The author, one of the "Two Fat Ladies" of television cookbook fame, handles the history of the haggis with aplomb in this little cookbook. Haggis, for the unititated, is a dish commonly made in a sheep's maw, of minced lungs, hearts, and liver of the same animal. However, the haggis is much more than a mere meal. The haggis, or some version of it, may be found in the histories of countries as varied as ancient Greece, Sweden, and the United States. Yet the haggis is most closely associated with Scotland and has come to represent that country just as pasta represents Italy. Scotland may thank its beloved bard, Robert Burns, for this. Burns immortalized the dish in perhaps his best-known poem, "Address to the Haggis." In it, he refers to the haggis as the "Great Chieftan o' the Puddin'-race!" How far the haggis had come! Originally a meal of the lower classes who could not afford to waste any edible portion of their livestock, the haggis mysteriously transformed into a delicacy deemed worthy of royalty. Queen Victoria, an enthusiast for most all things Scottish, said of the haggis, "I find I like it very well." Clans and Tartans, A Little Book of Scottish Baking, and A Life of Robert Burns are the other books in Pelican's Little Book series.
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About the Author
Clarissa Dickson Wright went to University College London to study law and was called to the bar at age twenty-one. She practiced successfully as a barrister for a number of years before settling on cooking as her calling.
She ran her own catering business, cooked on a yacht in the Caribbean, and served sixty meals a day in her London luncheon club. She also owns two bookstores: Books for Cooks in Notting Hill, London, and the Cook’s Bookshop in Edinburgh. In addition, she is one of only two women in England to become a guild butcher. The other woman is the Queen Mother. Ms. Wright is the first woman to be rector at the University of Aberdeen. She owns the Parachute Café at the Museum of Flight in East Lothian.
Her greatest amount of exposure Was with Jennifer Paterson on "Two Fat Ladies," but she refused to make another series after her costar’s death in 1998.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A splendid tough of history,
By A Customer
This review is from: Haggis, The: A Little History (Hardcover)
Clarissa Dickson Wright fans will love her little book of history about one of Scotland's culinary products. Except for its whiskey, if one mentions "haggis" one immediate thinks of Scotland. The book is brief and to the point with suttle humour peppered throughout the piece. Ms. Wright shows her culinary knowledge and her well read background in this delicious piece of work.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Chieftain o' the Puddin' Race,
By Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (COMMUNITY FORUM 04) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Haggis, The: A Little History (Hardcover)
Haggis is the legendary national dish of Scotland. It is, when well-made, surprisingly delicious. We served an excellent one to friends from Nova Scotia that we bought in Scotland, and our guests were delighted by its spicy richness.Clarissa Disckon Wright, the witty co-host of the Two Fat Ladies cooking show, wrote this book with her wry humor but also with authority. It is an excellent work and fun to read. The illustrations are charming. Be warned, however; making a haggis yourself is not for the faint-of-heart, nor is a detailed recipe included here--the initial stages of making haggis resemble a post-mortem more than a culinary exercise. Dickson Wright gently suggests you buy yours, as most people do. This is surprising, as she once described a recipe for beef tongue stuffed in sausage casing explaining, "just as simple really as applying a condom, though, of course, less fun."
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful.,
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This review is from: Haggis, The: A Little History (Hardcover)
Clarissa Dickson Wright, The Haggis: A Little History (Pelican Press, 1998)
Books like this make me wonder: what is the publishing industry thinking jacking up their prices every year, like clockwork, assuming we're going to buy this "cost of living increase" nonsense? Clarissa Dickson Wright's The Haggis: A Little History is a small, lavishly-illustrated hardback priced such that, if the carpings of other publishers are to be believed, Pelican must have taken a major loss printing and selling it for the price they do. One would expect to see a book of this beauty selling for at least three times this price solely to break even. (Heed well, poetry fans. You're getting screwed on those fifteen-dollar trade paperbacks of less than an hundred pages. Not that you're surprised, but now you have hard evidence.) As to the content of the book itself, it's a short essay by Dickson Wright (the surviving member of the wonderful Two Fat Ladies) on the origins, history, and popularity of the dish that has come to be associated with Scotland more than any other, though it's been said the Scots invented whiskey because they had to eat haggis. With her trademark wit and charm, Dickson Wright sheds new light on the much-maligned supersausage. Maybe even enough new light to get a few folks to try the stuff. Maybe. Folks, if you have tried scrapple and thought you were eating something akin to haggis, think again. (One word: oatmeal.) A lovely little book. Granted, probably not for everyone, but giving a slew of these to children as birthday presents (you can remove the dust jacket; the actual book cover is just as beautiful and far more durable) may finally take the taint off the Scottish Hot Dog once and for all. ****
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