Foods Nobody Dislikes (Or Everybody Likes)?

[Floyd]

You take (usually) a big flat field mushroom and sort of pile stuff on top of it. Like you'd put beans on toast. It's often cheese of some description, and shallots or garlic, and maybe a little cream, often topped with breadcrumbs.

Ruins a good mushroom, if you ask me. And they're not so much 'stuffed' as 'topped', which is strange because we don't call beans on toast 'stuffed toast' do we?

Right.

It seems we're in the same area as an 'open sandwich' - another term that should be banned immediately.

 

[charliebrown]

I read that haggis is still eaten in Scotland even though it is outlawed in the U.S. because it has chopped up sheep’s lung mixed with all the sheep’s parts.

Supposedly, I read that all the sheep’s parts and insides are used.

So what does haggis taste like ?

 

[catseye]

I read that haggis is still eaten in Scotland even though it is outlawed in the U.S. because it has chopped up sheep’s lung mixed with all the sheep’s parts.

Supposedly, I read that all the sheep’s parts and insides are used.

So what does haggis taste like ?

I think haggis tastes like a meaty pudding (I really like it). It's the texture that is different, like a kind of dry sausage - if you took the insides out of a sausage and mixed them with oatmeal, then put them back in again and cooked it - that's haggis.

 

[Frideswide]

I read that haggis is still eaten in Scotland even though it is outlawed in the U.S.

trust me, the disbelief over what other countries ban is alive and well! Many USA habits have us scratching our heads!

Haggis tastes like a dry hash? no gravy or sauce included, you add that with what you serve with it if that is to your taste.

We eat it... maybe 10+ times a year? as part of our normal diet, but it's not a cheap meal. We try to remember to have one at a Burn's Supper too.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

So what does haggis taste like ?

Rich, meaty, oniony and often very peppery. The mouth-feel is lush, due to the oats, which are well-lubricated with suet. Despite the offal, the taste is not very gamey - much milder than liver or kidney. It is also perfectly suited to the traditional accompaniments: mashed potato and bashed neeps and carrot. I like a gravy with it.

What is left over can be combined with the gravy to form the base of a "haggis-pie" topped with a layer of the swede/carrot mix, then the potato mash. Fork it over on the top and brown it in the oven. It's nicer than any other cottage pie!

I was not brought up on the dish, at all but it is well-worth overcoming the squeamishness it seems to create! I understand it is not a banned dish in the USA but traditional haggis can't be imported, on account of the lungs, which are deemed unfit for human consumption, there. Hearts would be a natural substitute. More information here!

 

[Frideswide]

I understand it is not a banned dish in the USA but traditional haggis can't be imported, on account of the lungs, which are deemed unfit for human consumption, there.

there are some good veggie haggisses. They are grown on vines, like tartary lamb, rather then hunted in the wild like venison. Efforts have been made to domesticate them but the haggis remains at heart a feral wee beastie!

From time to time the haggis population increases very quickly and we need to cull them. Nomnomnomnom!

 

[ChasFink]

Keeping with the left turn this thread has taken...

I've heard that haggis is similar to that American regional delicacy, scrapple. And as a child growing up with a Polish grandmother in the house I sometimes had kishka, which is like black pudding. (I don't remember it much, except that I don't think I liked it.) Any experienced adventurous eaters out there want to weigh in on the similarities and differences?

 

[Mythopoeika]

I read that haggis is still eaten in Scotland even though it is outlawed in the U.S. because it has chopped up sheep’s lung mixed with all the sheep’s parts.

Supposedly, I read that all the sheep’s parts and insides are used.

So what does haggis taste like ?

It's surprisingly nice.

 

[bugmum]

You take (usually) a big flat field mushroom and sort of pile stuff on top of it. Like you'd put beans on toast. It's often cheese of some description, and shallots or garlic, and maybe a little cream, often topped with breadcrumbs.

I bloody love mushrooms. Our Boxing Day starter is a 'stuffed' mushroom, but I use the chopped up stalks of some big field mushrooms plus a few chopped up regular mushrooms, fried in a drop of olive oil with some chopped baby plum tomatoes, then you add some pesto and extra pepper, and dollop it into the middle of the big 'shroom. A drizzle of olive oil and into the oven with them. I always get asked why we don't have them more often...

 

[Tunn11]

I bloody love mushrooms. Our Boxing Day starter is a 'stuffed' mushroom, but I use the chopped up stalks of some big field mushrooms plus a few chopped up regular mushrooms, fried in a drop of olive oil with some chopped baby plum tomatoes, then you add some pesto and extra pepper, and dollop it into the middle of the big 'shroom. A drizzle of olive oil and into the oven with them. I always get asked why we don't have them more often...

With a cold sprout coulis?

 

[bugmum]

With a cold sprout coulis?

Now that would be a waste of a good sprout!

One of my few great mothering moments came when my oldest was about 6; we were in the supermarket and he asked if we could buy sprouts "because they're so delicious." The woman walking past us gave me such a look of admiration, presumably because I had a child who liked brassicas. Actually, all my kids like brassicas, we're obviously lacking a gene that makes them repulsive to other people.

 

[Tunn11]

Now that would be a waste of a good sprout!

One of my few great mothering moments came when my oldest was about 6; we were in the supermarket and he asked if we could buy sprouts "because they're so delicious." The woman walking past us gave me such a look of admiration, presumably because I had a child who liked brassicas. Actually, all my kids like brassicas, we're obviously lacking a gene that makes them repulsive to other people.

As I've said before frosted sprouts* are much nicer.

*By which I mean sprouts that have had a frost on them before harvesting - not sprout ice cream or sprout sorbet.

 

[maximus otter]

Keeping with the left turn this thread has taken...

I've heard that haggis is similar to that American regional delicacy, scrapple. And as a child growing up with a Polish grandmother in the house I sometimes had kishka, which is like black pudding. (I don't remember it much, except that I don't think I liked it.) Any experienced adventurous eaters out there want to weigh in on the similarities and differences?

Haggis is effin’ delicious, especially when eaten as the gods intended: with buttery mash and neeps.

Describing any food’s taste to someone who’s never sampled it is notoriously difficult, but imagine a moist black pudding mixed with porridge (“oatmeal”).

I don’t understand the US dislike/ban of haggis based on its putative lung content. I’m unaware of any such ingredient, and - if it is in there in trace amounts - who flippin’ cares? I’m sure that a forensic analysis of a lot of US foods would reveal far worse…

maximus otter

 

[catseye]

Haggis is effin’ delicious, especially when eaten as the gods intended: with buttery mash and neeps.

Describing any food’s taste to someone who’s never sampled it is notoriously difficult, but imagine a moist black pudding mixed with porridge (“oatmeal”).

I don’t understand the US dislike/ban of haggis based on its putative lung content. I’m unaware of any such ingredient, and - if it is in there in trace amounts - who flippin’ cares? I’m sure that a forensic analysis of a lot of US foods would reveal far worse…

maximus otter

Plus, I'm not vegetarian and never could be but I think that if we're going to slaughter animals to eat then we owe it to them to eat all the bits. I had an ex who wouldn't eat McDonalds meals - not ever, wouldn't even go into a McDonalds. I asked him why, as the burgers were advertised as being prime meat, but he said 'oh, it's all lips and arseholes' and then looked at me as though I'd grown a second head when I said 'so what? It's all meat isn't it? Does it matter what part of the animal it comes from?' He really could not see my point.

 

[Floyd]

there are some good veggie haggisses. They are grown on vines, like tartary lamb, rather then hunted in the wild like venison.

Like spaghetti?

 

[Frideswide]

Further to the haggicine debate, I offer this, a public information film. Sorry it's on FB, can anyone find a better version?

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=926618329475371

 

[ChasFink]

I don’t understand the US dislike/ban of haggis based on its putative lung content. I’m unaware of any such ingredient, and - if it is in there in trace amounts - who flippin’ cares? I’m sure that a forensic analysis of a lot of US foods would reveal far worse…

Apparently lungs are a traditional ingredient, although not absolutely necessary. Lung meat is indeed banned in the U.S. due to a fear of things like body fluids that can back up into the lungs and a higher probability of environmental toxins, microorganisms, etc. (This may be an effect of our rather sloppy meat industry standards compared to other countries.) The general BSE era ban on importing British lamb - which kept out haggis sans lung - was lifted a few years ago, but there hasn't been a big increase in demand for this particular product.

 

[Floyd]

Apparently lungs are a traditional ingredient, although not absolutely necessary. Lung meat is indeed banned in the U.S. due to a fear of things like body fluids that can back up into the lungs and a higher probability of environmental toxins, microorganisms, etc. (This may be an effect of our rather sloppy meat industry standards compared to other countries.) The general BSE era ban on importing British lamb - which kept out haggis sans lung - was lifted a few years ago, but there hasn't been a big increase in demand for this particular product.

I take it you don't have Andouillette either?

Mind you, by all accounts, who could blame you if you don't.

 

[ChasFink]

II take it you don't have Andouillette either?

Mind you, by all accounts, who could blame you if you don't.

Au contraire! It is available, although I don't think it's very popular. The main ingredient, pork chitterlings, are a staple of soul food, where they are better known as chitlins. And a similar sausage, andouille - made with a lot of just plain pork meat and a less intestine - is common in Cajun cooking.

One sentence in that Wikipedia article caught my attention: "True andouillettes are rarely seen outside France and have a strong, distinctive odour coming from the colon."

Sounds like they'd be good served with casu martzu.

 

[charliebrown]

Cooking kills the bacteria in food and I guess chopped up sheep lungs.

Then people eat raw steak tartar and raw sushi, but I guess these people want bacteria and dangerous parasites in their bodies.

If I eat meat, I want it cooked and dead.

 

[Fanari_Lloyd]

As I've said before frosted sprouts* are much nicer.

Oh gosh, yes they are!We had an allotment growing up and grew a lot of our own veg and that was one of the things I remember hearing. As soon as the sprouts had been exposed to a bit of frost they were so much more delicious. (Mind you even the most basic home-grown veg tastes so much nicer straight from the garden!)

 

[Mythopoeika]

Cooking kills the bacteria in food and I guess chopped up sheep lungs.

Then people eat raw steak tartar and raw sushi, but I guess these people want bacteria and dangerous parasites in their bodies.

If I eat meat, I want it cooked and dead.

Fresh sushi shouldn't be much of a bacterial problem, as sea fish are almost sterile (thanks to the salt water).
That said, there's no way of knowing how long it's been sitting about when you come to eat it.

 

[ChasFink]

Fresh sushi shouldn't be much of a bacterial problem, as sea fish are almost sterile (thanks to the salt water).

Parasitic worms, on the other hand...

 

[Mythopoeika]

Parasitic worms, on the other hand...

OK, true. Whale meat used to be particularly bad for that.

 

[Tunn11]

If I eat meat, I want it cooked and dead.

But perhaps not in that order.

 

[Floyd]

Sounds like they'd be good served with casu martzu.

Good grief!

Because the larvae in the cheese can launch themselves distances up to 15 centimetres (6 in) when disturbed, diners hold their hands above the sandwich to prevent the maggots from leaping.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Good grief!

Because the larvae in the cheese can launch themselves distances up to 15 centimetres (6 in) when disturbed, diners hold their hands above the sandwich to prevent the maggots from leaping.

 

[Floyd]

On the good side I now possess one of the few jars of Haywards
Piccalilli in the area.

Where do you stand on salad cream?

(I'm not sure if other countries have something similar- perhaps a bit like miracle whip in the USA or thousand Island dressing?)

Until a year or so ago I hadn't touched the stuff in possibly 30 years (it was always mayonnaise), but now I love it.

I have found out though, that it is best to buy the Heinz version, which although more expensive, has far fewer ingredients in it, which can't be a bad thing.

 

[RaM]

I like salad cream, pass on mayonnaise.

 

[charliebrown]

My wife growing up in Brooklyn, New York came across many different things and has a like for Liverwurst (liver sausage).

We have not come across anyone else who eats this.