Craft butchery celebrates Robbie Burns with twist on traditional haggis

A cascade of translucent fried onions falls from a stainless steel tub into a large, black bin in the busy commercial kitchen at Saskatoon’s Pig and Pantry craft butchery.

The bin is already filled with cooked lamb liver, hearts, kidneys, tongue, pork fat and plenty of spices like black and white pepper and allspice. All of the offal is then ground together and added to cooked, steel-cut oats.

It’s then all put through a hydraulic sausage press into casings, tied up in pairs with kitchen twine and placed in a water bath – or bain-marie – for two hours to complete Scotland’s national dish, haggis.

“All the animals we source are local, from Saskatchewan,” explained Jordan Lohneis, the owner and chef at Pig and Pantry. “We keep as many organs as we can from the lambs.”

Haggis dates back hundreds of years, and while it can be eaten any time, it most commonly appears on tables on Jan. 25, Robbie Burns Day. Burns, a famous Scottish poet, even penned a poem called “Address to a Haggis,” which is typically read aloud prior to dinners held in his honour.

While Lohneis doesn’t have Scottish roots, he said his butchery uses as many parts of the animals as possible, and he found a market for the savoury pudding while developing his own take on it about four years ago.

“It began as a way to utilize the lamb organs,” he said. “Typically, we get most of our lamb in the fall and then we would have the organs left. You’re always looking for exciting stuff to do, especially in January, and so we thought this was an opportunity for us to use the organs and to make a nice product and see what folks would think of it.”

Lohneis makes about 300 pound of haggis each year, which is portioned out into about 150 two-pound chubs. When reheated and hot, the consistency is similar to thick mashed potatoes.

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Butcher Ted Underhill said the haggis and blood pudding the shop also makes are among his favourites.

“It’s very delicious,” he said. “I love it.”

Lohneis said the goal is to remain somewhat traditional while also making the haggis taste good. He said he gets requests from people and restaurants across the province.

“It sells out every year,” added Lohneis. “We get a lot of folks coming back every year.”