My plans for Burns Night 2025

Here’s the main course for dinner tonight…

…and that’s because it’s January 25th today, making tonight Burns Night, the night when we celebrate the birth of Scottish poet Robert Burns:

Haggis is a kind of sausage, in that it only sounds bad when you describe what goes into it: “a savory pudding containing sheep’s pluck (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with chopped onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and cooked while traditionally encased in the animal’s stomach” (although in modern times, it’s encased in sausage casing).

It’s actually delicious, and it’s typically served this way…

…and in case you were wondering, tatties are potatoes, neeps are turnips, and yes, there’s scotch on the side. I also plan to make a whiskey sauce to pour on everything.

And finally, since sausage is for dinner, it’s only fitting that sausage is also for dessert:

This is Chocolate Salami, from Toronto chocolatier Soma, which is a “sausage” made of chocolate, candied orange peel, sun dried cherries, pieces of feuilletine (crispy flakes of caramelized crêpes), coconut, almonds, hazelnuts, nibs and rum.

Here’s what it looks like when sliced:

We’ll probably start dinner with this reading of Robbie Burns’ famous poem, Address to a Haggis, delivered with the proper gusto by true Scotsman Cameron Goodall: