Faggot (food)
Faggots are a traditional dish in the UK,[1][2] especially South and Mid Wales and the Midlands of England.[3][4][5] It is made from meat off-cuts and offal, especially pork.[3] A faggot is traditionally made from pig's heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon minced together, with herbs added for flavouring and sometimes bread crumbs.
Faggots are also known as "ducks" in the Midlands, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Lancashire, often as "savoury ducks".
The first use in print cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is in 1851, from Thomas Mayhew, although this appears to be a calzone- or pasty-like dish, with an outer wrapper of caul, covering a filling of mixed pork offal. This was in London.
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Preparation and serving [edit]
Commonly, the faggot consists of pork liver and heart minced, wrapped in bacon, with onion and breadcrumbs. Often, the faggot should be cooked in a crock, with gravy and served with peas and mashed potato. The mixture is shaped in the hand into little balls, wrapped round with caul fat (the omentum membrane from the pig's abdomen), and baked.
Another variation of faggot is Pig's fry wrapped in pig's caul: the pig's fry and boiled onions are minced (ground) together then mixed with breadcrumbs or cold boiled potatoes, seasoned with sage, mixed herbs and pepper, all beaten together and then wrapped in small pieces of caul to form a ball. These are then baked in the oven and are usually served cold.[6]
Production [edit]
The dish saw its greatest popularity with the rationing during World War II but has become less popular in recent years.[citation needed] Faggots are usually homemade and are to be found in traditional butchers' shops and market stalls, though larger supermarkets generally stock the 'Mr Brains' brand of mass-produced faggot.
The best-known commercial brand is Mr Brain's Faggots, a frozen food product available in Britain, which is made of liver and onions rolled into meatballs and served in a sauce. These differ significantly from traditional faggots, which have a coarser texture and contain much less water.
A popular dish is "Faggots and Peas". This is a common combination in the Black Country area of the West Midlands, especially so since the 18th century industrialisation onwards, but also for hundreds of years prior. It is still common to see small butchers' shops in the area selling faggots to their own (sometimes secret) recipe for a cheap price.
Satire [edit]
Pictures of the product are a popular joke in some Western countries because of additional meanings of the name. In 2004 a radio advert by the UK supermarket chain Somerfield in which an American man rejected his own wife on suggesting the dinner saying "I've got nothing against faggots, I just don't fancy them" was found to have breached the Advertising and Sponsorship Code and was banned by the industry regulator Ofcom.[7]
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ "Family of faggot fans fly the flag". BBC News Online. 27 January 2003. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
- ^ "Neath is Wales's Faggots 'n' Peas capital". Wales Online. 11 August 2009. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
- ^ a b "The West Midlands, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire". Great British Kitchen. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
- ^ "The Dangers of Bad Teeth". The Times. 6 January 1914. p. 2. "A 'faggot' was described as being composed of pieces of meat, with fat and gristle in it. A verdict of 'Death from natural causes' was returned." (payment required)
- ^ "Doctor warns the faggot eaters". The Times. 23 May 1968. p. 4. (payment required)
- ^ Lizzie Boyd, ed. (May 1979). British Cookery: A Complete Guide to Culinary Practice in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Viking Press. ISBN 0-87951-087-0.
- ^ "Advertising complaints bulletin, Issue number A13" (PDF). Ofcom. 5 July 2004. p. 10. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 30 September 2007.
