Burns Night 2021: the best recipes, deals on haggis, whiskeys and more

Burns Night is almost here and if you’ll be celebrating at home, then it’s best to be prepared.

Whilst things will be a little different this year, there’s no reason you can’t have fun indoors.

And the good news is you don’t need to break the bank to enjoy a delicious Burns Night supper.

Taking place on the 25th January each year, Burns Night is a celebration of the life and legacy of the Scottish poet Robert Burns.

To help you celebrate without overspending, we tracked down the cheapest deals on everything you need for your feast including haggis and vegetarian haggis, potatoes, vegetables and – of course – whisky.

Haggis

No Burns Night supper is complete without “great chieftan of the pudding race”.

Most major supermarkets sell haggis and you can usually find it next to the sausages. Here are the stores doing the cheapest prices:

Burns Night recipe ideas

Your menu

• Potato wafers with smoked salmon and watercress
• Haggis, clapshot and whisky sauce
• Scotch
• Cranachan

A Burns Night feast typically includes haggis, a type of sausage prepared in a sheep’s stomach that is minced with onion, oatmeal, suet (raw beef or lamb fat), spices, and salt, mixed with stock.

The meat and veg is usually smothered in a cream sauce – traditional Scots brand Macsween does a packet version for £1.20 at Sainsbury’s.

You might also want to snap up some cheap winter vegetables, or as the Scots call them, “neeps and tatties”.

Where to buy Neeps and Tatties

These are the cheapest places to buy everything you need to go alongside your haggis:

How to make a Robert Burns cocktail

Drinks retailer Bottle Club have revealed one of its best-selling whisky cocktails, perfect for celebrations indoors.

The Robert Burns is one of the classic cocktails that pays tribute to another of Scotland’s finest exports.

The drink is a delightful, sophisticated mix that builds on the scotch-vermouth combination of Rob Roy. The addition of absinthe brings in a nice contrasting flavour, but be sure to keep this to a dash, as it can easily overpower the drink.

If absinthe is a bit too much for your taste, there is a variation called the Bobby Burns which omits absinthe for Bénédictine (£26.89).

Whether this drink was named after him or not, it’s a great choice for the celebration.

Ingredients:

• 2 Ounces Scotch Whisky
• ¾ Ounce Sweet Vermouth

• Dash Orange Bitters

• Dash Absinthe

Where are the cheapest places to buy whiskey?

A huge whiskey fan, Robert Burns once wrote: “Let other poets raise a fracas, Bout vines, an’ wines, an’ Drucken Bacchus… I sing the juice Scotch bear can make us, In glass or jug.”

Below are some of our top picks:

Want more info on whiskey? Here’s 11 of our favourite Scotch whiskies available to buy right now.