"Mr Brains" faggots

[SafetyThird]

I'm very lucky to be served with local butchers, two in our little local town. However, we've raised our own pigs and sheep for the past few years and eat nose-to-tail as much as we can. I wanted to make faggots as they're a childhood memory from my mum making them, I'd help to wrap them in caul fat while she was running the mincer.

Getting hold of caul fat these days is not easy. The small local abattoir (themselves a dying breed) where we take our pigs, aren't allowed to let me have the caul fat or the blood or certain organs when they slaughter our pigs. Something about the regulations means they can't let us have that which is a shame.

I've home butchered (not slaughtered) a pig and a sheep on the dining room table and have a whole new appreciation of the butchers arts. For those interested, Scott Rea on YouTube is the man to watch, a master butcher teaching the skills all the way from 'how to tie a butchers knot' to 'how to butcher a cow'. I did our animals by having a laptop on the side of the table with the keyboard covered in cling film so I could pause/rewind/replay sections as needed. Easier than you think but much more tiring.

I've come a long way from 25 years as a vegetarian

[Hermit]

Nice work Safety third,

I started my butchering journey over thirty years ago with a hind on the kitchen table and a copy of Mrs Beaton's cookbook wedged open at an illustration of cuts of beef. Around 15 years ago joining the digital age with my laptop playing 'Pig in a day with Hugh and Ray' https://www.amazon.co.uk/River-Cottage- ... B0038409IS though I never thought of the cling film

Caul fat and blood,



Caul fat for the haslet and faggots, blood for the black puddings, priceless.

Was vegetarian myself for a while but gave it up

[SafetyThird]

ooh that looks grand. Yes, we always joked that the reason we ended up with our place in the country is because we spent so much time watching Escape to River Cottage at the weekends after long weeks of work and Pig in a Day was the thing that made me think I could do it too.

Don't think I'd be up to butchering a pig from scratch the way you do, but I've thought about doing one of the sheep that way. This years weaners get picked up in a couple of weeks and the very last of the sheep will go in the freezer soon too.

[martinW]

Mumm


Brains faggots I remember them. I am now only allowed them once every 10-20 years after my last experience (well actually my family's experience of me after eating faggots).

Fart is not the word. I sounded like an everlasting whoopee cushion and the smell was a once in a life time experience. Once smelled, they never wanted to experience it again....

Maybe I could risk a gourmet one from a proper butcher.....