in the late '80s, I had haggis several times. Every fish and chip shop had their own version. The nicest one I ever tasted though was made locally here in New Zealand.
On a side note, I did not know that rutebager (sp?) was turnip. You learn something new every day. 😁
Not real haggis if made in New Zealand
@@benmacdui9328 Location does not alter the nature of food, mate, unless perhaps you're relying on wild yeasts and molds (though you can capture and inject those).
It's actually spelled rutabaga but close enough.
Rutabaga
@@guillaume5612 thank you. I thought my spelling didn't look right. 🤔
I went to Scotland on a deployment, and Haggis was my favorite thing that I had while I was there. Second favorite was Blood Puddin.
You doing haggis and Babish doing Sausage. My 6 year old deciding on a hot dog for her lunch, there's a theme today.
😂
And meanwhile Ordinary Sausage did soup, salad, and bread sticks.
@Nathan Hoffmann those look like some interesting sausages. His voice is a bit off putting.
Film theory discussing Sonic's chilli cheese dogs.
I literally just made haggis last night 😆
Bruce is a real treasure! Thank you for introducing us to him in your videos. I have been binging his history videos ever since.
More than ever this reminds me of Kieshka (blood sausage) that I grew up with, only this uses oatmeal and blood sausage uses buckwheat as the binder. I’ll bet it’s great with a mushroom ketchup on it ala Townsends.
Your channel is still my favorite “cooking show” with Mrs Crocombe in second place but you really satisfy the nerd in me and I appreciate all of the knowledge you have *bedighted* upon our lives. I have told numerous people about your channel and a few are finally starting to watch and they love it too! Especially with the “Easter Eggs” in the background like the drambuie in this one. Keep up the great work laddie. You make us all smile and we appreciate you!
This haggis reminds me of "Maranho", a portuguese dish from Beira Baixa (central region) that uses goats stomach/intestines to wrap a mixture of rice, goat meat, chorizo and herbs (expecialy mint, that give a wonderful taste to it). If you ever planning of tasting anything portuguese, you need to try this regional dish, or else you will regret leaving Portugal without meeting Heaven.
Oooh! Haven’t tried mixing chorizo and mint before.
Everything BUt the mint sounds delicious. I've only had goat once, and I find it MUCH better than lamb, but unfortunately here in Denmark goat is impossible to come by.
The Haggis legend is a retold of the legend of the Dahu from the alps (france, italy, Switzerland). A joke told to "foreigners" back then. My father played this joke on me when i was little, and waited weeks, weeks i spent looking for dahu at every occasion available, then he finally explained it to me. Those were good times.
Is Dahu an instrument?
@@dubuyajay9964 I may have expressed myself poorly. The Dahu is a mythical animal, a kind of Chamois with 2 legs shorter on one side, giving it the ability to run on very steep slopes. So, very similar to the joke with haggis being an animal as told in the episode.
@@chronic6428 I was going to ask that next. I was making a SpongeBob joke. I'm sorry you did not get it. :(
@@dubuyajay9964 Ahaha i was wondering if it was a joke i didn't get. I never watched spongebob in my life.
I love that you included Bruce from historical Scotland tours. Great job!
You really pulled in top talent for this one, Max. Quite a way to honor the mighty haggis!
Especially Bruce, always love seeing Bruce.
I started the video thinking, "Oh, no, you're going to be living with that unique haggis aroma in your kitchen for a few weeks", so I was glad to see you didn't inflict that on yourself. Hope you had a great trip!
couldn't even if he wanted to due to some ingredients being banned from sale
I mean, I can see the haggis itself being banned from being imported but the ingredients not being sold in loci?! WTH a butcher?! Seriously! 😑
American here, I make a version of haggis with ground lamb and calf liver, I LOVE the way it makes my kitchen smell. Cooked it last night and it smells vaguely like Christmas still 😀
@@cleverusername9369 I've ordered Haggis online, before. It's easy to find on a Google search; there are several options for freshly made Haggis. But next time, I think I want to make it myself. Didn't look as if it wood be too difficult to do. Do you have a recipe you can recommend?
I live in Tomahawk Wisconsin U.S.A. In Rhinelander a half hour away, we have a legend of the Hodag. We have statues etc, the Scottish guy talking sounded like our legend. Love your show
The hunt for a Haggis was priceless! Apparently, they are just as hard to catch as Snipes. This was a great video. Thank you for showing us this most curious dish.
Drop Bears are the worst, actually. Don't even try catching one. They catch you!
I'm glad you had Bruce read that! He is one of my favorites! I can say, I don't want to try haggis because I don't eat innards and I'm not fond of sheep but I'll not fault anyone for their food choices.
I'm not an offal kind of gal but haggis is really lovely.
Just discovered you on RUclips and I am loving it! Been binge watching. Love all the history and your sense of humor. And Thank You for the "hard tack" moments.
Hunting the haggis was HILLARIOUS!
I guess it's because of the region I'm from (east coast/Atlantic Canada) but I always love seeing savory pop up as a mention! They have a more peppery taste, with summer savory being pretty strong. My family tends to grow some every year and dry it to add to stews.
And rutabaga is pretty common addition to a turkey dinner for us too. They taste the best after they've been in contact with freezing temperature first.
So right aboiut they're being better after frost.
I've kept a pot of winter savory on my windowsill in my kitchen for more than 5 years. It just keeps growing! It can get a bit leggy over the winter, but I cut it back to the ground in spring, give it a dressing of some more soil, and it's soon growing like a triffid again! Flavour somewhere between thyme and oregano, fantastic with beans and slow-cooked meat dishes.
@@JuniperBoy it's really delicious with chicken! I cook it in a stew along with potatoes and onions (sometimes carrots) with flour dumplings and the savory makes it super comforting
Curious how you prepare the rutabaga..? Growing up (1960s-70s), we'd also have it with turkey dinner, mixed into the mashed potatoes. (Actually, we'd have one batch of plain mashed potatoes and a second batch mixed.) My grandmother was of Welsh-English extraction, originally from Scranton, PA, and I always thought this was an English tradition, but it could have been immigrant/coal country tradition, or even an inexpensive ingredient incorporated during the Great Depression. Once in a while, I'll buy a rutabaga, but (since I'm usually cooking for myself after the holiday dinner elsewhere with family), I don't usually get around to cooking it along with my turkey. (Ditto this year; made plain mashed potatoes to accompany the turkey first day, added the dressing & finished the mps 2nd day, had dressing and yams 3rd & 4th day, but still have my Brussel sprouts and rutabaga hanging around uncooked.) I've cut up & boiled rutabaga before and had with butter, but that and the mashed potato mix are essentially the only recipes I have. If you have some other ways of eating rutabaga, I'd love to hear it!👍
I had to translate savory (the Dutch name is bonenkruid or bean-herb), and I put it in with the water when I cook green beans, for extra flavour. I think I got that fom an old cook book and I like it. Certainly an oldfashioned herb, but a lovely one!
Hyssop I've grown too, and it's very minty, though different from mint. I suspect that some of the minty flavour in the haggis they made came from the hyssop.
This is actually similar to a Romanian recipe called "Trandafiri" (Roses) where I come from. They're actually sausages made of mixed pig organs (as opposed to sheep) and minced together and stuffed together in pig's intestines after they're cleaned and processed. Typically, you can smoke them and keep them somewhere cool in raw form until you fry them in the pan and eat them. They're delicious! Nice video by the way!
I absolutely adore haggis. I've tried it twice and both times it has tasted different. The first was extremely spiced and almost tasted like cheese. The second was the one I had this year and it was a lot more mellow in flavour. Both were delicious.
Loved this. I'm from southern California, but I did my graduate studies in St. Andrews, Scotland. While there, I resided in a flat above a butcher's shop whose shop window always included a display of multiple trays of fresh made, uncooked haggis that would always be sold out by midday. The restaurant I worked at part-time also sold it, and I have to say it was delicious, if not a bit mushy because of the oats. It was usually purchased by American and Canadian tourists who wanted something really Scottish. The restaurant also sold vegetarian haggis that we all tried once so we could tell people about it if they had questions while ordering. I am grateful that most of the words I heard from the cooks were in deep northern Scottish slang covered in brogue, because it was foul. Ha, I'm pretty sure the very few people who ordered that while I worked there were from the Bay area here in CA. 😅
Lol
Vegetarian haggis must be the ultimate oxymoron.
@@concettaworkman5895 no it's quite nice, also quite popular
Plant boy lol
With a name like Tristan it had to be vegan lol
In my country, Romania, we have a really similar dish, named Drob, that is basically Haggis with more vegetables. I think its funny that we had no interaction whatsoever with the scots or normands yet we have a dish so similar.
Looks good
yeah, we have several different, but similar things in germany, too. I thought the explanation that if you hunt a deer, the innards spoil very fast, so you´d wrap them in the container the stomach provides and boil them to make them last while you drag the meat back home, really made sense.
But then I also realized, that there is one thing Scotland, Germany and Romania have in common: Roman Legions were stationed there!
@@paavobergmann4920 huh that's fascinating. So can we assume that these dishes were influenced or made by Romans?
@@fawnieee I have no idea, but the romans loved sausage, so, why not?
Oh my the two shorter legs reminds me of my grandfather's stories of the side-hill gougers (their clockwise and widdershins subspecies) and how hunting them required chasing them onto flat ground, but avoid letting them roll into a ditch, or they're off like a shot!
Yes finally, haggis! It was inevitable that this will be on this channel. The first time I heard about this dish was probably watching the first Highlander movie. Ya know, the movie where a French stars as a Scottish guy, the Scottish stars as an Egyptian with a Spanish name (who hates haggis!) and I dunno what Clancy Brown was supposed to be 🤪
There was some interesting casting in that movie.
Heh. I just discussed this exact thing with my wife a couple days ago.
I can't believe Max missed the opportunity to mention it.
Kurgans were a Stone Age tribe from north of the Black Sea.
I've had haggis in Edinburgh twice and really enjoyed both times. It felt like alot of places take a modern spin on the dish, so it wasn't served in a split open stomach/intestine.
In the Kelvin Grove Museum in Glasgow there is a taxidermy of this "haggis" you were trying to hunt. With full details in the description ( wink, wink, nudge, nudge...Scottish humour...)
Here in Brazil we call this dish "Buchada"! It's very popular in the north east region.
Great video as always!
Great video.... thanks. I lived in Edinburgh for 4 months to be piping.... I play the bagpipes. And I just love haggis.
I finally had haggis in a visit to Scotland and I loved it. I'm just annoyed by how draconian our food laws are (even if the aims are good). It feels like a way to cover for larger food corporations and it slights to smaller food providers.
Now I want to go back to Scotland. **sigh**
There is a philosophy that if you kill an animal you should use all of it. Haggis uses organs that you might not want to eat "pure". I have eaten it & it's tasty with a crumbly texture.
USA laws are ancient and no one wants to update them because it inconveniences the big companies.
I'm sure you will be welcome!
Yeah but you definitely don't want to be eating dirty offal from a massive industrial farm, and even hunted animals you need to take caution if you're going to eat the organ meats these days... Can't cook out a prion
Not allowed to have sheep lungs in American food because of "health reasons," but By God, they'll cram it full of chemicals banned in all the other civilised countries, and throw in a bucket-load of high-fructose corn syrup for good measure! 🤣
Would you do an episode on potatoes and their story ? You could make a dish with chuño ! (Traditional freeze dried potatoes from the Andes)
Also, we have a mythical beast that has 2 short legs and 2 long in France, it’s called Le Dahu !
many years ago I spent a few months in Scotland and came to love haggis! It’s so damn hearty, it’s meaty, it’s potentially the most filing food I’ve ever eaten… some day some hipster company is going to figure out how to make like a “trail” haggis and make a mint from healthy people who want a full meal in the palm of their hand.
Is it just me or does his voice sound more high pitched and energetic?
If that's the case then that's cooolllll
I thought so.
Yeah, parts of the video definitely seemed sped up and/or higher-pitched.
Yes I can hear it, sounds like it's slightly sped up. Reminds me of 24->25 fps conversions done for 50 Hz regions. Maybe not that 4% (lower maybe?)
Thank goodness it is not just me, very distracting and felt like a chipmunk version of Max!
@@iebarnett51 I thought the same
Lower Saxony has a similar style of sausage with oat groats called Knipp, which is not usually offered in an intestine, but cast into thick rolls from which to cut slices as it is very firm when cold.
To eat it you'd fry it up in a pan and enjoy with some pickles, fried eggs and bread.
Almost 30 years ago, the first meal I ate in my (then future) husband’s home town was Knipp. He and his friends wouldn’t tell me what it was, trusting soul that I am, I ate it (all) and loved it. Then he told me it was prepared with a boiled pig’s head, onions, oats and spices! I had just started eating meat after being a vegetarian for many years, so that was a bit intense! Now that we live in that same home town (Bremen), we eat it pretty regularly, especially in the cold winter. Here it is served with applesauce and “Bratkartoffeln”, which are the yummiest ever fried potato slices. We always follow it with a “Bommi mit Pflaume”, which is aquavit with a preserved plum. Delicious!! Thanks, Max, as always, for such a great, interesting, show!!
Goetta in Cincinnati Ohio.
I am a US Navy Submarine veteran. Of all of the countries I have visited while deployed, I spent more time in Scotland than any other. I absolutely loved the haggis, both fried (like a sausage) and lose with a whisky gravy, served with tatties and 'neeps. The fish and chips were also amazing (this coming from a Bostonian) and the fried Mars bars!!! The beer!!!! The Whisky museum in Edinburgh (must visit if you like whisky/whiskey). Time for me to visit again. Cheers.
A wonderful video, as usual. The poetry reading by Bruce and haggis hunting made it all the more fun. Growing up we often said the grace penned by Bobby Burns.
The Haggis hunting reminded me of a creature we have here in the Swiss Alps: the Dahu. It also has two short and two long legs.
Of course it's an imaginary animal, but hunters around here like to collect bones of different animals, combine them to make a skeleton of the mythical beast. They then show this trophy to children or gullible tourists.
Dahu hunts are sometimes organized as a prank to mock a particularly gullible person.
Here in Brazil we have a dish in northeast called "Buchada de bode" wich seems alike haggis: It is made of goat guts put inside his own stomach skin and seazoned with a lot of condiments. I think you should give it a try!
And i guess that Minas Gerais(the region that i live) is the place that looks more like Scotland of all. You should do an recipee of "Pão de queijo"! You certainly will love!
I adore Bruce and his channel! A great treat to see.😊
What's his channel please? Thought there would be a link in the description but nope!
@@CraftyWitch1990 Scottish history tours. Give me a few and I’ll get a link here if I can. I am not very good at that lol
ruclips.net/video/Z7jm7sSQVsI/видео.html
That should be his newest video. I hope you like it as much as I do 😊
The Noble Haggis is much like the majestic Naugabeast from which naugahyde is harvested.
First time I heard of it was in Highlander. Always wanted to give it a shot.
Haggis is delicious! I'm definitely curious to see the difference from the one I ate and the medieval version
Me too! Would have loved a side by side comparison
Oh my goodness, I loved Bruce's reading! What a cool and authentic way to present that poem. It's these little details that make your videos go above and beyond.
It never occurred to me that Haggis would be a blinding hazard. Great video.
Just a year ago we thought this would never happen yet here we are! Yet another milestone reached and surpassed, well done Max!
The comment above me that says you won something is spam
Omg this is from the Scottish Trip Vault and I love it already!
Last one from the trip
Came across you channel recently. Been enjoying your channel for many reasons.
Since 1980 (A.S. XV) I have enjoyed a group known as the Society for Creative Anachronism. A medieval recreation group.
Professional cook for 20 years.
Produce clerk for nearly 20 years.
Ran around the Pirate community a few years too.
History buff for over 5 decades :)
Love your approach on your content and depth of information.
Fascinating Max! I grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch Country (York County) and my grandmother would make Hog Maw - a local delicacy much like the haggis, tho' it was the offal of pigs stuffed into a pig maw or stomach with potatoes, onions, and herbs, salt and pepper (as I recall). This idea seems to have been nearly global! Your video is enlightening! Thank you!
I regret only taking a tiny spoonful of haggis during a Scottish night fundraiser. I really enjoyed it but sadly it was all gone and I couldn’t get more 😑
Just tried it recently. It had a whisky cream sauce on top and was mixed with barley instead of oats. It was delicious.
A haggis hunt sounds like a Scottish snipe hunt. Great guests in this episode. Personally, I would have just stayed in Scotland rather than return home. For a great song search here on YT for 'The Drunk Scotsman' by The Irish Rovers!!!!!
The bit about having the legs shorter on one side reminds me of that famed beast French kids hunt : the Dahut. It also has legs shorter on one side to run around mountains and hills (it's probably a cousin of the Haggis) and you hunt it by spooking it. The silly animal then turns around to run away and falls over because of the unevenness of its legs !
Quite a few great songs to be found... "Jock McGraw" and "Johnny Jump Up" among favorites of mine, BUT I'll let you hunt about for the singer/group with YOUR favorite variant... haha!!!
If you're ever in a mood to feel a bit low, "The Wind That Shakes The Corn" is a fine melancholy tune... They don't ALL have to be bright, lively and funny... ;o)
@@Ozuhananas Reminds me of a tall tale told in the US about a family that had a farm with super rich dirt and a twister (tornado) sucked all the dirt out of the farm leaving a perfect square hole, which was then populated by very rare mountain goats with the uneven legs, (and a bunch of other odd animals) and the family made money from showing them as a zoo.
edit: clarity