Food and Whiskey

Steak and haggis pie topped with puff pastery

I had some specific goals for Scotland. I wanted to try 3 specific  foods - haggis, blood pudding and Scotch Eggs. It turned out that I loved haggis, it's like a savory sausage made with oatmeal and not in a casing. The first time it was in a haggis and beef pie, the second was stuffed into a chicken breast. Blood pudding was disappointing - it was dry and crumbly and didn't have any particular flavour.

Scotch Egg with Whiskey Sauce

 I also enjoyed my Scotch egg, which happened to be a haggis egg. It's a hard boiled egg, wrapped in ground meat or haggis and coated with a crispy crust. It ends up being the size of a tennis ball! Very filling and quite tasty!

Scotch Egg cut in half

I also wanted to do a whiskey tasting tour. Not just try it in a pub, but with some information, instruction  and guidance. Get You Guide did not disappoint. It gave us several to choose from, all easily accessible from Prince's Street or the Royal Mile. When I found one labeled as Whiskey Tasting with Storytelling, I couldn't buy the tickets fast enough!

Again, we had to meet the tour at a landmark spot on the Royal Mile. Our whiskey guru, Alistair, led us down the hill to the Waverly Pub with an upstairs room used for various purposes. Apparently it's where comedian Billy Connolly got his start. 

Alistair started off with an explanation of whiskey production and what makes whiskey Scotch. It has to be made and aged in Scotland (like, if it's not from the Champagne region of France, it's sparkling wine). There is a poetic term, the angel's share, which referred to the volume that evaporates from the aging barrels - it has to age a minimum of three years. Single malt refers to whiskey from one distillation, with no blending. 

He explained the different whiskey regions, each of which has their own characteristics. This was followed by the technique of tasting. Some use peat fire to heat the blend, which infuses it's own flavour. Some get a distinct flavour by using specific wine or bourbon barrels to age the whiskey in.

When first tasting, you scorch the pallet with the first sip. The initial aroma and taste is largely pure alcohol to our senses. After that first swirl through your mouth, you can start to pick up on the nuances. We were all supplied with a glass of water with a dropper in it. After a few sips, you can change the experience by adding just 5-10 drops of water to the glass. It was remarkable how much a tiny amount of water could affect the flavour.

We sampled four different single malt whiskeys, each from a different region. One was caramelly, one was smokey. I will likely never be a connoisseur, but I have much more appreciation than I did before.

While we sampled our different "courses", Alistair entertained us with stories. We got a much more detailed account of Deacon Brodie (you remember, Dr. Jekyll - Mr Hyde). We also got the full version of Half Hangit Maggie. We had heard references to her in many places, including the audio on the Hop On Hop Off bus and the Ghost & Gore tour the night before.

**Reader's discretion advised - some disturbing subject matter**

Margaret Dickson was a fishwife in 1721. Her husband was a fisherman, and she sold his catch at the market. One day he didn't come home and she was left with no means of support. Unwilling to "sell her only assets", she got a job in an inn. As is often the case in those days, with no protection from family, the innkeeper's son got Margaret pregnant. Had anyone found out, she would have been thrown out on the street. She managed to hide her condition until the baby was born. 

Like for so many other women, the baby was stillborn. Margaret snuck out at night to bury the baby, but was found out. In the 18th century, concealing a pregnancy was a criminal offense. She was sentenced to be hanged, and she was. On the way to the cemetery, Margaret woke up! The wagon driver didn't know what to do, so he took her back to the Toll House. After some debate, the lawyers agreed that Margaret had been sentence to be "hanged by the neck until dead". She was hung. She was declared dead. Therefore she served her sentence and was free to go! From that time on, she became the infamous Half Hangit Maggie (or Half Hanged Mary, depending on sources). She lived another 40 years.

But, there's more. Her husband came back. He had not abandoned her, he had not been lost a sea. He had been press-ganged into service on a ship. He finally managed to return home to his wife. They did have to re-marry, because the first wedding was only legal "until death do us part"! 

This heart in the cobblestones, just in front of St. Giles's Cathedral, marks where the door of the Toll House was. The toll house was a multipurpose civic building. One of it's uses was a local jail, where people like Margaret Dickson awaited trial and sentencing. The horrific conditions led to the practice of people spitting on the door to show their contempt for the inhumane treatment of the prisoners. When the building was torn down, this monument was placed. Now people spit on the heart for good luck. It is the only place in the UK that it is legal to spit in public.