This is my recipe for this British classic and I like it a lot. I was initially inspired by a version I read about in Chef April Bloomfield's book A Girl and Her Pig. This is not her recipe, though. It's an amalgam of several I've read in various books, as well as from my own, albeit limited, experience eating these meatballs. If you are in a hurry, you can indeed start with ground pork or venison -- something meat processors really love to give you a lot of if you don't butcher your own deer. You must make sure that the ground meat has some fat in it, otherwise your meatballs will be dry and sad.
Recipe by Hank Shaw on December 4, 2014
Prep time: PT20M
Cook time: PT50M
Total time: PT70M
Rating
4.8 stars (5 reviews)
Keywords
liver, meatballs, offal, venison
Ingredients
1 pound venison
1/2 pound bacon ends ((or regular bacon))
1/2 pound venison liver
1 cup oats or breadcrumbs
1 cup minced onion
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon fresh sage, (minced)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 cups venison broth or beef broth
Caul fat or very thin bacon
Categories
Main Course
Cuisine
British
Steps
Take the caul fat out if you are using it and soak it in tepid water with a little salt tossed in, maybe a teaspoon. This will help it loosen.
Cut the venison, bacon and liver into 1-inch chunks and freeze for 30 minutes to an hour, until they are about half-frozen. Grind the oats in a food processor or spice grinder into a coarse meal like coarse corn meal. Or, just use breadcrumbs.
When the meat is ready, mix it with the onions and grind on a medium die, 6 mm if you have one, or the "coarse" on a Kitchenaid grinder. Put the meat in a bowl and mix with the oats and all the herbs and spices. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Gently unravel the caul fat into one layer and lay it on a clean work surface. Form balls with the meat mixture of about racquetball size, a little smaller than a baseball or the size of a small orange. You want them big. Place the ball on the caul fat and slice enough of the caul around it to wrap the ball completely. Arrange seam side down in a baking dish. If you can't find caul fat and are using thin bacon, wrap the balls in bacon strips until you have them covered. Repeat until you have all the meat done.
Bake uncovered in an oven for 40 to 50 minutes, basting every 10 to 15 minutes with the stock. Serve with mashed potatoes and peas.
Nutitrion
Serving Size: 1 serving
Calories: 314 kcal
Carbohydrates: 22 g
Protein: 39 g
Fat: 7 g
Saturated Fat: 2 g
Cholesterol: 213 mg
Sodium: 625 mg
Sugar: 1 g
Reviews
Brian Whipple on 2025-10-12 (5 stars): I thought they were delicious. My wife thought they were a little on the salty side but I also used bacon not caul fat, not sure if that makes any difference.
Abby Davenport on 2021-09-08 (5 stars): They taste great and are an easy way to start trying the "wobbly bits"
Sally Turner on 2018-01-15 (4 stars): As a Brit living in the Midlands I can say these are deffinitely faggots and not meatballs. Meatballs don’t contain liver, oats or need to be wrapped in caul fat. Having said that these are very tasty. Most proper butchers in the UK will have caul fat if you ask them but you won’t find it in a supermarket and unlikely to find it in a chain butchers. I recommend using oats which is traditional and helps to bind the faggots better as the oats will absorb far more moisture than breadcrumbs. The onion does not need to be minced just finely chopped. One large onion is equal to a cup. I added some red wine to the stock and, after cooking, some cornflour to thicken it into a gravy.
