Haggis

[xoxoxoBruce]

To the Americans suffering withdrawal since the importation was banned in 1971, there's hope.

Manufacturers of the traditional fare will this week join a Scottish Government delegation in an attempt to convince authorities in the US to reconsider the long-standing veto. If successful, it could open up a lucrative new multi-million market, with as many as 9.2 million Americans claiming Scottish ancestry. The ban, in place since 1971, guards against the import of sheep lungs, a traditional ingredient in haggis, but which is not regarded as fit for human consumption in the US. In an attempt to get around the ban, makers of the dish are considering ways to “tweak” the recipe, according to Richard Lochhead, the rural affairs secretary.

However Scots, while always conscious of the bottom line, are a pigheaded bunch who take criticism of there traditions as a personal affront.

Mr Lochhead will be accompanied on the US trip by James Macsween, the director of Macsween of Edinburgh, one of the country’s best-known haggis makers.
However, other manufacturers said that although the prospect of a new market was good news, it remained unclear how they would maintain the “rich flavour” the lungs give the dish. Sandy Crombie, the owner of Crombies of Edinburgh, a butchers on Broughton Street, said the lungs were crucial to any self-respecting haggis recipe. He said: “It’s the lungs that make haggis.”

If the US market appears lucrative enough, there may develop a two tier system of Haggis for the US, and Haggis not for the US. If importation is resumed the opportunity for smuggling the banned version from Canada then concealing it stores of legal stuff, could draw former bootleggers and cartels, but the mafia would probably win out.
I guess a wall would be needed, but tough to get the Scots and/or Canucks to pay for it.
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