Scots throughout Britain will be tucking into their national dish tomorrow as many of them celebrate the anniversary of the birth of their favourite son Rabbie Burns.

And while this great tradition of making and eating haggis is generally associated with those emanating from north of the border, a local butchers and delicatessen shop has been hard at work over the past week turning out the dish for its customers.

Legges of Bromyard has been making haggis for seven or eight years and they have received high praise for the Scottish delicacy.

Anthony Legge, who runs the business, said: “Last year there were some Scottish people in this area for a local shoot and they had our haggis. They said it was one of the best they had ever tasted.”

Legges, which was established in 2000, and had been supplying haggis, brought in from Scotland, to its customers at this time of the year.

Anthony explained: “In our first few years we were having haggis sent to us from Scotland. We were let down by one of our suppliers and then I thought ‘It can’t be difficult to make them’. We looked up and found some traditional recipes and started making our own.

“Haggis is a by product of the meat we are already selling. Our own lambs are slaughtered and we have all the offal back. Haggis is a specialist food but because we are a traditional butchers, we can make them.

“We tend to just make them at this time of the year and we make a batch for freezing which we sell from frozen when people want them.

“We only make a small one that is about 1lb in weight. It seems our customers do not want them bigger. It is very rich and by the time you have the mashed potatoes, swede and whisky you don’t want a big portion of haggis.”

Legges make their haggis to a traditional recipe using lambs lungs (otherwise known as lights), lambs heart and fat, oats and seasoning.

Anthony, who is celebrating his 40th birthday this week, says they produce about 200 a year and he admits that the ingredients do not appeal to everyone. But this year they are offering people a gentle introduction to the dish by making haggis sausages, which are a half and half mixture of sausage and haggis.

“The older generation would have been glad of offal during the war. A lot of it now would go for dog food. From our point of view, being able to use the offal is great. We also make a lot of faggots which is pig’s liver and pork.”

Anthony says he really likes haggis and takes the opportunity of enjoying some while he tests each batch has reached the correct cooking temperature.

“I am the only one in the shop who likes it and every time I test one in a batch to make sure it has reached the right cooking temperature, the haggis splits open and I have a taste,” he says.

A 1lb Legge haggis costs £5 and Anthony says it is enough to feed a family of four comfortable with potatoes (tatties) and vegetables (neeps/swede on Burns night).

Anyone going to an organised Burns Night Supper tomorrow will get a sense of its deep traditional roots as the haggis is carried into the room on a silver salver followed by a piper playing a suitable, rousing accompaniment.

Robert Burns poem ‘Address To A Haggis’ is then recited before the haggis is theatrically cut open with a ceremonial dagger.

For those enjoying a less formal feast the first two lines from Burns’ poem might be enough:

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!

And, for the uninitiated, the English translation is:

Fair and full is your honest, jolly face,

Great chieftain of the sausage race!