How to Be The Only Welsh Peasant On Your Street (NB Guardian Readers) (Tesco Mr. Brains 4 Faggots In Rich Sauce)

Member Name: Aderyn

Product:	Tesco Mr. Brains 4 Faggots In Rich Sauce
Date:	21/03/07 (977 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, tasty, quick and very nutritious

Disadvantages: Offal is not for everyone.

At a time when every celebrity chef and his dog is extolling the virtues of offal, I thought it was time that the humble faggot had another airing. There is none humbler than Mr. Brains Faggots as found in the freezer chests in most supermarkets. None more eaten, in my part of the world, either.

My part of the world is not the South East of England where a ‘faggot’ is either a bundle of sticks for the fire, or an American derogatory term for a homosexual! In Wales it is a type of meatball made from pork liver, usually served with boiled dried peas and onion gravy. I’ve been eating this stuff since being weaned and the faggots in question were always either home-made or Brains. They weren’t called Mr. in those days. I think the title was added to assure faggot virgins that there wasn’t any grey stuff involved. My god, we’re not French after all!

I will give a recipe for the home-made variety at the end, just as a matter of comparison. But this is what good old Mr. Brains are about:

You buy them in packs of 2, 4, or 6. Two ,as in the case here, is just a tease and is not financially wise. The six pack is the best buy and can vary in price from £1.20 up to £2.00. Six is definitely enough for two people and I wouldn’t personally pay more than £1.50. They come frozen, of course, and can be cooked out of the foil container in a microwave or in it, in a conventional oven. I recommend the latter since it makes the tops crispy. They come in a rich gravy which is not enough and a little too tomatoey in my opinion. Most people would make a little extra onion gravy. In this part of the world they are served just with peas. The peas are boiled from dry and are served almost as a pea soup, not the mushy type of stuff displayed on the packet. On the table it looks like pea soup in a bowl with meatballs floating in their own gravy. That’s Wales however, and we’re a bit different.

Not convinced? Try it with a lot of black pepper and some crusty bread. You could be in Provence…..or Port Talbot.

As far as ingredients are concerned, they’re quite acceptable for a mass produced ready meal. One E number (colouring) and something called ‘modified waxy maize’, which sounds a bit disgusting to me but then I haven’t got a clue what it is! Apart from these two everything looks just about natural.

Faggots are of course a type of peasant or pauper food with their origins in a time when working people could only afford offal and tried to dress it up to make it more appealing. To that end Mr. Brains faggots, at a time when such dishes are trendy, are a good choice. You wouldn’t really know they were mostly liver. Unless you try the following recipe for home-made faggots:

FAGGOT RECIPE (GLAMORGAN)

1 lb pigs liver
1lb onions
¼ lb streaky bacon
half a loaf of stale bread (maybe more)
few sprigs of fresh sage

Simple procedure:

Mince the liver, onions and bacon together in a food processor.
Add chopped sage with a little pepper. No need for salt because of the bacon.
Mix in stale bread in the form of breadcrumbs.
Add bread until the mixture is a dough consistency.
Roll into fist sized balls.
Throw it in a hot oven for about 40 minutes until outside is brown and crispy.
Some people like to wrap a rasher of bacon around the faggots before cooking.
Serve as with Brains above.

Summary: Frozen meatballs made from liver and pork. Traditional to Wales and the West