It’s Burns Night tomorrow and the last night of the haggis season, so it’s time to go haggis hunting!

The haggis season runs from 30 November to 25 January when they go into hibernation.

Remember that wild haggis are shy creatures who only appear at dawn and at dusk so patience is needed. The rural haggis has two short legs and two long legs to make it easier to run round hills. It feeds on heather, blaeberries, turnip and potatoes. A rare variety of haggis is the urban or Tartan haggis which lives on a diet of shortbread. In the last 10 years a further species, the virtual haggis, has appeared which can be hunted online.

Those who are anti-hunting can make their own haggis using this traditional recipe ¹:

Ingredients:

the large stomach bag, the smaller bag and the pluck (including lights, liver and heart) of a sheep, beef suet, oatmeal, onions, black pepper, salt, water.

Method:

Brown and toast a breakfast-cupful of oatmeal in front of the fire.   Clean the large bag thoroughly and soak it overnight in cold salted water.   In the morning put it aside with the rough side turned out.   Wash the small bag and the pluck and put them on to boil covered with cold water, leaving the windpipe hanging out over the pot to let out any impurities.  Let them boil for an hour and a half, then take them out and cut away the pipes and any pieces of gristle.   Mince the heart and lights, and grate half the liver.  (The rest of the liver is not required).   Put them into a basin with half a pound of minced suet, one or two finely chopped onions, and the oatmeal, and season highly with black pepper and salt.   Over the whole pour as much of the liquid in which the pluck was boiled as will make the composition sappy.   Fill the large bag rather more than half full, say five-eighths, as it requires plenty of room to swell.   Sew it securely and put it into a large pot of hot water (to which half a pint of milk is often added).   As soon as it begins to swell, prick it all over with a large needle to prevent its bursting.   Boil steadily, without the lid, for three hours. Serve very hot without any garnish.

[the uninitiated are advised to note the danger of a too sudden assault on the "chieftain o' the pudden race".]

I’ve actually made this recipe and can recommend it.

Although people used to think that haggis came from France (as a result of the “auld alliance”), no-one really knows its origins.   One theory is that the ancient Romans used to make a haggis-like dish; another is that it came from Scandinavia; while an early printed recipe appears in The English Huswife by Gervase Markham, printed in 1615.

Whatever its origins – have a good Burns Night!

Sheena

It’s snowing again and, as usual, the south of England has come slithering and sliding to a standstill.

I’ve made my fair share of “don’t know what things are coming to”, “I remember when…”, “when I was a kid…” type comments; including a “southerners don’t know what snow is” conversation with a Geordie lady at the bus stop – but I’m not sure that our ancestors coped any better than we do.

Take this from the 17th century…

January 1695

Monday 28th. I took horse in the morning betwixt seven and 8 being resolved if possible for Edr [Edinburgh]. it snowed all the time as we went to Dunse…we had very deep snow and very oft were forced to walk above the knees in snow whc toild me very much. yet God be thanked we had a clear day and now blowing so that we mist not the way.

[An Album of Scottish Families 1694-96 by Helen and Keith Kelsall; 1990, Aberdeen University Press, ISBN: 008040930X]

or this from the 19th century…

Edinburgh Dec. 18.

The frost, which set in on the 6th inst., supervened on the severest snowstorms by which Scotland has been visited for 21 years. A continuous fall for 24 hours, followed by intermittent showers extending over several days, covered the streets of Edinburgh to the depth of two or three feet… the snow in exposed places was drifted and piled up in solid wreaths five or six feet high. The street traffic was either wholly stopped or greatly impeded, and for several days the running of the tramway car was entirely suspended… This has come very hardly on the poor, especially on those who are engaged in open air labour – on masons, gardeners, and day labourers, who have been for two or three weeks frozen out of their employment. Then the ravages of disease have been greatly increased, especially among those who are ill-fed and underclad, and also among the very old and the very young of all classes.

There have been several deaths from exposure.

[The Times, Wednesday, Dec 20, 1882; pg. 3; Issue 30695; col E]

or this from the 20th century…

The height of drifts in Shetland are shown by this photograph, taken yesterday of John Henderson (13) and his dog behind the boy's home at Yanlop.

[The Glasgow Herald.  Monday, January 26, 1959.]

Maybe we never have had it so good!

Sheena

Happy New Year!

Tidying up after visitors in this house always seems to involve books in some way.  Today I came something that I’d forgotten about and which seems appropriate for this freezing weather:

Flannel dressing-gown with silk revers, trimmed with lace

The wise manufacturers of the day know well that they must forge ahead with Dame Fashion, who is changeable as the winds, and fickle as a butterfly.  Consequently, new patterns in this said Viyella are ever being brought to our notice, and we now can obtain most delightful and really smart garments, sufficiently warm and cosy in texture to satisfy the demands of the most rheumatic or invalid.

(The Lady’s Realm, January 1899)

The brand name Viyella was registered in 1894 to describe an innovative fabric made of 55% Merino wool and 45% cotton and which was the first fabric to be given a brand name.  The name Viyella came from the Vi Jella valley, near Matlock in Derbyshire where the company of William Hollins had a spinning mill.

The original company was founded in 1784, and still exists today under the name of Viyella and you can find a short history here

Sheena