US Company Produces Scottish 1)Haggis

Broadcast: Jan 25 2003

 

An American entrepreneur is daring to go where no American food manufacturer has gone before - mass producing a Scottish ²⁾culinary specialty¹ known as haggis. The made in the USA haggis comes as thousands of people in the United States and around the world celebrate Burns Night -honoring 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns.

Robert Burns is Scotland's most-beloved poet, known for his bawdy² humor and love of jolly living. He may be best remembered, though, for writing Auld³ Lang Syne⁴, a signature tune⁵ of many New Year's celebrations.

Every year, on the poet's birthday, people with, and even without, Scottish ancestry⁶ gather to honor him at thousands of Burns Night suppers around the world.

Two essential elements of a proper feast are Scotch⁷ whisky and haggis. Haggis is a sausage-like dish of meat mixed with ^3）oatmeal, traditionally stuffed into a casing. The meat is ground ⁴⁾innards. And the casing is a stomach. And therein, for many people, lies a problem.

Robert Burns, for better or worse, is inseparably linked to haggis. He was a fan and, in his homeland, elevated the delicacy⁸ to almost mythical⁹ status, immortalizing it as the "chieftain of the pudding race." Haggis lover and newly-established ^5）purveyor¹⁰, Jim Walters, says the "chieftain" had humble¹¹ beginnings. "Mr. Haggis is the old-time poor folks' food that was used with leftover¹² meat of any animal that may have been butchered," he said. "And you also make all of this meat and all of these leftovers¹³ stretch as far as you can. So, a lot of cultures add grain to that product to make it stretch. But it's an old tradition, known as the national dish of Scotland."

In the United States, haggis for Burns Night suppers has been hard to come by. It got worse after Mad Cow disease hit Britain. U.S. customs inspectors¹⁴ reportedly stopped the delicacy at the border, even though the Scottish version is usually made with bits of lamb.

This is where Scottish-American Jim Walters saw an opportunity. In June, Mr. Walters opened Caledonian Kitchen, a Texas-based company that makes canned haggis for the U.S. market. The born-and-bred American didn't start out as a devotee of the dish. "Haggis is probably one of those products that has the worst gawdawful reputation of any food product I know that I've ever heard of," said Jim Walters.

But he says he became a convert after trying some during his first trip to Scotland in 1989. "It wasn't at all what we expected," he said. "We actually liked it. And that got us going, saying, 'Hey, you know, a lot of people do like haggis and it's not the awful, terrible, horrible-tasting product that some people think it is.'"

The Texas entrepreneur says he is now on a mission to persuade Americans that haggis is delicious. And he's made some adjustments, using cows instead of sheep, in an effort to better suit American tastes. "We can get mutton here without too much trouble, but the American palate, Americans as a rule, generally don't like the taste of mutton and they do like the taste of beef," continued Jim Walters. "And since beef is a historically-documented livestock¹⁵ in Scotland, I felt better using beef for giving a choice."

In mass-producing his haggis, Mr. Walters says other alterations¹⁶ were necessary to meet U.S. Department of Agriculture standards. "The old traditional recipes used the kidneys, the liver, heart and a lot of the internal organs like that," he said. "And the original Scottish recipe used the lungs. Now, in the United States, we can't use that because the USDA doesn't consider lungs as being fit for human consumption."

To date, Caledonian Kitchen has sold almost all of its first production run of 7,500 cans of lungless haggis. And that's not including the special "presentation" haggis - a bigger version that comes already stuffed in casing. He sold 60 of those this month, mostly to Burns Night party-goers. The next trick will be to expand his clientele, persuading a burger-eating nation to share in the delights of a sack of innards.

Stephanie Ho VOA news, Washington.

1)      haggis[5hA^is]n. <苏>将羊的心,肺,肝等内脏和燕麦粉煮成的食物

2)      culinary[5kQlinEri]adj. 厨房的, 烹调用的, 厨房用的

3)      oatmeal[5EJtmi:l]n.(燕)麦片, (燕)麦粥

4)      innards[5inEdz]n. <口>内脏

5)      purveyor [pE`veIE(r)]n.承办商, 伙食承办商

 

 

 

1 specialty   

n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长

参考例句：

• Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
• His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。

2 bawdy   

adj.淫猥的，下流的；n.粗话

参考例句：

• After a few drinks,they were all singing bawdy songs at the top of their voices.喝了几杯酒之后，他们就扯着嗓门唱一些下流歌曲。
• His eyes were shrewd and bawdy.他的一双眼睛机灵而轻佻。

3 auld   

adj.老的，旧的

参考例句：

• Should auld acquaintance be forgot,and never brought to mind?怎能忘记旧日朋友，心中能不怀念？
• The party ended up with the singing of Auld Lang Sync.宴会以《友谊地久天长》的歌声而告终。

4 syne   

adv.自彼时至此时，曾经

参考例句：

• The meeting ended up with the singing of Auld Lang Syne.大会以唱《友谊地久天长》结束。
• We will take a cup of kindness yet for auld lang syne.让我们为了过去的好时光干一杯友谊的酒。

5 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

6 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

7 scotch   

n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的

参考例句：

• Facts will eventually scotch these rumours.这种谣言在事实面前将不攻自破。
• Italy was full of fine views and virtually empty of Scotch whiskey.意大利多的是美景，真正缺的是苏格兰威士忌。

8 delicacy   

n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴

参考例句：

• We admired the delicacy of the craftsmanship.我们佩服工艺师精巧的手艺。
• He sensed the delicacy of the situation.他感觉到了形势的微妙。

9 mythical   

adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的

参考例句：

• Undeniably,he is a man of mythical status.不可否认，他是一个神话般的人物。
• Their wealth is merely mythical.他们的财富完全是虚构的。

10 purveyor   

n.承办商，伙食承办商

参考例句：

• Silence, purveyor of gossip, do not spread that report. 快别那样说，新闻记者阁下，别散布那个消息。 来自互联网
• Teaching purpose: To comprehensively understand the role function and consciousness composition of a news purveyor. 教学目的：全面深入的理解新闻传播者的角色功能和意识构成。 来自互联网

11 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。

12 leftover   

n.剩货，残留物，剩饭；adj.残余的

参考例句：

• These narrow roads are a leftover from the days of horse-drawn carriages.这些小道是从马车时代沿用下来的。
• Wonder if that bakery lets us take leftover home.不知道那家糕饼店会不会让我们把卖剩的带回家。

13 leftovers   

n.剩余物，残留物，剩菜

参考例句：

• He can do miracles with a few kitchen leftovers.他能用厨房里几样剩饭做出一顿美餐。
• She made supper from leftovers she had thrown together.她用吃剩的食物拼凑成一顿晚饭。

14 inspectors   

n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官

参考例句：

• They got into the school in the guise of inspectors. 他们假装成视察员进了学校。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Inspectors checked that there was adequate ventilation. 检查员已检查过，通风良好。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

16 alterations   

n.改动( alteration的名词复数 )；更改；变化；改变

参考例句：

• Any alterations should be written in neatly to the left side. 改动部分应书写清晰，插在正文的左侧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code. 基因突变是指DNA 密码的改变。 来自《简明英汉词典》