The mixture is shaped by hand into small balls, wrapped with caul fat (the omentum membrane from the pig's abdomen), and baked. Often, the faggot is cooked in a crock with gravy and served with peas and mashed potato.
Ĭommonly, a faggot consists of minced pork liver and heart, wrapped in bacon, with onion and breadcrumbs. The first use of the term in print was in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser of Saturday 3 June 1843, a news report of a gluttonous man who ate twelve of them. Their popularity spread from there, especially to South Wales in the mid-nineteenth century, when many agricultural workers left the land to work in the rapidly expanding industry and mines of that area.įaggots are also known as "ducks" in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Lancashire, often as "savoury ducks". įaggots originated as a traditional cheap food consumed by ordinary country people in Western England, particularly west Wiltshire and the West Midlands. It is a traditional dish in the United Kingdom, especially South and Mid Wales and the English Midlands.
Faggots are meatballs made from minced off-cuts and offal, especially pork (traditionally pig's heart, liver, and fatty belly meat or bacon) together with herbs for flavouring and sometimes added bread crumbs.