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Joyce Kilmer praised trees. Robert Burns wrote an address to a sack of meat.
Maybe it says something about the Scots that their national poet composed an ode to a entree whose main components are lambs’ hearts and livers. But haggis is a food that enjoys a growing following outside of Scotland.
That’s what Ron Thurston discovered when he went haggis hunting on the Internet, seeking some as a gift for his brother-in-law. He came upon McKean Foods of Scotland, the world leader that has been manufacturing haggis since 1850.
After talking to Gordon Wallace, managing partner for McKean, Thurston found out that the company couldn’t ship haggis to the United States (the U.S. Department of Agriculture frowns on the lamb lungs that are part of the Scottish product). But the Falmouth man also determined there was an untapped market in this country for haggis among those of Scottish heritage, including his wife, Isabella. So the Thurstons went to Scotland to further pursue the idea of an American branch of McKean.
Wallace had been mulling manufacturing haggis in the states and had even visited a suitor in Rhode Island two years ago (“I wasn’t happy with what I saw, so I left,” he explained succinctly).
Wallace is very particular about products that the McKean name goes on. The company’s products range from the single-serving Wee Warrior to the 51/2-pound Chieftain, which serves 10. McKean makes haggis around the clock in the five weeks leading up to Rabbie Burns’ birthday on Jan. 25 – a third of its annual production is shipped during that time. But even during the rest of the year, McKean makes a ton and a half of haggis a week.
Still, haggis neophyte Thurston quickly won Wallace over.
“I liked his manner, his approach,” recalled Wallace in a phone interview from company headquarters in Glasgow. “I really took to him. His enthusiasm made me very enthusiastic as well.”
The decision to create McKean North America left Thurston and Wallace with two hurdles: finding a recipe that would pass USDA muster and a place to make it.
The recipe is only a slight variation from the Scottish recipe: lamb liver and hearts, oatmeal, barley and Wallace’s spe
cial blend of spices, all combined and stuffed into an artificial casing.
As for a meat packer, Thurston went to a company with a Scottish background, W.A. Bean & Sons, which was founded by immigrant Albert Bean in 1860. (The Mc- part of the family name got dropped at Ellis Island, joked David Bean, the company’s president.)
Despite that background, Bean was skeptical when approached by Thurston.
“I thought he was nuts, at first,” Bean said. “Then Ron and his wife came up and talked to us and convinced me there was a need for haggis that wasn’t being met.”
Making Haggis continues a trend for W.A. Bean, explained family member Elizabeth Bean.
“We’ve been making a transition into making private-label items in small quantities,” she said. “It’s something we’ve been doing for the last 10 to 15 years.”
Wallace and Bean compared notes on equipment and found out their two setups were nearly identical. So Wallace came over in November to create a test batch, which was well received.
“We were all very skeptical,” Bean recalled. “My father and sister had had haggis on a visit to Scotland, and neither liked it. So everyone that was here tried it, and everyone who tasted it loved it. We were totally surprised. That’s what sold us on his haggis. It all comes down to the recipe.”
Wallace was impressed with the people at Bean’s as well.
“I immediately took a liking to David Bean, and the people that work there were so like the people in Glasgow, with their sense of humor and work ethic, that it was astonishing,” he said. “I really enjoyed my time over there.”
The bulk of all haggis sold worldwide centers on Burns’ birthday. There’s an elaborate ceremony, which involved the haggis being brought in – accompanied by bagpipes – then Burns’ “Address to a Haggis” is read, followed by a whiskey toast to the haggis. The meat is then eaten with “neeps and tatties,” mashed turnips and creamed potatoes.
So a second trial batch was made closer to Jan. 25, and samples were sent out, for only the cost of shipping, to those requesting them.
One of those sampling Bean’s haggis was Sue King, a student at Bangor Theological Seminary. Every year, Aussie King and her Scottish friend host an “Aussie Scots” party, to celebrate Rabbie Burns’ birthday and Australia Day the next day.
King, who used to get her haggis from a Scottish butcher in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was impressed.
“We were very pleasantly surprised,” she said. “We were able to get a decent-sized sample, and it was excellent.”
R.L. Carr of Monson, who has a Scottish background and an interest in the country’s history, decided to host a Burns party this year. He contacted McKean in Scotland, who let him known that Bean had haggis samples available.
“We had a 1-pound sample, and it disappeared fast,” Carr said. “It was delicious. The last time I had one was in Scotland, and this was better.”
Thurston and Bean finally got label approval from the USDA in mid-March, and have since made a batch, available for sale in 1- and 5-pound sizes. McKean and Thurston take the orders and forward them to Bean’s, which ships the haggis with ice packs in Styrofoam containers.
“We can ship everywhere in the country within two days,” Thurston said. “The fact that it’s made in Maine is just a plus.”
Haggis is generally simmered in a pot of boiling water, with the length of time dependent on the weight on the meat. But, Thurston cautioned, don’t poke or prod it.
“My father-in-law tried to cook it in boiling water, and kept poking it,” he said. “The contents kept coming out of the casing, and we ended up with this pot of gruelly stuff.”
In Scotland, haggis is sold with chips (French fries), stuffed in pastry pockets, with chicken or steak, on a pizza under cheddar cheese or as a burger.
“But there’s nothing like a plate of haggis with potatoes and turnips,” Wallace said. “It’s a very inexpensive, flavorsome food.”
To order, write rthurston@prexar.com or call 781-5399.
Haggis hurling: a Scottish tradition
For those not fond of the taste, there’s another use for haggis ? hurling.
The tradition of haggis hurling began at the early Scottish clan gatherings, where the women would toss a haggis across a stream to their husbands, who would catch the meat in their kilts.
The modern version features a haggis being hurled for distance and accuracy from atop a platform (usually a whiskey barrel).
The world record for haggis hurling is held by Alan Pettigrew, who threw an 11-pound, 8-ounce haggis a distance of 180 feet, 10 inches, on the island of Inchmurrin on Loch Lomond in August 1984.
The World Haggis Hurling Championships is sponsored by McKean Foods. The event is set to be a demonstration sport at this year’s Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
“Address to a Haggis”
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race!
Aboon them a’ yet tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm;
Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.
The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdles like a distant hill,
Your pin was help to mend a mill
In time o’ need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distill
Like amber mead.
His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin’, rich!
Then, horn for horn, they stretch an’ strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! On they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
Bethankit! hums.
Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad make her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?
Poor devil! See him owre his trash,
As feckles as wither’d rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash;
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ blody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!
But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll mak it whissle;
An’ legs an’ arms, an’ hands will sned,
Like taps o’ trissle.
Ye Pow’ers, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer
Gie her a haggis!
-Robert Burns
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