Have you ever tried a fa.ggot if so what does it taste like and what is the best brand?

Answer 1

Faggots for tea - yum, yum. I sent Mark to the supermarket in search of something 'different' and this is what he came back with. I've not had them for ages (just never think to buy them!) and just scoffed 2 with chips and peas and they were delicious. The particular faggots I'm writing about are 'Mr Brain's 4 pork faggots in a rich west country sauce.' And what a clever chap Mr Brain's is - who would have thought something as revolting as pork liver could be made into something so thoroughly lovely.

They come in a yellow box which shows a picture of 2 steaming faggots, a pile of buttery mash and perfect peas on a plate with lovely looking thick gravy. The front of the box also tells you they are indeed Mr Brain's 4 Pork Faggots in a Rich West Country Sauce and they are made using a 'traditional pork recipe'. The front also lets you know that you have brought the 378g pack (ie. 4 faggots) The back of the box is a yellowy-orange colour with masses of writing (why do companies have to put so much damn small print on something as basic as faggots?). The ingredients list is there, along with storage instructions, nutritional information, cooking guidelines and contact information.

oOoOoOo INGREDIENTS oOoOoOo

Nothing too surprising here - the main ingredient is water and theres 11% pork in the faggots, which is a mixture of pork and pork liver. Pork rind is also included as is onion and various other bits and pieces. The only E number is E150c which is (apparently) a colouring agent.

oOoOoOo STORAGE oOoOoOo

This is where it gets a bit confusing. If your freezer has one star you can keep it for 1 week from date of purchase, two stars you can keep for 1 month from purchase, three and four stars mean you can keep it right up till the best before date. And do I have any idea how many stars my freezer has? Do I heck as like! If you don't have a freezer, you can keep your faggots in the ice making compartment for 3 days and in the fridge for 12 hours.

oOoOoOo NUTRITIONAL INFO oOoOoOo

These faggots are very high in fat (12.5g per 189g cooked, ie. 2 faggots), but not too bad in the calorie stakes with only 242 cals per 2 cooked faggots. Also a HUGE carbohydrate level of 22.5g per 2 cooked faggots. So if you're following a low carbohydrate diet these might just take you over the edge!

oOoOoOo COOKING oOoOoOo

You can cook these in the oven (Gas Mark 8 for 30 - 40 minutes) or microwave them (which I didn't know and don't fancy the idea of mic-ed faggots) for roughly 10 minutes, stirring the sauce a couple of times. If you're going to microwave them TAKE THEM OUT OF THE FOIL PACKAGING or your microwave might blow up! The heating guidelines important information reads - 'For best results always cook from frozen. Cooking times are a guideline only as variations between various appliances can occur. Ensure product is piping hot throughout before serving. Handle hot lid and container carefully. Do not reheat once cooked.'

I took my faggots out of the box and was confronted with a foil carton (like what you get from the chinese) covered with a card lid. Before you cook the faggots, you have to loosen the edge of the foil around the lid and put it in the oven. Easy peasy. Make sure you don't loosen the lid too much though or the bottom of your cooker will be covered in gravy! Now cooking them is a bit of a hit & miss affair. Because they're completely covered by the foil container and lid you have to time them perfectly or you either end up with hardly any gravy or worse, faggots that are still cold in the middle! Lovely - NOT! I find its best to cook them for the full 40 mins cos in my oven they're never cooked properly after 30 mins. I love faggots and chips so halfway though cooking I put my oven chips in because the brilliant thing about Mr Brain's faggots is they arre cooked at Gas Mark 8, which is the same temp as most oven chips.

When they're cooked I remove the lid and use a spoon to put the faggots on the plates (2 each is perfect for me and Mark), put the chips and peas on the plate and pour the gravy over the chps. It can be a bit fiddly to get the faggots out in one piece because the bottoms can stick to the container, but I find a firm shove (for want of a better word) with the spoon will dislodge the bottoms of the faggots and they'll come out in perfect balls. They smell great, really meaty and rich. They look really nice too, like a traditional English dinner - large meatball looking faggots which are a rich dark brown and the gravy is very thick and a slightly lighter brown than the actual faggots.

And they taste gorgeous. Theres a slightly spicy taste to them, which is hard to describe because the spice comes in as more of an aftertaste. You can taste the pork, although it tastes nothing like normal pork, and also the taste of the onion comes through nicely. I can actually taste a bit of tomato in these faggots, although looking on the ingredients list only a little bit of tomato puree is used. And they are sooooo moreish - I have 2 faggots and couldn't really manage anymore, but they taste so lovely I think I could eat the 4 if no-one else wanted any! The texture of them is good too, they're soft and chewy but they break up nicely into crumbly pieces. Sometimes if you leave them in for slightly longer and the gravy starts boiling away you get a lovely 'crust' on top of the faggots, but you'll never get this deliberately - you just have to forget about them! The only thing I can thing of off the top of my head to liken them to is haggis, although haggis is much spicier than faggots. And when you buy them don't imagine fresh butchers faggots because they're nothing like this in either taste or appearance - I personally prefer Mr Brains's faggots to fresh anyway. The gravy is thick and tastes like fresh gravy - although theres a slightly synthetic aftertaste to the gravy. Also, you don't get too much gravy with them, which is fine for me as I'm not a big gravy person but I always have to make some extra gravy up for Mark (who likes his dinner swimming round in a sea of gravy!)

These faggots cost me £1.39 in Iceland for a pack of 4 and they also sell in packs of 2 for 89p and packs of 6 for £1.79. You can also buy them just about anywhere that has a freezer section, but be prepared to pay through the nose if you buy them from a small shop - I saw some yesterday in our tiny local shop priced at £2.05 for 4 faggots!

I'll definately buy them again as they're perfect when you're rushing about because its just a case of shoving them in the oven and forgetting about them.

Mr Brain's faggots are produced by a company called Hibernia Brands Ltd and you can write to them at: Hibernia Brands Ltd, Bridge Road, Bristol, BS15 4PT. Mr Brain's is also sponsoring this years national ****** week, which I believe is being held in February - so go on..... buy a box in time for ****** week

Thanks for reading.

Answer 2

oh they are delicious. Brains make frozen ones in gravy which aren't bad but the best ones are bought from independant butchers in the West country. They taste of pork mince with herbs and spices. Lovely and savoury and I think I'll buy some for my dinner tomorrow.

Answer 3

Your local butcher will make the best faggots by far. Make your own rich onion gravy and put in the over for about 30 mins - delicious. In the early 50s my Grandmother sent us to the butcher for 'Savoury Ducks'!! (faggots).

Answer 4

They're just meatballs made from pigs liver/heart and pork or bacon and onion all minced together. We were given them for dinner as kids and I've never liked them but they're fairly popular here in the UK.

Answer 5

Mr. Brains are the branded one to try, but, if you are lucky enough to have a traditional butcher left in your area get fresh hand-made ones. They taste mostly of liver, sage and pepper, but have a chewier texture than things made mainly of liver. When I was a kid, we used to get butchers' ones about twice a month; happy memories!

Answer 6

Mr brains is supposed to be a good brand for these. Ive never tried em tho aint gotthe guts.

I bet Americans think your talking about gay's lol

Answer 7

For the benefit of those who aren't from the U.K., the following info from Wikipedia may prevent flaming, heart failure, and unnecessary reporting: ;-)

"A fa.gott is a kind of pork meatball, a traditional dish in parts of the UK, especially the southwest of England, Wales, and the Black Country. It was originally made from unwanted off-cuts of meat. A fa.gott is traditionally made from pig heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon minced together, with herbs added for flavouring and sometimes breadcrumbs. The mixture is shaped in the hand into balls, wrapped round with "caul" (the lining from the pig's stomach), and baked."

Answer 8

you local butcher will supply the best - put in a microwave for 2-3mins depending on the power and then splash vinegar all over and have with bread and butter - yummy

Answer 9

my local butcher in Pontardawe makes the best according to my mam, she has not tasted such nice faggots since her mam made them! And my mam is 76yrs! Nice with mushy peas, but fart like fluck after!

Answer 10

Definitely Brains as in first answer.What do they taste like?

H-E-A-V-E-N-L-Y

Answer 11

Do you really want to eat something called 'Brains F.aggot's' ??!!!