Referred to as the national dish of Scotland, haggis is a must-have for any Burns Night celebrations and is much easier to prepare and serve than you might think.
Haggis is a mixture of lamb and beef mince, Scottish oatmeal, onion and plenty of spices. In preparation for Burns Night we're offering you our expert advice on how to cook your haggis.
For the best result, reheat your haggis in the oven as haggis is typically sold cooked, so only needs to be reheated.
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How to cook haggis:
- Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4, remove the outer packaging of a 500g haggis (which serves 3-4 people), but don’t remove the tight casing (this might be natural or plastic).
- Wrap the haggis in foil, put in an ovenproof dish with some space around it, then pour in boiling water so it comes about 2.5cm up the sides of the dish. Cook for about 1hr until piping hot throughout (topping up water as needed).
Serve with ‘Neeps and Tatties’ (that’s mashed swede and potato to non-Scots!) and lashings of homemade gravy. Some butchers make their own haggis and supermarkets also stock them – a good brand to look for is made by Macsween of Edinburgh, a Scottish family business which specialises in the production of traditional haggis. which is available at most major supermarkets.
You can also buy a vegetarian haggis and it is made from a mixture of kidney beans, lentils, vegetables and nuts which are combined with the traditional haggis ingredients: oatmeal, onions and a spicy seasoning base. It is suitable for vegans and has a subtle flavour with a nutty texture.
For more Scottish-inspired recipes, we've also developed a delicious salmon and mackerel terrine, which makes a great option for a starter and for dessert take your pick from our traditional Cranachan recipe, with layers of fresh cream, raspberries, Scottish oats and a glug of Scotch whisky, or you could try our Chocolate and Whisky Self-Saucing Pudding with a generous dram of Scotch included. The perfect ending to a Burns Night banquet, indeed.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
