And of course there's the west-country version, faggots, made with pigs'
bits rather than sheep's. All the liver and other offal are chopped up with
sage and onion, and mixed with breadcrumbs rather than oatmeal, and wrapped
not in the stomach but in caul-fat (looks a bit like a lace curtain, and
you can still get it from old-fashioned butchers). I've an old Pembrokeshire
recipe, too, and the Welsh for faggot is ffagod. Pronounced pretty much the
same.
I rather go for haggis spelt hagws. Looks a bit Welsh, that one.
Here in the north of England we have something called haslet, which is not
quite the same thing as far as recipes go. It's made of similar ingredients,
but cooked like a meat loaf, and sliced and eaten cold, whereas faggots are
eaten hot with gravy, and are to my mind infinitely preferable.
joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 3:49 PM
Subject: Re: snap~patrick
> Incidentally, how reliable is that double-g?
>
> joanna
The predominant but not universal spelling, apparently. (Also, the earliest
recorded spellings seem to have a single "g". See the OED below.)
From my previous Dictionary of the Scottish Language post:
DSL - SND1 HAGGIS, n. Also obs. forms hag(g)ish; haggies (Sc. 1725 Ramsay
Gentle Shep. ii. i.); haggas(s); hag(a)s (Per. 1737 Ochtertyre Ho. Bk.
(S.H.S.) 67-8); haggise.
The DSL doesn't give etymologies, curse them. Here's what the OED2[3] says
anent this:
(Hm ... "Derivation Unknown" is a big help.)
Note 17-18thC spellings below. Also 15thC "hagws".
:-p
haggis
("h&gIs) Also 5 hagas(e, hagese, hageys, hagws, (hakkys), 6
hagges, -eis, -ise, 6-8 haggas, -ass(e, -ess)e, 7-8 haggus, 8 haggice, -ies,
9 -ish, -iss.
[Derivation unknown.
The analogy of most terms of cookery suggests a French source; but no
corresp. F. word or form has been found. The conjecture that it represents
F. hachis 'hash', with assimilation to hag, hack, to chop, has app. no basis
of fact; F. hachis is not known so early, and the earlier forms of the Eng.
word are more remote from it. Whether the word is connected with hag vb.,
evidence does not show.]
1. a. A dish consisting of the heart, lungs, and liver of a sheep, calf,
etc. (or sometimes of the tripe and chitterlings), minced with suet and
oatmeal, seasoned with salt, pepper, onions, etc., and boiled like a large
sausage in the maw of the animal.
(Now considered specially Scotch, but a popular dish in English cookery down
to the beginning of the 18th c. Cf. also quots. 1879-90.)
c1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 52 For hagese. Že hert of schepe, že nere žou
take+Hacke alle togeder with gode persole [etc.].
Robin
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