Burns supper

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The World’s Carol Zall explains the role of haggis in celebrations honoring Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns. The dish made from sheep’s organs has a bad reputation outside of Scotland. But many Scots say “don’t knock it unless you’ve tried it!”

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MARCO WERMAN:  Today is the 251st birthday of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet.  In Scotland, and around the world, people are marking the occasion with a festive meal known as a Burns Supper.  It involves Haggis, a dish made from various sheep’s organs including the liver, lungs and heart.  Haggis may be a delicacy in Scotland, but it’s been illegal to import it into the U.S. since 1989.  It was banned due to fears that British meat products could cause Mad Cow Disease.  Now the U.S. government is thinking about lifting the ban.  So if you want to get an early start on your Burns Supper for next year, here’s some background from The World’s Carol Zall.

CAROL ZALL:  A Burns Supper is an evening of ritual and ceremony.

VALERIE GILLIES:  People are usually, the eye is on the Haggis because the Haggis has been piped in.

ZALL: That’s Scottish poet, Valerie Gillies.

GILLIES: To hear the bagpipes coming and it’s exciting and the Haggis comes in on a plate and it’s put on the table.

ZALL: At that point, someone recites The Address to a Haggis, the Robert Burns poem that put Haggis in the spotlight in the first place.  Here’s Valerie Gillies practicing the address for a Burns Supper tonight.

GILLIES: Fear for your honest – - face.  Great chieftain ‘o the pudding race.  A – - pack your place, paunch, tripe or – - .

ZALL: In case you don’t understand Scots, Gillies was praising the honest happy face of the great chieftain of the sausage clan, adding that Haggis is superior to stomach, tripe or intestines.  But Haggis isn’t only eaten on Burns night, it’s pretty popular in Scotland all year round.  You can get it deep fried in batter at the fish and chip shop or you can buy a vegetarian version.  It’s pretty good, by the way.  And it’s not just the Burns poem that’s made it into popular culture.  There are other Haggis related events as well.

JAMES MCSWEEN:  Haggis eating competitions; who can eat the most Haggis in a pre-determined amount of time.  Haggis hurling competitions; who can throw a Haggis the furthest.  You stand on top of a whisky barrel and you thrown it without falling off the barrel.

ZALL: That’s James McSween, Managing Director of McSween of Edinburgh, one of Scotland’s best known Haggis makers.  But he says that even in Scotland, Haggis can suffer from an image problem.

MCSWEEN:  You cannot come running over and go can I try some, can I try some and then we go yeah, of course.  And then the parents go, Jimmy, you wouldn’t like it, trust me son, you wouldn’t like it.

ZALL: And he says that too many people that visit Scotland have the same preconception.

MCSWEEN:  They go, oh I’ve just come back from Scotland.  Ah, great holiday, did you try the Haggis?  No way, Haggis is horrible.  Have you ever tried Haggis?  No.  Well how’d you know?  Well I heard it was horrible.

ZALL: However good it may taste, a recipe that includes chopped lungs and heart boiled in a sheep stomach can be a hard sell.

WILLY:  Get your Haggis, right here.  Chopped heart and lungs boiled in a real sheep’s stomach.  Taste’s as good as it sounds.

ZALL: That’s the Simpson’s Scottish groundskeeper, Willy.  And lines like this one, from Mike Meyer’s 1993 film, So I Married an Axe Murderer, don’t help either.

FEMALE VOICE 1: Do you actually like Haggis?

MALE VOICE 1: No, I think it’s repellent in every way.  In fact, I think most Scottish cuisine is based on a dare.

ZALL: But according to Haggis maker James McSween:

MCSWEEN:  Until you try it, you shouldn’t knock it.

ZALL: And if the U.S. ban on Haggis is lifted, you may soon be able to try it for yourself.  For The World, I’m Carol Zall.

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