An anonymous commenter asked which of the sheep’s 4 stomachs is used for haggis. He thought it was the omasum. I had no idea. Research is amazingly tricky here. My knowledge of sheep stomachs is growing exponentially but not all of it tells me what I want to know. The general word (including Alan Davidson) is that it’s “the big stomach” that's used, though you can obviously find online dissenters. There's a commercially available "Lamb's Traditional Haggis" which claims to use "the smaller stomach," whatever that might mean. Here’s an anatomical diagram.
That image comes from this website:
There you will also find this handy chart:
Capacities of digestive tract of mature sheep | |
. Compartment | . Capacity |
Reticulum Rumen Omasum Abomasum | 1.2 to 2.0 quarts 5.0 to 10.0 gallons 0.5 to 1.0 quarts 2.0 to 3.0 gallons |
Small intestines | 2.0 to 2.5 gallons (80 ft) |
Large intestines | 1.5 to 2.0 quarts |
The site tells us that the reticulum is honeycombed, so I think we can definitely rule that one out.
So it appears the rumen is the most likely. It’s certainly the biggest stomach, though a ten gallon haggis would be a fearsome object and I certainly don't think I've ever seen one that big, though I'd definitely like to.
Its the abomasum, which functions more like our stomach, that is used.
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