With Christmas and the New Year done, I thought it was time to get back in the saddle and try some more shite food. For lunch today I finally tried Mr Brain’s Pork Faggots after multiple requests. Loyal readers will know that offal based meat products hold no fear for me and I was quite looking forward to sampling Mr Brain’s variety of this traditional dish. According to good ol’ Wikipedia, “A faggot is traditionally made from pig’s heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon minced together, with herbs added for flavouring and sometimes bread crumbs”. These ones are a little tamer, as they have left out the heart, much to my disappointment.
After getting the foil container out of the packet, my first reaction was ‘I’m not going to light the oven’. Thankfully you can Microwave them. I do not own such a thing a Microwave dish, so I put the huge meaty icicle into a microwavable dish and gave it its first 4 minute nuking. As you can see from the bottom right ‘midway’ picture, things were not looking good, however, they did smell quite appetising. The aroma took me straight back to my childhood, so after stirring and putting the faggots back into the Microwave for a final 3 minutes and 1 minute cool down, I decided to phone my mother to see if I had been fed them as a child. She denied all knowledge but said I could have had them at my Grandparents. More than likely. Enough with the nostalgia, it was time to eat.
It says on the packaging “You asked for it! Now with more sauce”, thinking this must be pretty good, I tried the sauce/gravy first. I wasn’t disappointed. I will go as far and say it was the tastiest sauce I’ve eaten so for in this voyage of culinary discovery. The faggots themselves are like a soft meatball and have a slightly haggis like smell (which I love). They have a distinct liver and sage taste, with a hint mace and pepper. Not bad at all. By now our Bengal cat was whining at my feet expectantly. I shouted out to my partner “these are lovely!” to which she replied “well they smell f**king disgusting”. I looked down at the cat with a smug look on my face and said, “you’re not getting any of these, son” and polished off the lot.
Ingredients
West Country Sauce 62%: Water, Lard, Wheat Flour, Modified Maze Starch, Tomato Puree, Salt, Colour (E150c), Yeast Extract, Onion Flavour, Sugar, Herb & Spice extract.
Pork Faggots 38%: Water, Rusks, Rehydrated Pork Rinds, Pork Liver (15%), Pork (4%), Pork Fat, Wheat Flour, Salt, Sage, Spice Extract.
Appearance: 4/10
Taste: 7/10
Value: 6/10
Overall: 17/30
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Retailer:
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Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc |
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Manufacturer:
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Kerry Group Plc |
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Cost:
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£1.00 |
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CPP:
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- |
A quid? See you at Morrisons then next time I fancy a stodgy guilty treat.
Man I love pork faggots, although they do taste much better in the oven.
I decided to phone my mother to see if I had been fed them as a child. She denied all knowledge but said I could have had them at my Grandparents. More than likely. Enough with the nostalgia, it was time to eat.
ROFL HaHaHA … Ya canne beat a faggot or two !!
I love faggots, I try not to think what’s in them but they are yummy!
Iceland always seem to have them on offer
Utterly gorgeous – with heaps of mashed potato to soak up the juice. Can be bought from butchers too – Brains’ tend to be softer than the “real thing”
I found your website whilst, ahem, ‘researching’ my recent blog on faggots. Glad to hear that you enjoyed them.
faggots are actually on offer in morrisons for 89p at the minute,my dad gave me 2faggots last week(which i froze)ive never tried them but my sis in law raves about them,im now in 2minds as to weather to eat them,the first thing that puts me off is the name and the brand,i even convinced myself they was only made out of pork and onion lol(never read the ingredients)but after your review and you saying how delish they are i may just give these a go for a snack next week with some mash(also in the freezer) great site im a big fan as you can tell from my 4 posts in the past 2hours lol.
You want faggots? Try Stiles of Bromham. Never the same twice – which is part of the attraction.
Try their fillet steak as well. You can cut it with a plastic knife, and it is out of this world.
Oh man I wish they sold the gravy in jars, fantastic.
Faggot remind me of school dinners at primary school
You want real faggots go to the toilets on Hampstead Heath after dark.
Why? will you be there. LOLZZZZZZZZ
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Aw man, we were a bit poor growing up and faggots were a childhood staple. They’re really not too bad at all. Mmmmm… faggots.
I like Faggots!
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wow just found out they make Mattisons sausages as well, a huge curved banger you can eat cold, or thou refrain from the idea of eating one on the go, belive me you’ll get odd looks!. they are a weekend treat with chips and a fryed egg some sweetcorn, but do not try the garlic one, made my very ill with its stale garlic taste.
I like faggots for a change and decided to buy Brains Frozen Faggots. No substance, small and poor. I’ll go to the butcher next time. This is really poor stuff.
Ahh memories, I spent many a time with a Brain’s Faggot as a young lass.
Lovely
Just read your artical on Mr Brains faggots, I had some last week, expecting the taste I grew up with from childhood, what a dissapointment, nothing like the origonal recipy, a total let down, even the gravy had lost its umph, if you thought todays faggots were good, youd would be blown away by the originals…….