Haggis, Born in The USA

Reuters ^ | 1-21-2004 | Trevor Datson

[Cagey]

LONDON (Reuters) - A tiny Scottish firm has teamed up with a U.S. company to start the first industrial-scale production in America of Scotland's national dish -- haggis.

Stahly Quality Foods, which employs just four people in the industrial new town of Glenrothes, believes the joint venture with a Chicago-based food processor can move 300,000 tins of the offal-based delicacy in its first year.

The estimated 10 million Scots and people of Scottish descent that live in North America offer an appetizing market.

But founder Ken Stahly's first venture into the United States was crushed by an import ban following the British foot-and-mouth disease outbreak of 2001.

"We were constantly getting e-mails and calls asking 'How can we get haggis over here?', Stahly said, as the Scottish diaspora across the globe prepares to toast the national bard Robbie Burns with haggis and whisky on January 25.

The U.S. launch is proving expensive for the firm, .

"It's cost us a fortune so far -- the lawyers were charging us $290 an hour just to draft things like confidentiality agreements that will hopefully just sit in a drawer. But the potential is huge," Stahly said.

Haggis is prepared in a sheep's stomach and is steamed or baked and served hot, but can also be revived when cold with a dash of scotch. Stahly will initially be offering two varieties from the Chicago plant -- traditional and vegetarian.

The recipes, like the identity of the U.S. partner, are a closely guarded commercial secret, but most traditional haggis contains liver, heart, tripes, oatmeal, suet and spices.

It also traditionally contains "lights," or lungs.

But "mad cow disease," or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which can be transferred to humans as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), put a stop to that in commercial haggis production as lungs are deemed "high risk material."

HAGGIS HUNT

All of the ingredients used in the Chicago plant will be sourced locally to avoid U.S. import restrictions on British meat products -- the irony being that BSE most recently recurred in the United States.

Marketing could, however, prove a challenge. A recent poll of 1,000 U.S. visitors to Scotland, by haggis makers Hall's of Broxburn, found that 33 percent believed a haggis was an animal hunted in the highlands.

But Stahly has launched a haggis recipe book which the founder hopes will spread the word among American consumers, along with trade shows and exhibitions,. If the venture proves a success, Stahly hopes to expand the range, possibly in conjunction with a Scotch whisky company. The marketing synergies are potentially huge.

But so are the bureaucratic pitfalls.

Three years after U.S. customs returned a batch of Stahly's Scottish-produced haggis on foot-and-mouth fears, British customs authorities turned back a trial case sent from Chicago.

[dfwgator]

"Get your haggis right here! Chopped heart and lungs! Boiled in a wee sheep's stomach! Tastes as good as it sounds! Good for what ails ya!"

[martin_fierro]

'Tis a bonny, bonny meal (but vegetarian?? Bleah!)

[absalom01]

At last! It was always such a bother to make the Christmas haggis from scratch, especially since no one else would eat evan a tiny bit of it. Yup, this ought to be a giant seller in the good ole U.S. of A. I can see it now -- rows of canned haggis sitting next to the turkeys and hams...

[Tijeras_Slim]

offal-based delicacy

Makes ya' wonder...

[connectthedots]

How much scotch does the average person have to drink before actually attempting to eat haggis?

[RiflemanSharpe]

It is actually pretty good, but a few shots do not hurt.

[NotQuiteCricket]

enough?

[lilylangtree]

Haggis? I'm still trying to stomach lutefisk. My friend takes me to an annual Sons of Norway event every year where lutefisk is served. I enjoy her company but not the lutefisk. Thank goodness I don't know any Scots that would drag me to an event that serves Haggis.

[RosieCotton]

Ping

[Cagey]

Thank goodness I don't know any Scots that would drag me to an event that serves Haggis."

Now you did it, someone is going to extend an invitation to you.

[MineralMan]

"Haggis? I'm still trying to stomach lutefisk. "

Hush your mouth! As a Scot by ancestry and a Norwegian by marriage, lutefisk and haggis are traditional foods in my household.

Lutefisk, that smelly codfish cured in lye, is the ambrosia of the Norskies, and is a must-have on Christmas in my wife's family. Oddly, I like it. This past Christmas, though, the MIL didn't make lutefisk. I fooled everyone, though, and went to Byerly's in St. Paul and bought a frozen lutefisk dinner, complete with mashed potatoes and peas, and ate it for lunch, to the consternation of one and all.

Haggis, that delectable meal of offal and oatmeal steamed in a sheep's stomach, is a must have just about any time. Taken with a considerable dose of single-malt, it fills the stomach and sticks to the ribs.

Since I'll be moving to St. Paul later this year, I plan to introduce the Haggis and Lutefisk Christmas Feast for Xmas 2004. I'll probably get to eat it all myself, though. [grin]

[ClearCase_guy]

I know a (very fancy) restaurant that features an annual Robert Burns Day feast. On their recent flyer announcing this, they said that they would be serving haggis -- but (they said) don't worry, you don't have to eat it, because other food would be provided.

Really says something when a restaurant suggests that one of its dishes may be inedible.

[lilylangtree]

No way, no chance, end of discussion. :)

[lilylangtree]

That's criminal to any human being.

[Charles Martel]

offal-based delicacy

Wow, what a great example of words that should *never* be spoken together.

[PAR35]

It's cost us a fortune so far

It takes guts to go into the Haggis business.

[Ol' Sox]

"Try Haggis! It's offal!"

[discostu]

In the immortal words of Mike Myers:
I believe most Scottish food was invented on a dare.

[Pest]

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