NOSTALGIA WITH ROBERT HEAVEN

MY RECENT nostalgic musings about eating offal and the popularity of it back in the 1950’s and 60’s has taken quite a few Standard readers back down memory lane - but I’ve been reminded by one or two of them that I missed out one extremely popular comestible  - the humble faggot.  

For younger readers or others that might not know; a faggot is a largish meatball made from minced off-cuts and offal,  especially pig's heart, liver, and fatty belly meat or bacon.

Mixed together with herbs for flavouring and sometimes breadcrumbs, faggots are a traditional cheap food eaten around the country but especially so in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire where we’ve traditionally always kept pigs. 

I think I’d be pushed to eat more than two faggots, but up North where they are called  “savoury ducks"  the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser of Saturday 3 June 1843, reported a gluttonous man who ate 20 of them.

On the subject of pigs - I see many functions - weddings even; frequently have what they call a "Hog Roast".

Roasting a pig, (or any meat) requires considerable skill and constant attention, and the process gives the meat a crisp juiciness and flavour. 

Baking, on the other hand is done in an oven and became the norm for cooking meat after England started using coal as a domestic fuel in the early 19th century. ( Coal contains smelly sulphur compounds). It makes you wonder about all the Pubs and Restaurants around the area that offer a "Sunday Roast".  Unless they really are cooking the joints in front of an open fire, it would be more truthful to advertise "Traditional Sunday Bake". 

Somehow it doesn’t have the same ring to it..