Revisionist cookery

Well, William “Mel” Wallace must be rolling in his several graves: there’s evidence that haggis might have originated in England, not Scotland.

A Scottish food historian (why did I go for military history instead of food history?) says she found reference to the sheep-guts-&-oatmeal dish in an English cookery book dated 1615; the first mention of it in Scottish cook books is 1747.

Naturally the Scots—a race with an inherent inferiority complex dating way back before 1615—are waxing wroth & foaming at the mouth over the suggestion. Some clown named Robert Patrick has been making the rounds of the news services, drawing all sorts of lame conclusions about how this travesty might be: a well-travelled Scot might have dropped his cook book in England; maybe the English did originate it, but it’s now Scottish because…well, because; etc.

I love his assurance that the new claim is “not going down very well at all.” Kind of like…haggis, eh? (& yes, I have actually eaten it, so just back off.)

Patrick is allegedly a “world champion haggis maker”. You have to wonder how tough the competition is for that?

Of course, the crux of the matter might just be that the Scots were illiterate long after the English took up their letters: they could have been making haggis for decades, but just not be capable of putting pen to parchment to actually, you know, write it down.

& then there’s the real issue: who cares?