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aquaman
Supporter
Username: Aquaman
Post Number: 461
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 11:50 am: |     |
Rookie bests field in Celtic Classic haggis derby
Brooklyn man keeps his string intact by downing Scottish version of sausage.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
By KURT BRESSWEIN
The Express-Times
BETHLEHEM -- Darren Lucey sports a perfect record when it comes to cleaning his plate first. Not even haggis could change that.
Lucey, a 41-year-old interior designer from Brooklyn, took first place among 16 competitors in Friday's haggis-eating contest at the 18th annual Celtic Classic in Bethlehem.
He watched last year's competition and thought he could win, so he came back this year with a hankering for the grayish lamb with oatmeal and spices served inside the animal's stomach.
"I have never eaten it before today," Lucey said before revealing the simple secret behind his win: "I can eat anything faster than anybody else can. I have never lost an eating contest for speed. I don't try for volume."
This year brought 20 potential contestants, but only 16 showed up to the festival's parade grounds off Lehigh Street, said organizer Neville Gardner. He owns Donegan Square on Main Street and thought up the haggis challenge with his wife, Linda, as a tongue-in-cheek nod to Scottish culture.
Contestants left with varying reviews. Joanne Shaver, of Maplewood, N.J., sat eating hers between sips of lemonade long after the others had left the table. The lone woman competitor, she has made haggis from scratch but prefers the delicacy's Pennsylvania Dutch equivalent, scrapple.
Thomas Wynn, 16, of Easton, called for a doggy bag to take home his leftovers. He was among a handful of Easton teens who took the haggis challenge.
"It does feel as if I just ate a carpet," said Luke Becker, 16, of Easton.
Alex Quick, 16, of Easton, defended his championship Friday as the top haggis eater on the junior circuit. He brought the sizable Easton contingent to join him.
"You don't really win a prize. It's more of the pride," he said about what brought him back. "It's not because it's good tasting."
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Ravenheart
Citizen
Username: Ravenheart
Post Number: 15
Registered: 9-2005
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 12:00 pm: | |
Okay, I've been known to eat anything, but that is a little extreme. |
Eats Shoots & Leaves
Citizen
Username: Mfpark
Post Number: 2296
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 12:10 pm: | |
Traditional Haggis (from Evelyn Hlabse, esh2@po.CWRU.Edu)
1 sheep's pluck (stomach bag)
2 lb.. dry oatmeal
1 lb. suet
1 lb. lamb's liver
2 1/2 cups stock
1 large chopped onion
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper, Jamaica pepper and salt
Boil liver and parboil the onion, then mince them together. Lightly brown the oatmeal. Mix all ingredients together. Fill the sheep's pluck with the mixture pressing it down to remove all the air, and sew up securely. Prick the haggis in several places so that it does not burst. Place haggis in boiling water and boil slowly for 4-5 hours. Serves approximately 12. |
aquaman
Supporter
Username: Aquaman
Post Number: 462
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 12:27 pm: | |
You completely left out the lung! |
aquaman
Supporter
Username: Aquaman
Post Number: 463
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 12:31 pm: | |
And hearts and brains! |
Eats Shoots & Leaves
Citizen
Username: Mfpark
Post Number: 2298
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 12:33 pm: | |
A Detailed Haggis Recipe (from Michael Prothro, mprothro@nwark.com)
1 sheep's stomach, thoroughly cleaned
The liver, heart, and lights (lungs) of the sheep
1 lb Beef suet
2 large Onions
2 tb Salt
1 ts Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 ts Cayenne or red pepper
1/2 ts Allspice
2 lb Dry oatmeal (the old-fashioned, slow-cooking kind)
2-3 cups broth (in which the liver, heart and lights were cooked)
What you need: Canning kettle or a large spaghetti pot, 16- to 20 quart size with a lid to fit it; meat grinder; cheesecloth
What to do: If the butcher has not already cut apart and trimmed the heart, liver and lungs, do that first. It involves cutting the lungs off the windpipe, cutting the heart off the large blood vessels and cutting it open to rinse it, so that it can cook more quickly. The liver, too, has to be freed from the rest. Put them in a 4-quart pot with 2 to 3 cups water, bring to a boil, and simmer for about an hour and a half. Let it all cool, and keep the broth.
Run the liver and heart through the meat grinder. Take the lungs and cut out as much of the gristly part as you easily can, then run them through the grinder, too. Next, put the raw beef suet through the grinder. As you finish grinding each thing, put it in the big kettle. Peel, slice and chop the onions, then add them to the meat in the kettle. Add the salt and spices and mix.
The oatmeal comes next, and while it is customary to toast it or brown it very lightly in the oven or in a heavy bottomed pan on top of the stove, this is not absolutely necessary. When the oatmeal has been thoroughly mixed with the rest of it, add the 2 cups of the broth left from boiling the meat. See if when you take a handful, it sticks together. If it does, do not add the third cup of broth. If it is still crumbly and will not hold together very well, add the rest of the broth and mix thoroughly. Have the stomach smooth side out and stuff it with the mixture, about three-quarters full. Sew up the openings. Wrap it in cheesecloth, so that when it is cooked you can handle it.
Now, wash out the kettle and bring about 2 gallons of water to a boil in it. Put in the haggis and prick it all over with a skewer so that it does not burst. You will want to do this a couple of times early in the cooking span. Boil the haggis gently for about 4 or 5 hours. If you did not have any cheesecloth for wrapping the haggis, you can use a large clean dishtowel. Work it under with kitchen spoons to make a sling with which you can lift out the haggis in one piece. You will probably want to wear lined rubber gloves to protect your hands from the hot water while you lift it out with the wet cloth. (You put the dish cloth in the pot only after the haggis is done; you do not cook the towel with the haggis as you would the cheesecloth.)
Note: Even if the butcher has cleaned the stomach, you will probably want to go over it again. Turn the stomach shaggy side out and rinse. Rub it in a sinkful of cold water. Change the water and repeat as many times as necessary, until the water stays pretty clear and handling it does not produce much sediment as the water drains out of the sink.
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Pippi
Supporter
Username: Pippi
Post Number: 1276
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 12:34 pm: | |
I really want to thank you all for this thread - right before my lunch hour. good way to diet. I plan to read ESL's recipe for haggis every day before lunchtime.
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Eats Shoots & Leaves
Citizen
Username: Mfpark
Post Number: 2299
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 12:38 pm: | |
Robert Burns: Address to a Haggis
....
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'rs, 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! |
aquaman
Supporter
Username: Aquaman
Post Number: 464
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 1:05 pm: | |
"Turn the stomach shaggy side out and rinse."
Oops...I just rinsed the stomach shaggy side in. Yuck.
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Ravenheart
Citizen
Username: Ravenheart
Post Number: 16
Registered: 9-2005
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 1:08 pm: | |
Yuck. How much of MOL is devoted to a discussion of the disgusting? |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 9607
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 2:41 pm: | |
As much as you like!
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Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 936
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 7:14 pm: | |
If you've not had haggis on a cold stormy winter's night in the Hebrides, and you've not had packet and tripe on a cold, wet night in Limerick, then you haven't lived. In my far from humble opinion. |
aquaman
Supporter
Username: Aquaman
Post Number: 468
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - 10:56 am: | |
I find haggis to be just offal. |
Eats Shoots & Leaves
Citizen
Username: Mfpark
Post Number: 2307
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - 11:03 am: | |
If you've not had haggis on a cold stormy winter's night in the Hebrides, and you've not had packet and tripe on a cold, wet night in Limerick, then you haven't lived. In my far from humble opinion.
Not sure I could live after eating those. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 9633
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - 11:20 am: | |
I googled "packet and tripe recipe" and got nothing for something called packet and tripe. What is it? Tripe is intestines, right?
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Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 938
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - 6:13 pm: | |
Yes, Tom. For the connaisseur, sheep's intestines. Packet is the dried blood of the sheep mixed in with the tripe.
Eats Shoots and Leaves: if you can handle the typical pizza slice from any typical pizzeria, you can more than handle p&t or haggis. |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 939
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 - 6:14 pm: | |
As for you, AQUAMAN, I have to tell you that p&t is offally good. |
Nohero
Supporter
Username: Nohero
Post Number: 4715
Registered: 10-1999
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - 7:42 am: | |
As is often the case, guidance in this area may be found in the collected works of Monty Python -HORACE POEM
Much to his Mum and Dad's dismay,
Horace ate himself one day.
He didn't stop to say his grace,
He just sat down and ate his face.
"We can't have this!" His Dad declared,
"If that lad's ate, he should be shared."
But even as they spoke they saw,
Horace eating more and more:
First his legs and then his thighs,
His arms, his nose, his hair, his eyes...
"Stop him someone!" Mother cried,
"Those eyeballs would be better fried!"
But all to late, for they were gone,
And he had started on his dong...
"Oh! foolish child!" the father mourns,
"You could have deep fried that with prawns,
Some parsely and some tarter sauce..."
But H. was on his second course:
His liver and his lights and lung,
His ears, his neck, his chin, his tongue;
"To think I raised him from the cot,
And now he's going to scoff the lot!"
His Mother cried: "What shall we do?
What's left won't even make a stew..."
And as she wept her son was seen,
To eat his head, his heart, his spleen.
And there he lay, a boy no more,
Just a stomache, on the floor...
None the less, since it was his,
They ate it - that's what haggis is.*
* No it isn't. Ed. Haggis is a kind of stuffed black pudding eaten by the Scots and considered by them to be not only a delicacy but fit for human consumption. The minced heart, liver, and lungs of a sheep, calf or other animal's inner organs are mixed with oatmeal, sealed and boiled in maw in the sheep's intestinal stomache-bag and... Excuse me a minute. Ed. - From "Monty Python's Big Red Book". |
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