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Home made traditional food

Stokkie

Stokkie

master brummie
The thread on Fish and Chip shops developed into home made faggots and home smoking of foods. I thought I'd post a few recipes.

Faggots. At home we used pig meat, but other meats can be used in the mix and the spicing can be simple or elaborate. The chefs have taken an interest in offal and their recipes are elaborate. But here is a simple one.

1 lb pig's fry (lights, liver, heart & melt)
1 pig's caul
3 small onions
3oz breadcrumbs
1/4 oz salt
1/4 oz white pepper
1/4 oz ginger
1/4 oz sage

Soak caul in tepid water. Cover pig's fry and onions with water. Simmer for an hour. Drain off liquid. Pour a little of the liquor on the crumbs; keep remainder for gravy. Mince pig's fry, onion and breadcrumbs. Add seasoning to taste. Beat to a paste with a fork, cut caul into 4-inch squares, form mixture into balls, cover with caul, place on greased tin and cook until brown in hot oven. Mary Horrell, Exeter. Source Mary Norwak & Babs Honey Farmhouse Cooking Sphere 1973.

Lights are lungs, melt is the pancreas or other glands 'sweetbreads', Caul often called kell in Black Country is the fatty semi-transparent membrane found around the stomach.

A traditional quality butcher would know what you are talking about. You can make substitutions with other meats, lambs liver and heart etc. Streaky bacon can be substituted for kell if unobtainable. I wrap the faggot entirely rather than just put it on top as mom did it this way. The health conscious can pour off excess fat part way through cooking and the reserved liquor from the meats can be added to the faggots if they look too dry. The bottom should be wet and the top nicely browned.
Derek
 
there was a good thread on but it closed

What Are Faggots?

Some one at the start of this topic mentioned Faggots as being a bundle of wood or firewood. The term "Faggots" was used in Tudor times to refer to firewood. I read a book a few months ago about Tudor times and when they burned someone at the stake the book said they put "faggots" round the...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
Peas to accompany. In the UK shops sell tinned mushy peas, or you can buy dried Marrowfat peas and soak them overnight with the accompanying bicarbonate of soda tablet. We never had grey peas at home, but I ate them recently with rice.
Carlin peas, black peas, or grey peas (I think these are the same) can be bought dry and soaked overnight. A firm called Hodmedod's sells Shropshire grown organic carlin peas and suggests serving them with vinegar and salt. Don't add salt to the cooking water as this stops them softening. They are called Maple Peas, Pigeon Peas, Brown Peas and Black or Grey Badgers and have been eaten in the UK since Elizabethan times.
 
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I've never heard of cooking peas in carbolic? Thought it was soap!
My ex-husband made proper home-made faggots once but they made him very ill, I've only ever had "Brain's" since.
rosie.
 
rosie said:
I've never heard of cooking peas in carbolic? Thought it was soap!
My ex-husband made proper home-made faggots once but they made him very ill, I've only ever had "Brain's" since.
rosie.
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Don't do that Rosie! If there is a carbolic tablet as opposed to bicarbonate of soda you just steep it overnight then rinse well and pour the water away, cook in fresh water. In fact I'll remove my reference to carbolic as lye or caustic soda are generally not used in cooking in Britain except for making proper pretzels and you should use a food grade and dilute it properly. Stick to bicarbonate.

Sorry about the faggots! Brain's are not what they were. Some of the butcher's faggots are better in my opinion.
 
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I used to live in Yorkshire where faggots were known as savoury ducks. My Mum and Dad used to go to a pub in Henley in Arden to eat faggots and peas.
 
I am a fan of traditional food too. I avoid anything that my grandmother would not recognise as food. Most certainly ready prepared, processed or ultra-processed food.

I make my own bacon and have a smoker up the top of the garden. Oak sawdust or other fruit woods are a far superior taste and smell than the smoking liquid used on commercial bought bacon.

Smoler-1.jpgSmoker-2.jpg
 
i would love a lump of moist bread home made pudding,i have not seen or had any for yonks.
smoked yellow haddock in butter

:yum
 
My brother in law worked as a butcher from when he left school until he emigrated to Oz, I won't name the company, might get sued;) but he said for both sausages and faggots one of the 'make weights' was sawdust from the shop floor.
 
mw0njm. said:
i have heard of putting bread crumbs in the sausages to make the weight up
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You either use bran or breadcrumbs in sausage to help bind it together and give it some texture. Its just that some butchers over did the bran. Interestingly, fat content also affects the taste and mouth feel of sausage. Too little fat and the sausage is too dry and cardboard tasting.
 
Morturn said:
I am a fan of traditional food too. I avoid anything that my grandmother would not recognise as food. Most certainly ready prepared, processed or ultra-processed food.

I make my own bacon and have a smoker up the top of the garden. Oak sawdust or other fruit woods are a far superior taste and smell than the smoking liquid used on commercial bought bacon.

View attachment 172770View attachment 172771
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Very nice set-up. Thanks for your pictures.
 
Talking of mushy peas, we always had the dried peas from a box, soaked with the bicarb tablet contained in the box. Seem to remember they took a long time to soak. I don't think you could even buy tinned mushy peas back then - 1950s ish.

I remember learning to make shortbread at school. And so I became the expert at home in making shortbread. Far superior to ready made biscuits. Lovely and buttery. Viv.
 
Stokkie said:
Don't do that Rosie! If there is a carbolic tablet as opposed to bicarbonate of soda you just steep it overnight then rinse well and pour the water away, cook in fresh water. In fact I'll remove my reference to carbolic as lye or caustic soda are generally not used in cooking in Britain except for making proper pretzels and you should use a food grade and dilute it properly. Stick to bicarbonate.

Sorry about the faggots! Brain's are not what they were. Some of the butcher's faggots are better in my opinion.
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Mine aren't either Stokkie !!!!
 
pjmburns said:
I made bread pudding this weekend.
Trouble is you don't really get stale bread these days - especially if you freeze loaves.
Love the slightly well done currants and sultanas.
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I have not had bread pudding for years. Asda do one but the reviews are mostly awful and at £3.50 not worth the risk.
 
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