From the Guardian:
The "great chieftan o' the puddin-race" was one of earliest casualties of the BSE crisis of the 1980s-90s, banned on health grounds by the US authorities in 1989 because they feared its main ingredient ‑ minced sheep offal ‑ could prove lethal.
Some refined foodies might insist it always has been and always will be: in the words of Robert Burns, in his Ode to a Haggis, looking "down wi' sneering, scornfu' view on sic a dinner". But now, as millions of Scots around the world prepare to celebrate Burns's legacy tonight with an elaborate, whisky-fuelled pageant to a boiled bag of sheep innards, oatmeal, suet and pepper, its reputation has been restored, on health grounds at least.
Some notes on the above quote:
1. they banned sheep guts due to concerns about mad cow? WTF?
2. "great chieftan o the puddin' race"? Robert Burns, who ranks right behind Andy Murray but ahead of Robert the Bruce as the second greatest Scottsman ever.
3. In actuality, ALL meals in Scotland are "whisky-fuelled pageants"! However, speaking from experience, copious amounts of whisky would be a huge help in getting down a plateful of haggis.
hat tip to Felix the Fish
4 comments:
I'm not saying it makes sense, but maybe the ban was because of fears of scrapie. Maybe all prion diseases got caught up in the net at the time. Now I can stop making my mock-haggis out of elk.
-zimaroll
an elk stomach would make a freakin' HUGE haggis! That sounds scary
Scrapie is a close relative of mad cow disease, they're both prion diseases. And "offal" doesn't just mean guts, it means whatever we had lying around, traditionally including brains and spinal cord bits, perfect carriers for prion diseases. So actually, it sounds silly, but it makes perfect sense
Big elk stomachs = big chance of uh-oh.
Are we still banning Canadian beef?
-zimaroll
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