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What Are Faggots?

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you would be suprised how many recipes call for celery. Fresh celery breaks down easly while being cooked so it becmes hard to detect but adds wonderful flavour.
Jean i allways ad garlic to the chaul, lovely spread on hot butterd toast.
 
I make Chilli and always chop and fry celery together with an onion - and I add a small square of dark chocolate. :)
 
"faggot Faggots are a traditional British product of the pig. The animal's liver, lights, heart, and spleen are minced up, mixed with belly of pork, onion, and usually breadcrumbs, moulded into billiard-ball shapes (covered preferably with the pig's caul fat), and then braised in stock."
From An A-Z of Food and Drink; by JOHN AYTO.

Had them home made when I was young, but they were called 'Rissoles'.
Accidentally asked if 'We were going to have A***holes for dinner' once - a smacked ear was the answer!

"Faggots 'n Pays" (Faggots and mushy peas) is a modern 'traditional' Black Country meal, sometimes see it on restaurant and Pub menus.
 
Celery

Can't stand the stuff raw, but I always have it chopped up in stews and casseroles. A totally different taste when cooked. Mmmmm!


"When asked which body part I would least like to lose, I replied 'My Navel - I eat celery in bed and it's a convenient place to keep the salt!' "
-Gerard Hoffnung, one of Britain's lost comic geniuses.
 
Had them home made when I was young, but they were called 'Rissoles'
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I think you will find rissole's are a little different. They are usually fried and not stuffed into a skin casing like faggot's and cooked in the oven. There are many variations of rissole's as well, much like chicken patties or even vegetable patties which we usually buy rather than make. :) Mo
 
Faggots

We have faggots on a regular basis at least once a month and even my son likes them so I have got at least one member of the next generation to carry on with them.
Another thing I can remember having was pigs trotters usually late on a saturday with loads of salt and pepper. The nearest place I have seen these sold is a butcher in Walsall.
Anybody remember ovaltine tablets?
 
Sure do. :) If you took the paper off and licked them they lasted for hours. :D

(Best if you take your email off and used bookworm as your avatar, or you will be weighed down by spam in your box)
 
Had faggots for our evening meal last night......... They were very nice, and I can report that they were not at all made of fat:D We didnt have mushy peas either so I can happily report no problems with digestion or pestilential vapors :p
 
re faggots and wierd food

I was thinking about yesterdays posts,At the end of the day one of the reasons we had such things as faggots and peas,pigs feet,etc,Is becouse
our moms and dads could not afford much more,We should not critiside should we,they done a bloody good job looking after us, did they not.bringing us up.I know mine did, mom thought the world of us kids.
 
I cant think of anything about how I was brought up which I felt I could criticise my parents Peter. Most of the foods I loved and ate regularly as a child I still eat now, because they are favourites. Sure like many others we eat more variety now, and things which might have been prohibitively expensive back then, but I always get most of my eating pleasure from foods from my past.

A lot of those things that were cheap back then are quite expensive now? Funny how the worlds turns isnt it?
 
I totally agree Rod...It was very unusual for any family to have such meals as steak and even chops on a regular basis. Have you seen the price of oxtails lately? I refuse to pay such a high price for a few tail sections! Beef and Pork ribs are another item that were barely used years ago but certainly the grocery stores charge a small fortune for a bundle of bones. Not to mention Prime Rib of Beef bones, they cost as much as a roast used to a few years ago. That familiar phrase "They used to throw those things at you for almost nothing" comes to mind with quite a few familiar food items these days. Another one is Haddock and several other fish items which were quite reasonable years ago but are no longer affordable for a lot of people.
For many years after WW2 in Britain it was extremely hard for all but the wealthy families to eat really well. There were all kinds of shortages.
One of my favourite meals today is cauliflower cheese. This was a meal my Mother served frequently years ago. When meat was short this meal was
very popular served with mashed potatoes. I made some today.
My father`s family were from Wolverhampton and he had a liking for
many different kinds of Black Country foods, He liked Tripe, Cows Cheeks, Brains, Pig`s feet, Faggots. Side of Pork and Broad Beans, Lamb with Caper Sauce and Black Pudding. He also liked Jellied eels.
Certainly very tasty foods but many not so popular today.

Brewin Books publishes this book by writers Ghislaine Povey and Richard Jones. `The Good Faggot Guide`sounds intriguing. https://www.brewinbooks.com/Birmingham files/faggottext.htm
 
The food we ate and the places we lived all go together as part of our memories...........as you say I would,nt critisise the food. The times were wonderful even if sometime hard.
 
Thanks for welcome Alf. I am new to this type of forum and am finding my way around the site!
 
I'll give you a week to reach your Peak wdeb,:D then you will be welcoming New Members.
 
ovaltine tablets

Sorry Sakura I know they did bring them ack a few years ago for a few months but I don't think they have been in regular production for many years, neither has Ovaltine Chocolate.
More's the pity as it was more to my taste then the one made in Birmingham or is that treason.:taste
 
I remember Horlicks Tablets in a tin. They used to sell them in the Co-op grocery on Stockland Green in the mid l950's. Haven't seen them for years. I can't say I remember the Ovaltine tablets though.
 
Mofly - Believe it or not we can get Ovaltine drink in a tin in the super market here. I think we can get Horlicks drink as well can't we Jenny! Make be I am getting mixed up with the Horlicks tablets as I remember those in a tin. Time does play tricks on your memory doesn't it?:headhit:MO
 
Ovaltine

We can get tins of Ovaltine to make drinks with but I am on about bars of Ovaltine chocolate which if I remember right were a bit paler than the milk chocolate bars but were not white.
Amazing how your memory is triggered by something someone says which is completely unrelated.
regards
Maureen
 
Mrs T said:
" Brain's Faggotts"

The name it self just puts me off..:Aah:
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Hi Mrs T, Oh what I would give for a feed of "brains" faggots sadly I cant get them in Australia. My sister sent me a recipe long ago and I did make some but were not quite the same.
 
Rod said:
You can buy fresh faggots in Tamworth, they are nice but if you have a mind they are better made at home. I like Brains too, but theyre not as tasty as they used to be?

The following recipe makes nice faggots. We didnt use the Pigs Caul it's the lining from the pigs stomach I believe. I spose you could buy it from a pork butcher who butchers their own pigs?

1 lb. pig's liver
2 medium onions
4 oz. fat pork
Pinch of thyme
Generous 1/2 teaspoon powdered sage
Pinch of basil
Salt and pepper
Pinch grated nutmeg
1 egg
Breadcrumbs
Pig's caul

Slice the liver, onions and pork thinly. Put in a saucepan with the thyme, sage, basil, salt, pepper and nutmeg and barely cover with water.
Simmer for 1/2 hour, then strain off the liquid and save for the gravy.
Mince the contents of the stewpan finely.
Add the beaten egg and sufficient breadcrumbs to make into a fairly firm mixture and mix thoroughly.
Form into balls and enclose each one in a piece of caul.
Place in baking tin, and add a little gravy.
Bake at 400 until nicely browned.
Serve with a good thickened gravy.
If preferred, the mixture can be pressed into a well greased baking tin and marked into squares. Cover with caul and cut into squares after cooking.
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Thank you Rod for this recipe i will try this , I have made some faggots from a recipe my sister once sent me but it wasn't quite the same as the ones I remember but still tasty. Hope I can get pigs liver here in Australia, you don't see them often the aussies don't seem to like offal.
 
this is the problem when we move away from our native country...my daughter married an american lad and has lived in grand forks north dakota for 9 years now...still got a perfect brummie accent:) but she does miss certain products and food....she can however order certain things online which is what she does where permitted...ps i now fancy a bowl of brains faggots with mushy peas and gravy:grinning:the home made ones at the black country living museum are nice as well

lyn
 
Astoness said:
this is the problem when we move away from our native country...my daughter married an american lad and has lived in grand forks north dakota for 9 years now...still got a perfect brummie accent:) but she does miss certain products and food....she can however order certain things online which is what she does where permitted...ps i now fancy a bowl of brains faggots with mushy peas and gravy:grinning:the home made ones at the black country living museum are nice as well

lyn
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Hi Astoness, Don't get me started on missing foods I love ! I so miss gammon with pineapple, you don't get gammon in Australia, oh and tinned roe, not a tin in sight here, I am sad to say. I have even brought a tin or too back when I have been back for a holiday . I can make mushy peas of a sort with the dried peas we get here but they are not true mushy peas I had as a child.I miss smoked haddock too and a lovely soft malt loaf, oh I could go on and on ....a couple of supermarkets do stock a few British food items and I do treat myself if I see something however they are very expensive.
Wendy
 
Hi M
mofly said:
Faggots

We have faggots on a regular basis at least once a month and even my son likes them so I have got at least one member of the next generation to carry on with them.
Another thing I can remember having was pigs trotters usually late on a saturday with loads of salt and pepper. The nearest place I have seen these sold is a butcher in Walsall.
Anybody remember ovaltine tablets?
Click to expand...
mw0njm said:
re faggots and wierd food

I was thinking about yesterdays posts,At the end of the day one of the reasons we had such things as faggots and peas,pigs feet,etc,Is becouse
our moms and dads could not afford much more,We should not critiside should we,they done a bloody good job looking after us, did they not.bringing us up.I know mine did, mom thought the world of us kids.
Click to expand...

Mmm pigs trotters sound disgusting but I loved them when I was kid. I cant remember ovaltine tablets but I remember the small rolls of horlicks tablets...loved them.
Wendy
 
our dad loved tripe and onions..to this day i can see it being bought from a shop on the lozells road...oh and chittlings as well which i loved
 
I am Cook by name but not but not by nature, so I have to by my faggots usually Brains frozen. I add mashed potatoes and mushy peas and a bit of ketchup about once a week. Eric
 
mw0njm said:
re faggots etc

One thing i did love,and would still nosh now if i could get it is jamaker ginger cake.yumyum. pete
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We were in a shop in Brittany last week. A shop specialising in English foods and they had precisely that.

Also Golden Syrup cake.
 
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