Editing Haggis (section)

== History and etymology ==
=== Scottish theory ===
Haggis is popularly assumed to be of [[Scotland|Scottish]] origin,<ref name=OED>{{OED|haggis}} First recorded as "hagws" "Now considered specially Scottish, but a popular dish in [early] English cookery"</ref> but many countries have produced similar dishes with different names. However, the recipes as known and standardised now are distinctly Scottish. The first known written recipes for a dish of the name, made with [[offal]] and herbs, are as "hagese", in the verse cookbook ''[[Liber Cure Cocorum]]'' dating from around 1430 in [[Lancashire]], [[north west England]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/lcc/parallel.html#q120|title=Liber Cure Cocorum: Parallel Transcription/Translation|website=www.pbm.com}}</ref> and, as "hagws of a schepe"<ref>{{cite book|url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/CookBk?type=simple&rgn=full+text&q1=hagws&submit=Go|title=Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse|year=1999}}</ref> from an English cookbook also of c. 1430.

{{poemquote|
'''For hagese'''.
Þe hert of schepe, þe nere þou take,
Þo bowel noght þou shalle forsake,
On þe turbilen made, and boyled wele,
Hacke alle togeder with gode persole,
}}

The earlier (1390) book ''The Forme of Cury'' by Richard II's master cooks includes a dish of grated meat in a pig's caul, without using such a name.<ref name=Times>{{Cite newspaper|newspaper=The Times|date = 30 January 2023|title=Sorry Scotland but Haggis is an English Dish | at=p. 17, column e}} </ref>  

The Scottish poem "[[Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy]]", which is dated before 1520 (the generally accepted date prior to the death of [[William Dunbar]], one of the composers), refers to "haggeis".<ref>{{cite book|title=William Dunbar: Selected Poems|first=William|last=Dunbar|author2=Harriet Harvey Wood|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=0-415-96943-3|page=18}}</ref>

{{poemquote|
Thy fowll front had, and he that Bartilmo flaid;
The gallowis gaipis eftir thy graceles gruntill,
As thow wald for ane haggeis, hungry gled.
 — William Dunbar, Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy
}}

An early printed recipe for haggis appears in 1615 in ''The English Huswife'' by [[Gervase Markham]]. It contains a section entitled "Skill in Oate meale":<ref>{{cite book | author-link = Gervase Markham| last = Markham | first = Gervase | title = The English House-wife, Containing the Inward and Outward Vertues Which Ought to Be in a Compleate Woman | url = https://archive.org/details/b30328068|edition=4| publisher = John Harison | page = [https://archive.org/details/b30328068/page/240 240] | year = 1631 }}</ref> "The use and vertues of these two severall kinds of Oate-meales in maintaining the Family, they are so many (according to the many customes of many Nations) that it is almost impossible to recken all"; and then proceeds to give a description of "oat-meale mixed with blood, and the Liver of either Sheepe, Calfe or Swine, maketh that pudding which is called the Haggas or Haggus, of whose goodnesse it is in vaine to boast, because there is hardly to be found a man that doth not affect them." (Gervase Markham, ''The English Huswife'')

In her book ''The Haggis: A Little History'', Dickson Wright suggests that haggis was invented as a way of cooking quick-spoiling [[offal]] near the site of a hunt, without the need to carry along an additional cooking vessel.<ref name=cdr>{{cite book |last=Dickson Wright |first=Clarissa |author-link=Clarissa Dickson Wright |title=The Haggis: A Little History |publisher=Pelican Publishing Company |year=1998 |isbn=1-56554-364-5}}</ref> The liver and kidneys could be [[grilling|grilled]] directly over a fire, but this treatment was unsuitable for the stomach, intestines, or lungs.<ref name=cdr/> Chopping up the lungs and stuffing the stomach with them and whatever fillers might have been on hand, then boiling the assembly – probably in a vessel made from the animal's hide – was one way to make sure these parts were not wasted.<ref name=cdr/>

=== Roman theory ===
Food writer [[Alan Davidson (food writer)|Alan Davidson]] suggests that the [[Ancient Rome|ancient Romans]] were the first known to have made products of the haggis type.<ref name=rome>{{cite book |title=The Oxford Companion to Food |last=Davidson |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Davidson (food writer) |year=2006 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=0-19-280681-5 }}</ref> Haggis was "born of necessity, as a way to utilize the least expensive cuts of meat and the innards as well".<ref name=necessity>[[Andrew Zimmern]]</ref>

=== Norse theory ===
[[File:pölsa.jpg|thumb|upright|Swedish [[pölsa]], a relative of haggis]]

[[Clarissa Dickson Wright]] says that it "came to Scotland in a [[longship]] [i.e., from [[Scandinavia]]] even before Scotland was a single nation".<ref>{{cite book | last = Barham | first = Andrea | title = The Pedant's Revolt: Why Most Things You Think Are Right Are Wrong | publisher = Michael O'Mara Books Ltd | year = 2005 | isbn = 1-84317-132-5 }}</ref> She cites etymologist [[Walter William Skeat]] as further suggestion of possible Scandinavian origins: Skeat claimed that the ''hag–'' element of the word is derived from {{langx|non|haggw}} or the [[Icelandic language|Old Icelandic]] ''hoggva'',<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-haggle.html '' The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology'', 1996]. Retrieved on 29 June 2009</ref> meaning 'to hew → chop → hack',<ref>''An Icelandic-English Dictionary'', Page 309, [[Richard Cleasby]], [[Guðbrandur Vigfússon]], [[George Webbe Dasent]]&nbsp;– 1874</ref> same as in [[Modern Scots]]: ''hag'', 'to hew' or strike with a sharp weapon, relating to the chopped-up contents of the dish.

The related Nordic variations of the root dish are traditionally called ”hew/chop-food”: {{langx|da|hakkemad}}, {{langx|no|[[:no:Hakkemat|hakkemat]]}}, {{langx|sv|hackmat}}, in modern Swedish renamed to ''[[pölsa]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=hackmat sbst. |url=https://www.saob.se/artikel/?seek=hackmat&pz=1#U_H1_20574 |website=saob.se |publisher=[[Swedish Academy]] |access-date=2025-04-07}}</ref>