faggots

[jarma]

ok thought i'd post a recipe for good old black country faggots for any one thats interested
the black country is an area of the central u.k. that started a lot of industries in the 1800's and got so called by queen Victoria because of the dirty black smoke from the many industry's there, anyway enough of history, heres the recipe passed down to me from my late mother,...

2x sheeps or pigs hearts
1lb of pigs liver
2x large onions
2 packs of sage and onion stuffing (50g ea) or 100g rusk and tbsp dried or fresh(chopped) sage
1 pigs caul or 1lb of streaky bacon
1tbsp salt
1 tbsp black pepper

cut off any gristle that may be attached to hearts and liver if any present,cut up into both into quarters, boil in slightly salted water for 20 min or untill no blood runs red if firmly pricked, if still runs red boil for another 10 mins.
chop onions again boil these in salted water until soft (keep water after cooking)
righty oh! mincer out!
drain meats and when cool enough to handle,coarsely mince liver and heart and put aside in large mixing bowl
drain the onions, let cool, remember to keep the delicious water from these to one side
add the onions to your bowl of liver and heart and loosely mix by hand then, if using packet of stuffing mix( believe me its easier) mix the water from the onions as per the instructions on pack,add to mix,or add rusk and sage to mix and add 100 ml of the onion water,add the salt and pepper,... now for the fun...
mix the whole lot together then re-mince again using large plate.

re-cap
for the mix...
mix, minced meat,...onions...stuffing(packet or rusk/herb mix but NOT both)...seasoning.
mince.
simple?
you should end up with a sausage meat like consistency

if you can get your hands on any pig caul fat , thats fine use that, but it may be difficult to get hold of, if not use streaky bacon to do the following.

method 1

soak caul fat iin luke warm water to soften and then rinse, stretch out on you clean worktop, it may stretch further than you think so make plenty room, roll your faggot mix by hand into fist size balls(ok 3 inches diameter), lay them on the caul fat allowing enough space between them so that when you cut a square around each one there's enough to completely wrap the faggot up when in the membrane(caul fat )...a 5 inch square of caul is usually enough.
do this until all are wrapped up and look a little like small haggises.
bake on a baking tray in medium hot oven for half an hour or until the caul fat wrapper is a golden brown colour.
serve with your favorite veg and gravy.

method 2

same as above but if no caul fat is available wrap faggot balls in thin cut streaky bacon use 2 or 3 slices if necessary , it streches a good way so will cover well and also gives a more crispy jacket after cooking.

one final thing.... my apologies to anyone offended but,.... a faggot in the u.k. is a meat ball.
enjoy.

[johnfb]

Great post thanks
John

[dave zac]

Interesting recipe indeed. Just this past weekend I made Farmers liver sausage. The ingredients were very much the same (except for the bacon). After tasting, I found it very good but a bit dry. At the time I thought I could have used a bit of fat. My only concern would be that the smokey bacon flavor would be too strong for the milder liver flavor.

That being said I did also smoke some of it as a braunschweiger sausage.

Excellent if you enjoy liver. I do believe I will try the faggots recipe.