RealGravy

Regional British and Irish Gravies

Black Country Faggots and Peas Gravy

The dark, offal rich gravy that faggots bake in, thick with onion and finished with a little of the faggot itself broken into it.

  • Contains meat
  • black country
  • faggots
  • offal
  • mushy peas
  • midlands
Illustration of Black Country Faggots and Peas Gravy
Prep
10 min
Cook
50 min
Total
1 hr
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy

Faggots, peas and gravy is Black Country food through and through, sold from shops around Dudley, Wolverhampton and Walsall for generations. The gravy is not a separate thing you make and pour on. It is the liquid the faggots bake in, which takes on all the liver and onion from them and comes out dark and savoury and thicker than you expect. This version builds that same gravy so it works whether you make your own faggots or buy them.

Ingredients

Makes about 500ml, enough for four plates of faggots

Scale

Kit

  • Roasting dish or deep frying pan
  • Whisk

Method

  1. Heat the dripping in a wide pan over a medium heat and cook the onions for 15 minutes until soft and well browned at the edges. Keep them in thick slices, they are meant to be visible in the finished gravy.

  2. Push the onions to one side, turn the heat up, and fry the chopped liver in the clear space for 2 minutes until it is grey through and just catching. It will smell strong. Chop it about with the spoon so it breaks into small pieces and mixes through the onions.

  3. Stir in the flour and the sage and cook for 2 minutes, scraping the base.

  4. Add the tomato purée, cook for a further minute, then pour in a third of the stock and whisk until smooth. Add the rest and bring to a simmer.

  5. If you are baking faggots, sit them in the gravy now, cover loosely with foil and put the dish in a 180C fan oven for 30 minutes, uncovering for the last 10 so the tops darken. If you are making gravy alone, simmer it on the hob for 25 minutes.

  6. The gravy should be noticeably thicker than a roast gravy, enough to hold a channel when you drag a spoon through it. If it is loose, lift the faggots out and reduce it hard for 5 minutes.

  7. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce and the malt vinegar, then season. The vinegar cuts through the liver and is the thing most people leave out and then wonder why it tastes heavy. Serve with mushy peas and the peas water spooned over.

Tips worth knowing

  • If you cannot get pig's liver, break one shop bought faggot into the pan at the onion stage and let it melt in. It does the same job.
  • Malt vinegar not wine vinegar. It is the right sharpness for this and it is what would have been on the table anyway.
  • Do not blend this gravy. It is meant to be rough, with onion slices and bits of liver in it, and a smooth version loses the character entirely.
  • The pea water from mushy peas is traditionally spooned over the plate alongside the gravy, and the two running together is the whole point of the dish.

Change it up

  • Add 100g of chopped bacon with the onions for a smokier gravy, which suits shop bought faggots that can be a bit mild.
  • Stir in a tablespoon of Henderson's Relish instead of the Worcestershire sauce for a version that keeps it out of the meat entirely if you are serving vegetarian faggots.
  • Add a peeled, halved cooking apple to the pan with the stock and mash it in at the end for a slightly sweeter gravy that softens the offal.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps 3 days in the fridge with or without the faggots. Freezes for 2 months. Reheat in a low oven with a splash of stock rather than on the hob, so the faggots do not break up.

Questions people ask

What are faggots made of?

Pig offal, usually liver and heart, mixed with belly pork, onion and breadcrumbs, seasoned and traditionally wrapped in caul fat. They are a Black Country and West Country staple and were cheap food made from the parts nobody else wanted.

Why is faggot gravy so dark?

The liver. It browns hard, colours the gravy well past what onions alone would do, and gives it that mineral savoury depth. Cooking the faggots in the gravy rather than beside it deepens it further.

What do you serve with faggots and gravy?

Mushy peas and mash, almost always, with the pea water spooned over. Chips instead of mash is common from a shop. Bread and butter on the side to mop up is not unusual either.