The Gastronomy of Haggis and Kail

Thursday 27 November 2008

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Please let me know of any other culture in which any national gastronomical "beastie" is brought into the room to the wail of loud, strange music and slit open with a small knife carried in someone's sock. Before its demise, it is shouted at in language hardly anyone present understands. That over, it is returned to the kitchen to be dismembered for all to enjoy in the dining hall.
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This is the third of three published papers on Scottish Gastronomy.

The heading was -

The Gastronomy of Haggis and Kail

By Alan Harrison

Head of Faculty of Community Studies,

Canterbury College of Technology.

It was published in

Nutrition and Food Science:

No. 89, July/August 1984.
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The Gastronomy of Haggis and Kail

By Alan Harrison, BA (Hons), MEd, FHCIMA, Head of Faculty of Community Studies, Canterbury College of Technology.
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Paragraph numbers have been added in 2009 to aid referencing.

1
Some readers may be surprised to learn that the haggis is a somewhat dubious traditional dish in Scotland’s dietary heritage.

2
In this third article in a series, A Social History of Scottish Food and Drink, Alan Harrison describes the making of haggis and explains the verbal abuse frequently associated with the name of this delicacy. Apart from being a green vegetable, popular in Scotland, ‘kail’ also has other, historical meanings.

3
Taken to be a distinctly Scottish dish from the 1750s onwards, the haggis can be shown to have an interesting derivation and the ‘evidence’ is cast across several different areas. It was extolled as an English dish by Gervaise Marcham in 1651[1].

4
‘Small oatmeal’ he says ‘mixed with blood and liver of either sheep, calf or swine maketh that pudding which is called the Haggas of whose goodness it is vain to boast, …’[2]

5
A modern writer remarks that “….. haggises nowadays have all emigrated to Scotland; ….. however ‘haggas’ or ‘habbys’ was equally common in the ‘south’ and as ‘hash pudding’ was well known in Cumberland.”

6
“Whatever its origin and distressing though it may be to patriotic Scots, the word, like the dish, is definitely English.”[3] According to Allen, however, the haggis may have its derivation in France.’… the haggis is of French inspiration, derived from hachis, meaning minced meat’.[4]

7
McNeil passes several interesting comments and Allen would have been well suited to refer to them. ‘The theory that the haggis is one of the nobler legacies of France may in any case be dismissed’. She points out that the ‘ancient Greeks had a haggis of their own and the ancient Romans even left us a recipe for theirs… the manner of stuffing, cooking and pickling is identical with our own’.[5]

8
Tannahill provides an earlier history still and asserts that ‘Palaeolithic hunters are believed to have cooked the more perishable parts of their kill in the animal’s paunch, hanging it in front of the campfire… it would be a natural development, when crop-farming began, to spin the meat out with meal…’[6]

Other meanings

9
Although the haggis is an important part of Scotland’s international identity and almost its national institution, it does stand as a pejorative symbol within the country. Warrack indicates that the term a ‘haggis bag’ means a wind bag; a contemptuous term for anything a lumpish, soft headed person; a ‘pudding head.’

10
“If one is called haggis-headed one is soft-headed, stupid and if called a haggis-heart one has a soft cowardly heart.”[7] This, then, at one extreme and at the other rests its ‘sonsie face’ of Burns’ description.

11
It would be tempting to garnish this study with a whole range of ancient poems and quotations on the haggis but space does not permit it. We can allow a much more recent viewpoint.

12
Driver’s statement regarding the indigenous view of offal is that ‘The Scots,…, will have little to do with offal, unless it is safely enclosed in a haggis and offset by earnest jocularity.’[8]

13
This being so, haggis is featured not only on high street restaurant menus but also in those available in schools, hospitals and other institutions and remains on everyday dish in Scotland.23

14
Perhaps the ‘earnest jocularity’ is there to draw attention from the somewhat off-putting (to the modern Englishman, at least) detail of its proportion. We will conclude this part of discussion with Meg Dodds’ 1826 description of preparing the haggis.[9]

15
“Clean a fat sheep’s pluck thoroughly. Make incisions in the heart and liver to allow the blood to flow out, and par-boil the whole, letting the wind-pipe lie over the side of the pot, to permit the phlegm and blood to disgorge from the lungs; the water may be changed after ten minutes boiling for fresh water.

16
“The lights cannot be over boiled. A half hour’s boiling should be sufficient for the rest; but throw back half the liver to cool in the water so it will grate easily. Take the heart, the half of the liver, and part of the light, trimming away all skins and black-looking parts, and mince them together finely.

17
“Mince also a pound of good beef suet. Grate the other half of the liver. Have four mild, large onions, peeled, scalded and minced, to mix with the haggis mince. Have also ready some finely ground oatmeal, toasted slowly before the fire till it is of a light-brown colour, and preferably nutty and dry’ or highly toasted oat-cake may be crumbled down’. ‘

18
“Other ingredients include a large teacup full of meal, black pepper, salt and a little cayenne. Have a haggis bag (a sheep’s paunch,) perfectly clean, and see that there have been no thin part in it, else your whole labour will be lost by its bursting. Put in the meat with a half pint of good beef gravy, or as much strong stock.”

Cooking

19
Various other instructions are given and it is supposed to boil slowly for three hours if large.

20
‘This is a genuine Scotch Haggis; lemon and cayenne may be admitted, and instead of beef gravy, a little of the broth in which the pluck is par-boiled may be taken. More suet may be given. A haggis boiled for two hours may be kept for a week or so; when cold, gets so firm that haggises are often sent from Scotland to distant places’.[10]

Kail

21
Turning attention now to kail, or kale as it is sometimes spelt; it was the most significant of a very limited range of vegetables in times before the advent of the potato, turnips and the later availability of leek, celery and so on. It is ‘cole or cabbage, especially borecole, kind with wrinkled leaves’ Scotch- kind with purple leave; broth made of this and other vegetables;…’[11]

22
‘Kale is grown mainly for autumn and winter harvest because cold improves its eating quality and its hardiness permits harvest of fresh greens after most fresh vegetables have become unavailable’.[12] There need be no dispute of cold in Scottish winters.

Kail broth

23
While modern cookery books contain numerous methods for its preparation we are more interested here in its position within the social situation and this has been hinted by the synonymity of kail with broth.

24
Warrack shows kail as being ‘colewort: broth made of colewort and other greens, food, dinner.[13] From this it is easy to see the way in which synonymity extends to eponymity and the word has much wider connotation beyond a form of cabbage.

25
It is linked to dinner-bell (kail bell) and kail-brose (the scum of ‘kail broth’) mixed with oatmeal. Kail broth is a more conventional soup ‘boiled with meat; and was obviously the cooking liquor of the boiled joint taken as a first course.

26
Kail-kennin is cabbages and potatoes mashed together (similar to bubble and squeak south of the border) [13]. Moving outwards from the many direct references to food we note that kail has links with the manse: the kail-kirk is ‘a Glassite (follower of Rev. John Glass, 1695 to 1773)[14] church where members dined together after the services’ and a ‘kail-pot-whig’ is ‘one who stops at home from church on Sundays.’

27
The Glassites would not have eaten a kail-supper, surprisingly enough as it is ‘one who is fond of broth, a name given to Fifeshire people.’ (These seem to have taken a lot of social stick as to be Fifish is to be ‘rather eccentric, weak in mind or deranged’!)[15]

28
Wilson has shown that while the kail type of vegetables were used in interesting ways in England long after the Middle Ages – ‘Only in Scotland did kail pottages made in medieval style survive virtually unchanged until late in the eighteenth century’.[16a]

29
“Yet what the Romans did to other nations, was in a great degree done by Cromwell to the Scots; he civilized them by conquest and introduced by useful violence the arts of peace. It was told at Aberdeen that the people learned from Cromwell’s soldiers to make shoes and to plant kail. [16b]

30
“How they lived without kail, it is not easy to guess; they cultivate hardly any other plant for common tables, and when they had not kail they probably had nothing.’ (Salaman also asserts that Cromwell took kail with him to Scotland.)[17]

31
Boswell was with Johnson, of course, but there is a little confusion as to which vegetable is the topic of discussion for we note that Johnson laughed to hear that Cromwell’s soldiers taught the Aberdeen people to make shoes and stockings brought in cabbages.’[18]

32
Aberdonians seem to have a good association with kail in verse too:

There’s cauld kail in Aberdeen,
And custocks (coleworth) in Strathbogie,
Where ilka lad maun hae his lass,
But I maun (must) hae (have) my cogie (bowl). Old Song[19]

33
The kailyard is ‘a kitchen garden; a small cottage garden’[20] but the wider connotation is the ‘so called kail yard school of fiction’.[21] To Campbell ‘the term (kail yard) is associated with the exceeding successful novelists of the late nineteenth century (Crockett, MacLain and Barrie) who are all lumped together in this frequently derogatory definition’.10

Social implications

34
In conclusion and with less regard for the nutritive dimensions of either haggis or kail it will be noted that the gastronomic analysis extends to examining a wider social evaluation of the use to which food has been put in Scotland.

35
In accepting haggis, a dish comprising second class offal and other items, going to what Johnson called ‘an unspeakable bag of rubbish’, has Scotland offered a dietary confirmation of what has been identified as ‘a facet of a world-view that is not its own’[22] ?

36
This image is apparently ‘imposed from without’ and the dietary implications of this idea represent an ideal topic for further research.

References:

[1] Markham, G.; 1615: The English Housewife, London.

[2] Edwards, G.; 1970 Hogmanay and Tiffany: the Names of Feasts and Fasts, Geoffrey Bles, London, page 53.

[3] Edwards, G.; op cit

[4] Allen, D.E.’ 1968 British Tastes: An Enquiry into the Likes and Dislikes of the Regional Consumer, Hutchinson, p. 181

[5] McNeill, F.M.; 1959: The Scots Kitchen: its lore and recipes. Grandada Herts, pp. 171, 172

[6] Tannahill, R.; 1981: Food (in) D Daiches ed) A Companion to Scottish Culture, Edward Arnold, p. 123

[7] Warrack, A.; 1911, 1982: Chambers Scots Dictionary, W.R. Chambers, Edinburgh.

[8] Driver, C.; 1983: The British at Table – 1940-1980, Chatto and Windus, p. 107

[9] Dodds, M.; 1826: The Cook and Housewife’s Manual, Oliver and Boyd, Simpkin and Marshall, p.3

[10] Campbell, I.; 1981: ‘Kailyard’ (in) Daiches, D. (See 6)

[11] Oxford Dictionary – 2nd Edition

[12] Boswell, V.R.; 1971: ‘Cabbage’ (in) Encyclopaedia Britannica: Vol 4, William Benson, Chicago, London etc.

[13] Warrack, op cit, p. 298

[14] Warrack, op cit, p. 215

[15] Warrack, op cit, p. 173

[16a] Wilson, C.A.; 1973: Food and Drink in Britain: from the Stone Age to Recent Times, Constable, London p. 215

[16b] Johnson, S.; 1817: A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland – with remarks by the Rev. Donald of Lismore, Argyllshire,
Stanhope Press, Glasgow (First published in 1774), p. 36

[17] Salaman, R.N.; 1949: The History and Social Influence of the Potato, Cambridge University Press, p. 349

[18] Boswell, J.; 1936: A Tour into the Hebrides (in 1773)

[19] McNeill, op cit, p. 193

[20] Warrack, op cit p. 299

[21] Morgan, E.G.; 1971: Scottish Literature (in) Vol 20: Encyclopaedia Britannica, William Benson, Chicago, London etc, p.86

[22] Chapman, M.; 1978: The Gaelic Vision in Scottish Culture, Croom Helm, p. 26

[23] This is a footnote added in 2008 prior to adding the paper to this website. The 'carry-outs' (take-away food outlets) in Scotland feature haggis fritters.

Index

p = paragraph number

Aberdeen and kail - p31/32
Glassites and kail c 1750 - p26/7
haggis a dubious dish within Scots Gastronomy - p1
haggis an English dish in 1651 - p3
haggis bag - means 'pudding-head' - p9
haggis by Johnson - a bag of rubbish - p35
haggis fritters - footnote 23
haggis in palaeothic times - p8
haggis is definitely English - p6
haggis-headed means that you are stupid - p10
haggis preparation in 1826 - paras 15 - 18
Johnson on haggis - bag of rubbish - p35
Kail and Aberdeen/Aberdonians - p31/32
Kail and Oliver Cromwell - p29
kail and the dinner-bell - p25
kail and the Glassites c 1750 - p26/7
kail before the potato arrived - p21
kail-brose - a broth of scum and oatmeal - p25
kail-kennin is like bubble and squeak - p26
kail-pot-whig - one who misses Sunday church - p26