Why farm house faggots are still a popular British dish

Farm house faggotsLove them or hate them, farm house faggots remain a popular British dish, with tens of millions of them being eaten every year. But what are they exactly?

Faggots are a bit like meatballs, though they tend to be larger in size than a traditional meatball.  Faggots are made from off-cut meats which are mixed with breadcrumbs and then packed into a membrane.  They became very popular during the food rationing in World War II when the use of offal and leftover meats were essential when meat was scarce, making them a cheap but nutritious dish.

Sometimes deemed as ‘the poor man’s food’, faggots fell out of fashion for a while but have something of a revival over recent years all over the UK.

How Faggots are Made

Faggots are usually made from offal, mainly pork products, and other bits of the animal that are discarded such as belly, liver and heart.

This may not sound particularly appetizing, but the meats are mixed with breadcrumbs herbs and spices, rolled into ball and wrapped in a caul membrane to hold the together, which is what makes the good old faggot so unique.

Faggots are readily available in most butchers like Hugh Phillips Gower Butchers who have a shop in the award-winning Swansea Market.  These special recipe farm house faggots are made from a family recipe handed down from two generations and are also available to order online from their website https://bestonlinebutcher.co.uk/product/faggots/

What to Serve with Farm House Faggots

The most popular way to serve faggots is with peas. These are usually mushy peas and often accompanied by creamy mashed potatoes and a good dollop of onion gravy, baked in the oven for around 45 minutes.

If you fancy a go at making your own, here’s a simple faggot recipe to try out yourself on the All Recipes website.

To find out how Hugh Phillips Gower Butchers make their own farm house faggots click on the link to the website below:

Farm house faggots

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