Just when you thought 2012 would be better ...

[french frank]

Tonight for the first time ever .... my haggis burst! Next year I think I shall bake it. If it bursts it will make a mess of the oven, but at least I shan't end up with a saucepan full of watery swamp soup . Liquid accompaniment (Jura) was up to standard.

Hope everyone else had a happy Burns Nicht.

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o' need,
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dicht,
An' cut you up wi' ready slicht,
Trenching your gushing entrails bricht,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sicht,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an' strive:
Deil tak the hindmaist! on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve,
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
"Bethankit" hums.

Is there that o're his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi' perfect scunner,
Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him ower his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro' bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his wallie nieve a blade,
He'll mak it whistle;
An' legs an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thristle.

Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o' fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinkin ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a haggis!

[antongould]

And to you

Remember for Radio 3

"....but pleasures are like poppies spread
You seize the flower the bloom is shed
Or like the snowfall on the river
A moment white then gone forever..."


Probably not an exact quote from a shaky English memory.

[handsomefortune]

happy burns nicht all....lang may yer lumbs reek!

[mangerton]

Ff, very sorry to hear about your haggis. It happened to me once. Haggis is not meant to be eaten as soup! Heating it in the oven is perfectly ok. I was at a Burns Supper last Friday, and it was cooked that way. Purists will probably hold their hands up in horror, but for a small number, haggis can be heated perfectly well and very quickly in a microwave. That's how I do it at home.

Antongould - a few of the very small words not quite right, but much better than I could have done.

Handsomefortune, it's "lums".

[scottycelt]

The icing on the cake for me ... or the neeps on the haggis, if you like ... was David Cameron's "attempt" at reciting Burns in The Hoose o' Commons.

Apart from the fact that that he had time to prepare his delivery, shouldn't simple common sense dictate that the lines were meant to rhyme? Or maybe he felt it was beneath an upper-class English Prime Minister to descend into the poet's vulgar vernacular?

He should learn from Obama's recent impersonation of soul singer Al Green ... now that did sound beautifully rehearsed and genuine!

[french frank]

Ff, very sorry to hear about your haggis. It happened to me once. Haggis is not meant to be eaten as soup! Heating it in the oven is perfectly ok. I was at a Burns Supper last Friday, and it was cooked that way. Purists will probably hold their hands up in horror, but for a small number, haggis can be heated perfectly well and very quickly in a microwave. That's how I do it at home.

The butcher asked me whether I was going to bake it or boil it. I was thinking of griddling a tattie-and-neeps rösti (but didn't - though I'm not keen on bashed and champit) and may try that tonight. The drained pieces of haggis have solidified and may even perhaps be sliceable and fryable. Don't have a m'wave.

[cloughie]

The icing on the cake for me ... or the neeps on the haggis, if you like ... was David Cameron's "attempt" at reciting Burns in The Hoose o' Commons.

Apart from the fact that that he had time to prepare his delivery, shouldn't simple common sense dictate that the lines were meant to rhyme? Or maybe he felt it was beneath an upper-class English Prime Minister to descend into the poet's vulgar vernacular?

At least would give Alex Salmond the last laugh!

[salymap]

As a southerner my one experience of haggis was having it served for breakfast at the Scottish Border on the way to the Edinburgh Festival in the 1950s.
As we travelled by all night coach from London and I was sitting near a smelly petrol exhaust for up to 12 hours, prior to my breakfast, it was not my finest hour.

[mangerton]

The icing on the cake for me ... or the neeps on the haggis, if you like ... was David Cameron's "attempt" at reciting Burns in The Hoose o' Commons.

Apart from the fact that that he had time to prepare his delivery, shouldn't simple common sense dictate that the lines were meant to rhyme? Or maybe he felt it was beneath an upper-class English Prime Minister to descend into the poet's vulgar vernacular?

I heard it too, and thought it was a deplorable performance, even although my expectations were not high.

[mangerton]

The butcher asked me whether I was going to bake it or boil it. I was thinking of griddling a tattie-and-neeps rösti (but didn't - though I'm not keen on bashed and champit) and may try that tonight. The drained pieces of haggis have solidified and may even perhaps be sliceable and fryable. Don't have a m'wave.

I'm not sure about frying it. I'd put it in a covered casserole in the oven at about 175 deg. If it's quite dry, I'd add a very little water to keep it moist.

PS salymap's (msg 8) haggis-at-dawn-with-petrol-fumes is definitely not to be recommended!

[teamsaint]

Although I own one, I would avoid microwaving food whenever possible.

it just has to be bad for you.

[Richard Tarleton]

At the only Burns Night supper I attended, I commented to my hostess that this was very runny haggis. It turned out it was the Cock-a-leekie soup.

[french frank]

At the only Burns Night supper I attended, I commented to my hostess that this was very runny haggis. It turned out it was the Cock-a-leekie soup.

I'm thinking of bunging it in the oven to heat it through, dousing it in whisky and setting it on fire like a Christmas pudding. Is there any precedent for that?

[teamsaint]

I'm thinking of bunging it in the oven to heat it through, dousing it in whisky and setting it on fire like a Christmas pudding. Is there any precedent for that?

sounds like fun at any rate, precedent or not.

[Bryn]

Although I own one, I would avoid microwaving food whenever possible.

it just has to be bad for you.

Why exactly would excited water molecules have to be bad for you? They get just as excited in a kettle of a conventional oven, surely?