Jan Norris: Food and Florida Online

Haggis and whiskey - the Scottish variety, of course

I can count on one finger the number of readers I know who will be dancing a jig over the news that the ban on haggis, a Scottish meat pudding made of sheep lungs, among other offals, is to be lifted by the U.S.

Our Dept. of Agriculture people decided sheep lungs, and other animal innards were possible carriers of a strain of BSE (a mad cow relative) and banned the stuff from import from Scotland and other parts of Europe 21 years ago.

Robert Burns dinners can now be complete

While not an everyday meal, haggis is a must-have at the birthday dinner honoring the most noble, loquacious and fearless of Scots, Robert Burns. He wrote an ode to it, calling it the “Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!”

 Scots around the world honor him at dinners, Jan. 24, the night when kilt-wearing diners read poetry, slice open a haggis with a vengeance, drink whiskey and get weepy-eyed, invariably squeezing the bagpipes.

American Scots have had to make do with beef, which is totally unacceptable if you’ve grown up on the real thing. Approximations are weak even if sheep are used, so many Scots say – there’s nothing like Scottish sheep from the Highlands.

No longer a threat

The U.S. inspectors seem satisfied sheep are no longer a threat for BSE. So the main ingredient is on the list for un-banning and we could see imports of sheep offal or prepared haggis soon in our markets. Not quite sure which markets, but surely there will be a demand – at least on Jan. 24.