If you've been dragging your feet on trying haggis because it's illegal to import, well, you might not have that excuse for much longer.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has indicated it will review the ban instituted 21 years ago because of food-safety concerns about the Scottish dish. U.S. officials were worried about the offal ingredients, such as sheep's lungs, in the traditional preparation that usually consists of spices, stock and offal simmered in a sheep's stomach.
Today, British and Scottish haggis is banned in the United States, so American enthusiasts typically have to go to great lengths to recreate it.
Today, a lot of commercially produced haggis is made inside of a casing instead of a stomach. Haggis is apparently being taken in new directions with, according to the BBC News, haggis nachos. MacSween also has a list of possible uses for haggis, everything from burgers to a pita with tsatsiki.
But it's not recipes that swayed the Department of Agriculture to consider revising its guidelines to fall in line with international standards. Instead, it's a ruling from the World Organization for Animal Health that sheep lung is safe to consume.
It seems appropriate that this news broke right before Burns Night -- an annual celebration that celebrates Scottish poet Robert Burns. Today's his birthday.
[Image via Flickr: meri tosh]
