Forget the Address to a Haggis, you’re going to have to provide your address to get a haggis when it comes to the Burns Night Box.
This brand new business was set up by Fraser Hamilton, 28, originally from Glasgow but now based in St Andrews, who has a day job as a product manager. His previous experience has been a mix of cooking and working for start-ups, with kitchen experience at restaurants including Fife’s Kinneuchar Inn, Inver in Cairndow and Noma in Copenhagen. This has informed his new company, which delivers haggis boxes to those who want to celebrate Burns Night at home.
It offers various sizes of packages, starting from one for two people at £25, with the biggest box for eight at £110. They all include haggis, neeps and tatties with a whisky miso sauce, smoked salmon blinis to start and tablet to finish, as well as suggested poems, including the Selkirk Grace, a playlist and some Ceilidh dancing inspiration.
Hamilton will be delivering UK wide, and is taking final orders to be delivered by January 25 on January 19. It sounds like there will be a lot of packages heading across the border.
“Before the pandemic, when I was living in London I would always hold a big Burns supper for 20 or more people in my wee flat - all my friends, Scottish or English, would love it”, says Hamilton. “But every year without fail, I’d also get about 30 folks asking where they could get haggis in London or what they needed. This time round, the minute I got the first of those texts I decided I needed to do something about it. It’s just meant to be a bit of fun but I’ve found way more demand than I thought and I’m gonna have to close off the order pretty soon”.
The only thing that Hamilton served in his own Burns suppers that won’t be in the box will be the less traditional deep-fried haggis bon-bons and Mars Bars, though there is an option to add Loch Lomond Whisky and Irn-Bru for an additional charge.
Although Hamilton hasn’t made the haggis in this year’s box himself, he hopes to look into doing that next year, as well as offering a vegetarian option. The rest of the menu was easy to design, as this chef describes himself as a “purist”, though he’s added a twist with the sauce and “more butter than those who aren’t Scottish would be comfortable with” to the tatties.
“It’s smoked salmon to start, as it’ll travel better than the normally served soup options”, he says. “I noticed the English contingent in particular always looked for a sauce to go with the main event and over the years at my own Burns suppers, I’ve come to realise that the whisky-miso sauce I thought of after my time working in Copenhagen was the much preferred option of my friends”.
So far, Hamilton’s boxes are so popular that he’s now recruited his girlfriend and family to help cater to orders, and hopes to repeat the process all over again in 2023.
