To many modern cooks it looks strange, perhaps even unappetising. Yet for generations caul fat was a valuable ingredient. It wrapped sausages, protected joints of meat during roasting and, perhaps most famously, encased faggots.

Today, faggots are often misunderstood. The name raises eyebrows, in the UK they are a supermarket convenience food. But traditional faggots tell a different story. They belong to a world in which every part of the animal was valued, where liver and kidney were everyday foods, and where thrift and good eating went hand in hand.

For anyone interested in ancestral foods, faggots are a perfect example of nose-to-tail cooking. They transform humble ingredients into something nourishing, economical and deeply satisfying.

Faggot – A Dish Born of Economy

Historically, faggots were working people’s food.

They were made from the parts of the animal that wealthier households often ignored: liver, heart, lights (lungs), kidneys and fatty trimmings. Rather than being wasted, these cuts were minced together, seasoned generously and wrapped in caul fat before baking.

The result was far more delicious than the humble ingredients might suggest. The offal provided richness and nutrition, while the caul fat basted the meat as it cooked, creating a dish that was both economical and satisfying.

While traditionally, faggots relied heavily on offal, recipes these days include minced pork and bacon alongside liver and kidney, making them more approachable to modern tastes.

What Is Caul Fat?

One of the most distinctive features of faggots is the wrapping.

Caul fat is the thin membrane of fat that surrounds the stomach and internal organs of an animal. Pig caul fat is particularly delicate, resembling a lace curtain or net. Despite its fragile appearance, it is surprisingly strong.

When wrapped around a faggot, the caul fat performs several jobs. It holds the mixture together, just like a sausage casing would. As it cooks, it melts slowly into the meat, keeping it moist and adding flavour. By the end of cooking, you don’t even notice the caul fat, it has disappeared into the faggot itself.

Beef caul fat can also be used, but it is considerably thicker than pork caul fat.

Traditional Pork Faggots

This version combines pork mince, liver, kidney and bacon with mushrooms, onion, oats and warming spices. It includes an onion and mushroom-enhanced gravy, which is poured over the uncooked faggots in their baking dish before the whole thing is put in the oven.

• Makes: 12 faggots
• Preparation time: 40 minutes
• Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

For the Faggots

• 500g pork mince/ground pork
• 100g pig liver
• 1 pork kidney
• 4 rashers back bacon (if you are using streaky (American) bacon, use 6 rashers)
• 1 onion
• 150g mushrooms (about 6 medium mushrooms)
• c. ⅜ cup oatmeal (oatmeal is the English term for uncooked, stone-ground oats. If you can’t get this, you can use rolled oats that have been ground into a coarse flour.)
• Salt, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste
• Ground mace, to taste
• Ground allspice, to taste
• Pig caul fat

For the Gravy

• 1 onion, chopped
• Mushrooms, chopped
• Stock (pork or chicken work best)
• Flour, for thickening (most often I use chickpea flour)

Method

1. Remember to, at the right time in your process, preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Roughly chop the liver, kidney, bacon, onion and mushrooms.
3. Place them in a food processor with the pork mince, oatmeal, salt, pepper, mace and allspice.
4. Pulse until everything is finely minced and evenly combined and a consistency that can be loosely shaped into balls. If your meat was previously-frozen you may need more oatmeal/oat flour to do this. (You can do steps 2 and 3 by hand if desired, cutting the ingredients up finely.)
5. Carefully unravel the caul fat, separating it into pieces large enough to wrap individual faggots, each at least 6 inches square.
6. Shape the mixture into balls roughly the size of large golf balls.
7. Place each ball onto a piece of caul fat and wrap it around the meat, tucking the ends underneath.
8. Arrange the wrapped faggots in a lidded baking dish with the tucked side facing down.

This mixture usually makes 12 faggots. If you find that you have mixture left over, you can, if you have enough caul fat, make more faggots or you can shape the mixture into burgers to fry. These taste really good!

To Make the Gravy (to be added to the baking dish)

1. Gently fry the chopped onion and mushrooms before adding the stock.
2. Thicken this mixture to make a gravy. I use chickpea flour, adding 2 rounded tbsp per 500mil stock. I make a paste with the flour, taking a little warm stock from the saucepan and stirring it into the flour before returning the paste to the saucepan and stirring the whole thing for 5-10 minutes while the flour cooks and thickens the liquid.
3. Pour the gravy around the faggots in the baking dish.

Put the lid (or foil) over the dish. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for about 40 minutes, until the faggots are cooked through and the gravy is bubbling.

Serve with greens and plenty of gravy.

Why Faggots Deserve a Place on the Modern Table

Faggots remind us of a way of eating that was once entirely normal.

Earlier generations understood that the most nutritious parts of an animal were often the least expensive. Offal wasn’t a specialist ingredient. It was simply food. Caul fat wasn’t discarded. It was valued for the flavour and practicality it brought to the kitchen.

Today many people are trying to eat more sustainably, make better use of the animals they buy and reconnect with traditional foods. Faggots embody all of those values. They are nourishing, economical and rooted in centuries of practical wisdom.

Most of all though, they are delicious. And making them this way, with pork mince/ground pork and bacon, with a rich gravy, you really do not notice that liver and kidney are hiding inside. THey are a great way to get kids eating offal!

Why Are They Called Faggots?

Historically, the word faggot referred to a bundle of sticks tied together for fuel. The term comes from the same root as the French fagot, meaning a bundle of twigs. By extension, the word was also used for anything gathered together into a compact bundle.

In culinary terms, the name makes perfect sense. A traditional faggot is a collection of minced meats and offal bound together into a ball and wrapped in caul fat. It is, quite literally, a bundle of ingredients tied together.

Food historians generally regard this as the origin of the dish’s name. Similar uses of the word can be found in historical English dialects, where faggot was used for various kinds of bundled materials.

While the word has acquired other meanings over time, the dish preserves the older and entirely innocent sense of the term. In the Black Country, South Wales and other areas where faggots remained popular, the name has continued in everyday use for generations.

In that respect, faggots are rather like haggis, pudding and other traditional foods whose names preserve traces of older ways of speaking and thinking. The dish is not simply a recipe; it is a small piece of cultural history that has survived on the dinner table long after much of the world that created it has disappeared.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do faggots taste like?

These faggots have a rich, savoury flavour something like pork meatballs. The liver provides depth, while the bacon, pork and spices soften its intensity. Even people who don’t usually enjoy liver are often surprised by how much they like faggots.

Can I make faggots without caul fat?

Yes, but the result will be different. Caul fat helps hold the faggots together and bastes them as they cook. Without it they can become drier and less tender. If you cannot find caul fat, you can still make the mixture into meatballs and bake it in the gravy.

Where can I buy caul fat?

A traditional butcher or your local farmer is your best source. You’ll probably need to ask for it specially and give them a bit of notice.

Can I freeze faggots?

Yes, I freeze them often – both before and after cooking. If freezing before cooking, place them on a tray until firm and then transfer them to a container or freezer bag.

Why are faggots wrapped in caul fat?

Historically, caul fat was an economical way of holding minced meat together before modern casings and packaging were widely available. It also improves flavour and texture by slowly melting into the meat during cooking.

What stock should I use in faggots?

I use home-made bone broth or meat stock. If you’d like to know more about how to go about producing this yourself, listen to Ancestral Kitchen Podcast episode Bones & Water: The Magic of Stock

Are faggots healthy?

Traditional faggots are nutrient-dense foods. Liver and kidney are rich in vitamins and minerals, while the oats add texture and help bind the mixture. As with many traditional foods, they are most satisfying when served as part of a balanced meal with vegetables.

Can I use different offal?

Absolutely. Historical recipes varied considerably. Heart, lights (lungs) and other inexpensive cuts were commonly used alongside liver. The exact ingredients often depended on what was available after slaughter.

Are faggots Welsh or English?

Both. Faggots are particularly associated with South Wales and the English Midlands, especially the Black Country. Closely related recipes appear across Britain, reflecting a widespread tradition of turning inexpensive cuts and offal into nourishing meals.

You might also like:

My 5 Favourite Ways to Use Bone Broth
What Does Eating Ancestrally Mean?
Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

And did I say that it’s really tasty too?!

Here’s why I love it:

It’s very economical

Chicken carcasses cost next to nothing compared to buying specific meat cuts, such as breast. In the most recent batch I bought they were £1.60 ($2.11) for a 600g carcass.

This soup uses one chicken carcass to make three meals for my family. This means the meat portion of the dish costs 18 British pence (25 American cents) per plate.

Using this zero-waste approach as the base for a soup will not only give you plenty of meat, but also the skin provides fat and cooking the carcass in water gives a natural broth.

It’s child-friendly

My son likes chicken, but complains when I put ‘knobbly bits’ (like those on a chicken carcass) on his plate. This way I can use the parts of the chicken he wouldn’t necessarily eat – they all get blended up into a smooth chicken and vegetable deliciousness.

It gives you the benefits of broth

This soup gives you the benefits of broth without having to make a separate broth beforehand. The cooking chicken creates broth and that is blended into the soup.

It’s low histamine

Because this chicken is only cooked for an hour and a half, and because there’s a lot of meat on the bones, the resulting broth which forms the base of the soup is much lower in histamine than a bone broth-based dish would be.

It’s an easy way to make lots of meals

I routinely make enough of this soup to serve my family (of three) at three meals. I have sometimes doubled it up and made enough for six meals. The hands-on time for the process is less than 45 minutes. Six meals for 45 minutes work? I’ll take that!

Timings

I often make this soup in the morning to eat at lunchtime. This is how I do it:

The night before: take the chicken carcass out of the freezer.

Soup day 8am: prepare the vegetables, put the onions and root vegetables in the pan with the chicken, bring to the boil and then turn to a simmer for an hour.

Soup day 9:30am: add the greens to the simmering pan and cook for half an hour.

Soup day 10am: turn off the heat, fish out the carcass, leave it to cool, leave the lid off the saucepan of stock and vegetables.

Soup day 10:45am: pick the meat off the carcass, blend the soup in batches, leave it to cool.

Soup day 12pm: portion out the soup, gently reheat the lunch portion, freeze/refrigerate the other portions.

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Makes 6-9 servings

Ingredients:

250g/9oz onions (c.2 medium)

600g/1.3lbcarrots

200g/7oz mushrooms

1 chicken carcass (mine usually weighs around 600g/1.3lb)

250g/9oz greens (cabbage, spinach and Cavolo Nero are three favourites of mine)

seasoning: salt, pepper and spices/herbs (I love to use 1tbsp nigella seeds)

Method:

• If you buy your chicken carcasses frozen, get one out of the freezer the night before and leave it in the fridge to defrost.
• Chop the onions, carrots and mushrooms roughly and place them a very large (and preferably wide) saucepan.
• Add the chicken carcass to the pan, nestling it within the vegetables (you may need to squash the carcass to get it to fit into your saucepan).
• Pour water over the chicken and vegetables – for a thick soup I use 1.5 litres/quarts, for a thinner one 2 litres/quarts. Try to cover as much of the chicken as you can in liquid.

• With the lid on, bring the mixture to the boil and then turn the heat to very low so that the liquid is just simmering.
• Leave to cook, covered, for an hour.
• Roughly chop your greens.
• Returning to the pan, add the greens, submerging them as best you can under the water. Re-cover and cook for a further 30 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and remove the chicken carcass from the pan, placing it on a plate to cool.
• Leave the lid off the vegetables and broth, stirring a few times to help them cool down.
• Once the chicken is cool enough to handle pick all the edible bits off the carcass.

• In batches, blend the chicken with the cooked vegetables and stock.
• If you want to eat the soup right away, pour the smooth result back into the saucepan and warm gently. If not, leave it to cool and enjoy later.

This chicken vegetable soup will last 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator and also freezes really well.

Make it yours!

There are so many ways to vary this soup. Here are some ideas:

• Use sweet potato, swede or yam
• Swap the onions for leaks, pairing with potato
• To make it colourful, use beetroot
• For a richer texture, add cream
• For a richer texture, but dairy free, add cold porridge before blending
• If you want a more filling meal, add rice or a grain such as millet to the cooking liquid
• Use differing spices and herbs

How I like to serve this soup

This soup is wonderful piping hot, with a drizzle of cream and sourdough bread with butter on the side. The bread pictured above is from my ebook Spelt Sourdough Every Day.

If you like this recipe, you might also like:

Breakfast Bone Broth Bowl

Beef and Barley Stew

Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

This bone broth bowl is one of my go-to breakfasts throughout the winter. It’s simple, uses leftovers, is very tasty and gives me bone broth to start my day. Here’s how:

Ingredients (serves 1):

Around 1/2 a cup of bone broth (vary this depending on whether you want a liquidy breakfast or something more solid)

6 to 7 round slices of carrot

2 to 3 thin slices through a whole onion

1 tsp miso

4 to 5 heaped tbsps of leftover carb – millet, sorghum, rice, potato – whatever you have in the fridge (again vary this amount depending on how hungry you are)

An egg (sometimes I’ll swap this out for nuts or, if I want an extra boost, collagen powder)

Optional: fresh herbs

Note: If you don’t have miso, you could use herbs, garlic or leave the addition out completely!

Method:

• Put the carrot and onion into a small saucepan and cover them with the stock.
• Drop in a teaspoon of miso and mash it against the side of the saucepan until it’s mixed in with the stock.
• Bring this to the boil and then turn down to medium low for 5 to 6 minutes (I will often go and get dressed, or stir my ferments whilst this is happening!)
• Add leftover grains/potato, and whilst this is warming up go grab an egg and crack it into the mix, so it sits on top.
• Put a lid on the saucepan. Keep the heat at medium low until the egg is poached to the level that you like. I like my eggs runny, so I look for an opaque white, but an egg that still jiggles if I shake the saucepan!
• Pour into a bowl, top with optional herbs and enjoy!

My podcast co-host and I dedicated an entire episode of Ancestral Kitchen Podcast to bone broth! To listen in to the episode, titled #26 Bones & Water – The Magic Of Stock, click below (or find us in your podcast player!).

I use bone broth daily in my kitchen, yet most of the time I’m not drinking it. Here are my five favourite ways:

#1: Cook grains in it

This is the main way we use bone broth in our house. Every day, we eat cooked grains – usually millet or sorghum. I cook up a huge batch in bone broth every 2 to 3 days. We eat it fresh, and then it goes into the fridge to be used for breakfasts and suppers in the following days.

This is such a great way to use bone broth because:

1. You can get your bone broth intake up, without actually drinking bone broth.
2. It’ll get your kids eating bone broth without realising it!
3. It makes plain grains, which can sometimes seem a bit bland, tastier than if they were just cooked with water.

Tip: add the fat from the top of your bone broth into the saucepan when you’re cooking your grains. It will help make the finished dish tastier, and give you more nutrition!

#2: Poach eggs in it

Eggs cooked in water, i.e. poached, are delicious. But eggs cooked in broth are even nicer! They are really simple too; heat some broth in a small saucepan, and when it’s quite warm (a light simmer is fine, but don’t have it boiling) gently crack an egg into it. Pop the lid of the saucepan on and when the egg is poached how you like it, carefully pour the whole thing into a bowl and enjoy.

#3: Drink it with added goodies!

Bone broth has such depth of flavour and is an amazing comfort drink. If you’re net keen on drinking a mug of it plain, including fresh herbs in your broth can give you a myriad of interesting and medicinal options (you can add the herbs when you’re initially making broth, reheat your broth with herbs in the saucepan, or just add your herbs and let them steep in the mug for a few minutes). If you often take powders such as medicinal mushrooms, you can stir these in. It’s also great with raw cream and you can even make a delicious hot chocolate using clear bone broth made from chicken feet.

#4: Use it to make a rich stew

I make stew with local meat, alliums, starchy veg and seasonal greens often. Usually, the juice that comes from the meat is enough to flavour the water and give the stew a deep, beautiful richness. But when I’m looking for something extra special, instead of adding water to my stew, I will add bone broth. This gives a double whammy broth flavour – the resulting stew is off the charts delicious!

#5: Heat up leftovers in it

A lot of my everyday cooking is made up of leftovers. Many times a week I will simply combine and reheat food that I’ve cooked earlier. I make this extra tasty by adding a couple of spoons of bone broth to the mix whilst I’m reheating. This has the added benefit of moistening the dish too.

Check out my recipe for Breakfast Broth Bowl (pictured above) here!

My podcast co-host and I dedicated an entire episode of Ancestral Kitchen Podcast to bone broth! To listen in to the episode, titled Bones & Water – The Magic Of Stock, click below (or find us in your favourite podcast app!).

Thank you to Meredith Leigh for posting this on her Instagram and lighting my ancestral experimentation fire!

Crunchy pig skin is a marvel. A product that looks like waste, transformed into a light, crispy, crunchy joy of a snack. I like to call these ancestral popcorn after having given the first batch I ever made to my son to accompany his first ever trip to the cinema

Watching the skins puff up is a little bit of kitchen magic!

You will need:

Pig skin

Ample lard to deep fry in

Probe thermometer

A dehydrator

Method:

Watch the video above to see all this in action!

Before you start you have the option of scraping the fat from the underside of the skin. The first time I made these, I did this. It makes the process less messy but takes a lot of time and effort. Since that first time I have not subsequently scraped the fat. Instead I choose the parts of the skin that have less of a covering of fat on them and work only with those (saving the thicker parts for oven roasting later). Some of the fat melts off in the boiling/dehydrating, but it’s less work to clean it up than it is to do all the scraping!

1/ Cut the pig skin into small squares (around 4 cm width).

2/ Gently boil the squares in stock or water until they are soft enough to easily cut with an eating knife, for me this takes somewhere between 25 and 40 minutes.

3/ Drain the skin (you can reserve the stock, if you used it, to drink) and dehydrate the skin squares until they are very hard. In practise, for me, this means putting them in my dehydrator overnight.

4/ Prepare the lard for deep frying. Pay attention to the lard at all stages of this process. Fat can burn and if it is too hot, catch fire. Heat ample lard (for me around 4 cups) in a deep saucepan until it reaches 185-190C/350-380F. Work the next steps with your thermometer at the ready, altering your hob temperature, always checking that you are keeping the liquid fat between these temperatures.

5/ Using a slotted spoon, lower a batch (c.10) of the skin squares into the at temperature lard. Wait and watch as they pop and puff up. When they look light and fluffy, remove them to a plate covered in a piece of absorbent paper.

6/ Repeat step 5 until you have fried them all!

7/ Slowly let the lard return to ambient temperature before cleaning up.

8/ If desired, sprinkle the crunchies in a spice mix/salt. Enjoy!

These crunchy pig skins have lasted 5-6 days for us (but usually get finished way before then!)

A lot of people feel intimidated by organ meats, especially a heart, which, for a cow at least, is very big! But that’s the joy of it: 2-3kg of solid muscle meat (the heart is a muscle) that you can cook with only minutes-worth of work.

My process was published as a recipe on the Weston A. Price Foundation blog here.

If you don’t have a slow-cooker, you could replicate by cooking in a large pan on a very low heat.

It’s great served warm; it slices so easily. Sometimes, as above, I reduce some of the stock from the pot and make a gravy.

Once cooked, you can keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days and it also freezes really well.