Scottish Meat Pie Company

[friscofrog]

In my quest for haggis in honor of the upcoming Robert Burns birthday I found this "bakery" in Dixon, CA near Davis which makes haggis and various meat pies. Has anyone had any experiences with them? Is it worth a trek out to Dixon? Since Noble pies vanished from Oakland I have not found a source of reliable meat pies.

[choocktor42]

Alas, the Scottish Meat Pie Company is no more, they closed in March 2009. Anyone found anything comparable in the N Cal. area??

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Scottish Meat Pie
245 N 1st St, Dixon, CA

[KS1]

OK. Just got the full story for Alec, the former owner. He did close the Scottish Meat Pie Company because it was too much work, but he moved all of the commercial kitchen implements to his house. If you call the number for Scottish Meat Pie Company, Alec is willing to make you a haggis. We ordered one up and then stopped by in Davis and met him and picked it up. Haven't tasted it yet, and as I am Japanese and I have never had haggis, I don't feel qualified to offer up a review once I have. Also got a meat pie and blood sausage!

[wolfe]

KS1 your take on it will be fascinating as most of the rest of us have never had it either.
For hagese'.
Þe hert of schepe, þe nere þou take,
Þo bowel noght þou shalle forsake,
On þe turbilen made, and boyled wele,
Hacke alle togeder with gode persole,

[Joan Kureczka]

I've had it a number of times in Scotland, but upscale versions where the amount of liver was toned down I think. In that case, it was very good -- sort of a sausage filling with oatmeal.

In SF, I only had it a couple times when Edinburgh Castle did their Burns Night Celebration and that was nasty and way too liverish for my taste.

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Edinburgh Castle
950 Geary St, San Francisco, CA

[pugmom11235]

Hi Joan. What you had (haggis) is usually known as Tourist Haggas. It is good, like a pate, but doesn't have alot of liver or other "guts" that are used with real haggis. You were very brave to try it - most wouldn't go near it if they were offered a million dollars to try it. I have had the real thing - not bad, if you can get past the ingredients, but let me tell you - heartburn that could light up all of Texas!

[KS1]

I think that this describes the one the we got from the Scottish Meat Pie guy, Alec. There seemed to be a lot of grains (not oatmeal, more of a small, quinoa-ish grain) and it was not particularly gamy. I like liver, and I eat a lot of other organ meats, and in comparison, this was not like that. Sausage filling is a good way to describe it, although with a slightly different flavoring than any other type of sausage. I also picked up a blood sausage (it appears to be made by some other company from the wrapping) and that was definitely gamier and less refined, but quite tasty if you like that sort of thing (my wife refused to eat it because of the smell, if that helps.)

Sorry, I can't be any clearer than that, but I'm not very good at describing flavors that are unlike any others I've tried. Overall, however, I found it to be a very worthwhile experiment!

[rworange]

That was a great description. I hope you post more. Thanks

[Sharpish]

Haggis usually contains barley, and that's probably the "quinoa-ish" grain you're referring to. Blood sausage is a different beast altogether. I love them both!

[CarrieWas218]

Sharpish - completely disagree... Haggis traditionally contains oatmeal, not barley. And if cut differently, it could have been the grain described as not oatmeal is cut or made the same.

[Joan Kureczka]

Well, maybe so Pugmom, but as 3 of the 5 offerings I tried over the years were at some of Glasgow's best restaurants, including the very traditional Ubiquitous Chip, I wouldn't label them "tourist". Probably the most livery version -- but still quite good -- was at the only place we've been that you could definitely point to as being for the tourists, up on Loch Ness. And no bravery was required in any case, all versions being quite decent. The best was probably Stravaigin's which indeed did win an award for Best Haggis in Scotland in 2005.

[rworange]

OK ... let's try this link one more time. Nice article about the place from the Sacramento Bee
http://www.sacbee.com/117/story/83253...

"Alex Henderson and his daughter, Saundra, run the restaurant and make everything from scratch using traditional recipes. They sell their goods at Celtic fairs and Highland games around the state"

Here's what is on the menu: Scottish pies (ground beef, turkey, and vegetables), bangors, haggis, sandwiches, Heinz beans on toast and hot dogs.

They also have a few groceries such as black pudding, Irish back bacon, HP Sauce.

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Scottish Meat Pie
245 N 1st St, Dixon, CA

[Sharpish]

My parents both immigrated from Scotland and I lived in Glasgow for a while where I consumed my weight in Haggis Supppers from the local chippy's. Everyone has different taste, but I can tell you this. Their pies and haggis are closer to what you get in Scotland than anyone else's I've had here in the states. Granted, meat pies are not chalk-full of spices, but they are good, simple honest Scottish food. His haggis can't be beat by anyone out here.

So yes...it is definitely worth a trip to buy some pies or haggis!!!

[Mongrel]

When I lived in Sacramento I would make regular treks out to the Scottish Meat Pie Company. More often than not I would get bangers (tasty!). On occassion I would get the meat pies. The haggis is quite nice, but difficult to get from them sometimes. They are often out of stock. In fact, I don't think that they even make it most of the year. They only start making it in preparation for Robert Burns birthday. I would strongly recommend calling ahead to find out what they have in stock or maybe put in an advance order. Their hours aren't the most convenient and it's a long trip to make to go home empty handed.

Enjoy!

[hungryshannon]

I had one of their meat pies at the Scottish Games in Oakland recently. It was ok. Small and not that flavorful but ok. Crust was kind of gummy I thought.

[MichaelTodd]

I have nothing but good to say about the Scottish Meat Pie Company.Being an English exile living in Vallejo I make regular trips to Dixon to stock up on pies, haggis, sausage and black pudding all the things I miss from home and they are every bit as goos as my local butchers was.
I would highly recommend them to eny British ex pat or the curious American.

[Melanie Wong]

Here's a post from a customer, but no tasting report -
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...