First of the season's haggis

[Lallans]

Lacking haggis skills, in my family the fall seasonal item would be baked beans- I guess you could specifically say Boston baked beans, baked with molasses, brown sugar, and pork hock- since if made traditionally they require too much oven time to make in the heat of the summer, and by now people are actually craving them. Now that I've said that, I have no idea of the dish's ethnic origins- would such beans be Scottish, Irish, North American, universal, or what I wonder?

[Pleater]

I think the beans used for 'baked beans' are called Navy beans - and molasses and pork were staples of the British navy, so perhaps the combination began there.

The long cooking time could be reduced by the use of hay boxes - the pots were brought up to the boil, the lid put on, and then they were placed in boxes lined with straw to keep them hot as long as possible.

The same technique was used to transport hot food out to shooting parties, with carts divided up into suitably sized compartments with fancy tureens for the ladies and gentlemen and a gradation of lesser vessels for the servants and the beaters.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Lallans]

Here "navy beans" refer to a specific variety of large dried bean- not that that means much. The dish is now normally made with smaller dried beans but my mother, who should know, insists that the only good ones are exclusively available in New England, not sold in Canada.

So when you make haggis, Pleater, do you use the fully traditional (alarming sounding) ingredients?