Scots cooking

Crappit Heid

Crappit Heid means stuffed head, and food writer F. Marian McNeill described it as a 'piscatorial haggis' [vis haggis; haggis: Schotse gevulde schapenmaag]. It was Rhoda Mcleod, who now lives on Harris but was brought up on Lewis, who told me all about crappit heid, which she knows by the Gaelic name, ceann cropaig. She explained that first you need a very fresh fish. You must clean the liver thoroughly, then mash it with oatmeal with your hands before stuffing it into the head and boiling. She also sometimes steams the liver mixture in a bowl and discards the head, or makes marag lasg (fish pudding) from the mashed-up liver (no oatmeal) by packing it into the cleaned fish gullet [slokdarm] and boiling it like a black or white pudding.
     Rhoda also makes sheep's head broth (ceann caorach) by singeing [haar wegbranden] the head, removing the eyes and splitting the head in half. After soaking in salt water overnight, it is rinsed, the brains are smeared all over it (to remove the taste of singeing) and then it is boiled to make a fine broth with turnips, carrots, onions, and barley. None of this is for the faint-hearted.