Faggot (food) - Wikipedia

Traditional dish in the United Kingdom Faggot

Faggots, gravy, mashed potatoes and marrowfat peas
Type	Meatball
Course	Main dish
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Region or state	England and Wales
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredients	Pig's heart and liver, wrapped in caul fat or bacon
Variations	Pig testicle
Media: Faggot

Faggots or savoury ducks are meatballs made from minced off-cuts and offal (especially pork, and traditionally pig's heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon) mixed with herbs and sometimes bread crumbs. It is a traditional dish in the United Kingdom,[1][2] especially South and Mid Wales and the English Midlands.[3][4][5]

Faggots originated as a traditional cheap food consumed by country people in Western England, particularly west Wiltshire and the West Midlands.[6] Their popularity spread from there,[citation needed] 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.

Etymology

The alternative name "savoury ducks" is regional to Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Lancashire. The first reference to savory ducks in print was in the Manchester Courier on Saturday 3 June 1843.[7]

Preparation and serving

Commonly, a faggot consists of minced pork liver and heart, with onion and breadcrumbs. The mixture is shaped by hand into small balls, wrapped with caul fat (the omentum membrane from the pig's abdomen) and baked. Faggots may also be made with beef.[8] Another variation of the faggot is pig's fry (testicles) wrapped in pig's caul: the pig's fry and boiled onions are minced (ground) together, then mixed with breadcrumbs or cold boiled potatoes, seasoned with sage, mixed herbs and pepper, all beaten together and then wrapped in small pieces of caul to form a ball. They are baked in the oven, and usually served cold.[9]

Production

The dish gained popularity during the rationing in World War II, but declined over the following decades.[8] The "nose-to-tail eating" trend has resulted in greater demand for faggots in the 21st century; British supermarket chain Waitrose once again sold beef faggots from 2014.[8] In 2018, it was estimated that "tens of millions" of faggots were eaten every year.[10]

Double meaning

The use of the word "faggot" has caused misunderstanding due to its American English meaning as a pejorative term for a homosexual man. In 2004, a radio commercial for the UK supermarket chain Somerfield, in which a man rejects his wife's suggested dinner saying "I've got nothing against faggots, I just don't fancy them" was found to have been innuendo which breached the Advertising and Sponsorship Code and was banned by the industry regulator Ofcom.[11][12] In November 2013, it was reported that British Facebook users had been blocked temporarily for using the word, in its culinary sense, on the website. Facebook said that the word had been misinterpreted.[13][14]

See also

• Faggot (unit)
• Fagot (ATGM)
• Frikadeller
• Rissole – European fried dish
• Scrapple – American pork offal mush

References

1. ^ "Family of faggot fans fly the flag". BBC News Online. 27 January 2003. Archived from the original on 7 August 2022. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
2. ^ Hughes, Colin (11 August 2009). "Neath is Wales's Faggots 'n' Peas capital". Wales Online. Archived from the original on 2 February 2009. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
3. ^ "The West Midlands, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire". Great British Kitchen. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
4. ^ "The Dangers of Bad Teeth". The Times. 6 January 1914. p. 2. Retrieved 18 October 2009. A 'faggot' was described as being composed of pieces of meat, with fat and gristle in it. A verdict of 'Death from natural causes' was returned.[dead link] (payment required)
5. ^ "Doctor warns the faggot eaters". The Times. 23 May 1968. p. 4. Retrieved 18 October 2009.[dead link] (payment required)
6. ^ Lemm, Elaine. "What are Faggots". Britishfood.about.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2011.
7. ^ "Savoury Ducks". The Foods of England. 22 May 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
8. ^ a b c "Waitrose brings back faggots". London Evening Standard. 18 February 2014. p. 24.
9. ^ Boyd, Lizzie, ed. (May 1979). British Cookery: A Complete Guide to Culinary Practice in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Viking Press. ISBN 0-87951-087-0.
10. ^ "Faggots and groaty dick: Why some foods travel and others don't". BBC News. 2 September 2018. Archived from the original on 2 September 2018. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
11. ^ "Advertising complaints bulletin, Issue number A13" (PDF). Ofcom. 5 July 2004. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 September 2007.
12. ^ "Ofcom bans 'derogatory' faggot advert". The Daily Telegraph. 5 July 2004. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
13. ^ Prynne, Miranda (1 November 2013). "Man banned from Facebook for liking faggots". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 6 September 2022. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
14. ^ "Faggots and peas fall foul of Facebook censors". Express & Star. 1 November 2013. Archived from the original on 10 May 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2013.

v t e English cuisine
Roman times	Dishes Sausages
Middle Agesto 15th century	Exemplars Utilis Coquinario (c. 1300) The Forme of Cury (c. 1390) Dishes Apple pie Bacon Banbury cake Cheesecake Custard Game pie Gingerbread Kippers Mince pie Mortis Pasty Pease pudding Pie Pottage
16th century	Exemplars Richard Pynson (The Boke of Cokery, 1500) Thomas Dawson (The Good Huswifes Jewell, 1585) Dishes Black pudding Fruit fool Pancake Scones Syllabub Trifle (without jelly)
17th century	Exemplars Elinor Fettiplace (Receipt Book, 1604) Gervase Markham (The English Huswife, 1615) Robert May (The Accomplisht Cook, 1660) Hannah Woolley (The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet 1670) John Evelyn (Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets 1699) Kenelm Digby (The Closet Opened 1699) Dishes Battalia pie Currant bun Queen of Puddings Sponge cake Sussex pond pudding Sweet and sour Tea
18th century	Exemplars Mary Kettilby (A Collection of Above Three Hundred Receipts in Cookery, Physick and Surgery 1714) Mary Eales (Mrs Mary Eales's Receipts 1718) John Nott (The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary, 1723) Eliza Smith (The Compleat Housewife 1727) Hannah Glasse (The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy 1747) Ann Cook (Professed Cookery, 1754) Martha Bradley (The British Housewife 1758) Primitive Cookery (1767) Elizabeth Raffald (The Experienced English Housekeeper 1769) Richard Briggs (The English Art of Cookery 1788) William Augustus Henderson (The Housekeeper's Instructor 1791) Dishes Bread and butter pudding Christmas pudding Chutney Curry Cottage or Shepherd's pie Eccles cake Jellied eels Jugged hare Ketchup Marmalade Parkin Piccalilli Pork pie Roast beef Sandwich Scouse Suet pudding Toad in the hole Trifle (with jelly) Welsh rarebit Yorkshire pudding
19th century	Exemplars Maria Rundell (A New System of Domestic Cookery 1806) Martha Brotherton (Vegetable Cookery 1812) Eliza Acton (Modern Cookery for Private Families 1845) Charles Elmé Francatelli (The Modern Cook 1846) Isabella Beeton (Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management 1861) Dishes Battenberg cake Bubble and squeak Cauliflower cheese Cobbler Devilled kidneys Eton mess Eve's pudding Faggots Fish and chips Full English breakfast HP Sauce Ice cream cone Jam roly-poly Lancashire hotpot Lardy cake Madeira cake Potted shrimps Sausage roll Steak and kidney pudding Summer pudding Windsor soup Worcestershire sauce
20th century	Exemplars Florence Petty Elizabeth David (A Book of Mediterranean Food 1950) Dorothy Hartley (Food in England 1954) Constance Spry Fanny Cradock Marguerite Patten Jane Grigson Delia Smith Rick Stein Nigel Slater Keith Floyd Marco Pierre White Nigella Lawson Jamie Oliver Fergus Henderson (The Whole Beast 1999) Gordon Ramsay Gary Rhodes Mary Berry Dishes Bakewell tart Beef Wellington Carrot cake Chicken tikka masala Coronation chicken Crumble Knickerbocker glory Ploughman's lunch Salad cream Steak Diane Sticky toffee pudding
21st century	Exemplars Heston Blumenthal (The Fat Duck) Lizzie Collingham Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (River Cottage) Rachel Khoo Michel Roux Jr. (Le Gavroche) Antony Worrall Thompson Clarissa Dickson Wright (A History of English Food 2011) Dishes Coronation quiche Platinum Pudding
Related	List of English dishes List of English cheeses List of savoury puddings List of sweet puddings Rationing in the United Kingdom