Burns Night Whisky Gravy for Haggis

Haggis is rich, peppery and slightly dry, and what it wants is something with cream in it and a bit of alcohol bite. This sits somewhere between a gravy and a whisky sauce, which is exactly right for the occasion. Do not use your good single malt in it, and do not skip flaming or boiling off the spirit or it will taste raw.

Ingredients

Makes about 500ml, enough for six plates

• 30g (1oz) butter
• 2 shallots very finely chopped
• 600ml (1 pint) beef stock a good strong one
• 75ml (2 1/2fl oz) blended Scotch whisky nothing precious
• 150ml (5fl oz) double cream
• 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp cornflour slaked in 1 tbsp cold water
• sea salt and plenty of black pepper

Kit

• Heavy saucepan
• Whisk
• Small jug

Method

1. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over a medium low heat and cook the shallots gently for six minutes until completely soft and translucent. Do not brown them, this sauce wants sweetness rather than colour.

2. Pour in the beef stock, bring it to a boil and let it reduce hard for about ten minutes until you have roughly 350ml left. Reducing before the cream goes in is what gives the sauce backbone without needing much flour.

3. Add the whisky and let it bubble for two full minutes. The alcohol needs to cook off properly or the sauce tastes harsh and thin. If you want the theatre of flaming it, take the pan off the heat, add the whisky, then light it at arm's length with a long match and let it burn out.

4. Turn the heat down, pour in the cream and stir. Bring it back to a bare simmer and cook for five minutes. It should thicken slightly on its own and turn the colour of milky coffee.

5. Whisk in the slaked cornflour and simmer for one more minute. It will thicken visibly. Cornflour is used here rather than a flour roux because it keeps the sauce glossy and light instead of claggy.

6. Stir in both mustards off the heat. Boiling mustard makes it bitter and kills the heat that makes it interesting.

7. Season with salt and a genuinely heavy hand of coarse black pepper, then taste. Haggis brings its own pepper and salt, so keep the sauce a shade under seasoned and let the plate do the rest.

Tips worth knowing

• Use a blended whisky or a young Speyside. A heavily peated Islay malt turns the whole sauce into smoked cream and overwhelms the haggis.
• If you flame it, do it away from the extractor fan and tie your hair back. A pan of burning spirit throws flames higher than people expect.
• Keep the sauce off a rolling boil once the cream is in. Hard boiling cream with alcohol and acid in it is the fastest way to split it.
• Make it while the haggis is having its last twenty minutes in the oven. It takes about the same time and neither wants to be reheated.

Keeping and reheating

Best fresh. It keeps two days in the fridge, cooled quickly in a shallow dish, and reheats gently in a pan without boiling, whisking as it comes back together. It does not freeze, the cream separates and the cornflour goes watery.

Questions people ask