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Neath Indoor Market – Best Place for Ffagod a Pys in Wales !

By Ken Thorne

Wednesdays were Neath Market Days and in the 1950s, the town was in its heyday! Shoppers and farmers filled the stores, hotels, restaurants and pubs. Sidewalks were not wide enough, walkers poured into the road and traffic slowed. Bellowing penned sheep and cattle competed with auctioneer megaphones.

Market day was the day to eat in town. The intense aromas of home cooking effused unrestrained from Neath’s Indoor Market, it bordered on culinary cruelty for the hungry! Then there were the fresh baking smells pouring out of the on-purpose, always-open doors of the town bakeries.

Neath market was one of the biggest of the fourteen indoor facilities in Wales . Its stall owners were very prosperous, so much so, that many of them only opened Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Such was the case of Katie’s food stall - the feature of this story. The indoor market everything you needed. They ranged from every food item to footwear, linens and hard to match buttons. Every indoor market in  Wales had a nice Welsh gift shop and Neath was no exception.

The stalls, a name used for the little indoor shops, are often no larger than twenty by twenty feet. Owners boarded up every night but some didn’t even bother to padlock. When the market first opened in 1837, sellers operated from trestle tables occupying the central area. In 1904, the building was upgraded but trestle tables were still used although butchers and bakers now had permanent shop areas on three perimeter walls. In the 1920s, the present day permanent retailer stalls were built replacing the trestle tables. Food stalls were placed separately on the north wall away from the central area unintentionally ensuring the cooking aromas drifted out the building all over town. These mini-cafes offered home cooking at its best including a full breakfast and a few basic items for lunch. Ffagod a Pis - Ffagod and Peas (F & Ps) were a favorite from the beginning eighty years ago and continue to be the most popular dish today. 

Living in Skewen, our market was Neath Market, just a couple of miles away. In the fifties, it had eight butcher stalls, an incredible number considering most surrounding villages and small towns may have had as many as three or four of their own; it speaks for the quality they offered. Market patrons had their favorite butcher providing one stop shopping for Welsh beef, lamb, pork and bacon. Their variety of sausages, meat pies and pasties with their own special taste reflected the butcher’s particular preferred herbs and spices. Four butchers call the market their home today; thriving, they offer even a wider array of their wonderful products, particularly sausages and meat pies. The butchers have always made or offered a traditional liver meatball item called a ffagod or faggot. Neath butchers win awards for the quality of their ffagod, a delicacy that made Neath famous.

The term ffagod has been in use for as long as maybe a couple of hundred years and is a derivative of a French word meaning a bundle. The original ffagod was a bundle of pork bits (not much of the pig was ever wasted) wrapped in a lacey body membrane called “caul” not to be confused with “cawl” the Welsh stew or soup dish. Ffagod were oven roasted and traditionally, served with brown gravy, peas (most often, mushy peas) and Welsh bread spread with Welsh salted butter. Delicious including the mushy peas – at least, to those brought up eating them! Ffagod have gone up-market in recent years and innards are no longer used.

Ffagod are also called Savory Ducks according to Bobby Freeman, author of “Traditional Food From Wales,” although this term is more commonly used in the northern English counties. Ironically, whoever named this peasant dish apparently wanted to up-market it by use of a French name. French have a similar dish and call it “crépinette” after “crépine” meaning the lacey caul covering. Will the future, bring “Crépinettes Cymreig a Pys” – “Welsh Crépinettes and Peas” into common usage?  What will future home cooks be saying? Perhaps, something akin to, “Put CC&P in on high for four minutes and rotate half way through!”

Katie Taylor was the mother of one my classmates, Alan Taylor. When I met her, she had developed quite a reputation as a cook, particularly of F & Ps. Alan describing her said, “She was a very energetic and enterprising woman who worked as a cook for the original stall owner and in the late 1940s bought out the owner on her retirement. She renamed it Katie’s, the name it has today. My niece Frances Loaring and Katie’s granddaughter now owns the stall representing the third generation to run it and she does so in the best family tradition.”

Frances reflecting her years at the twenty-seat stall said, “Neath Market has always had the reputation for the best ffagod and pys. When my grandmother and aunt owned the stall, it was very, very busy especially on market days. Market Days have not been quite as they were and business slowed a little bit a few years ago. The Welsh continue to patronize their local indoor markets in large numbers, although to a somewhat lesser extent today due to the competition from the supermarkets with big advertising budgets and ease of parking.”

Continuing, Frances said, “In the past, we sold breakfast and F & Ps just about exclusively. My grandmother told us that all people came to Neath Market for was for F & Ps. I introduced some new offerings such as burgers and chips, curries and chili. We have always done well on our sandwiches. Now our volume is up again, the regulars come for ffagod and their children or grandchildren enjoy the newer items especially burgers and chips. Regulars sometimes came from a distance. People hear of us from all over. Recently, some folks from Cyprus came because Welsh vacationers happened to mention us. Well, look at yourself, you’re here from Ohio !”

Local historian, author of several books about the Neath Area, and columnist for the Neath Guardian, Robert King says this about the Neath Market: “Farmers and their families came from the surrounding areas, some quite far. They make a beeline to Neath Market for its F & Ps. It’s traditional, it’s almost hallowed. It’s the highlight of their day, they must have F & Ps before they go home. The stalls offer an amazing sort of ambiance. Everyone from Neath has eaten market F & Ps.”

Neath is so proud of its F & Ps heritage. In September 2004, it organized the first ever F & Ps Festival. All four market food stalls entered as well as many of the cafes, pubs, restaurants and hotels. Of no great surprise to many, the winning title went to Katie’s, confirming that nobody does it any better than Frances ! Katie’s has offered traditional Welsh food for sixty years and the award confirms what their patrons have always known – Katie’s has the very best F & Ps anywhere!

You’re invited to the next Neath Fair and F & Ps Contest on September 8 to 11, 2005!  

  Photo:  Interior of Neath Market circa 1900 from the book "Around Neath" by Stephen Absalom and Robert King.

Copyright © 2005 Ken Thorne

KenThorne1@aol.com  

Recipe – Ffagod

By Audrey Collins

Former Food Editor of Y Drych and Author of “O Gornel y Gegin - From the Kitchen Corner”

 Ingredients:

 1/2 loaf                         bread, stale

1 lb.                             calf’s liver

1/2 lb                           beef, ground chuck

1 1/2 lbs                       onions

1 heaped tsp                sage, crushed

                                    salt and pepper to season

Method:

      Convert the bread into breadcrumbs in a blender. Pass the liver through a grinder, followed by the onions. If you wish, get your butcher to grind the liver. Mix all the ingredients together and form into balls about 2 inches in diameter. Place in a well-greased ovenproof dish or roasting pan, flatten the tops slightly, and cover with greased foil. Bake at 350 to 375ºF/180 to 190ºC/ Gas Mark 4 to 5. Brown (for about an hour) and serve with peas and gravy.

      This tasty savoury treat is truly traditional, yet perfectly complements the modern lifestyle. Ffagod are easily and quickly made, and once cooked, may be frozen for later use as work-place lunches warmed in the microwave oven. Traditionally, ffagod were made with pork liver, encased in the pig’s caul (a natural membrane); they are still available that way in some butcher’s shops in Wales . I prefer to use the milder lamb’s liver, but if you cannot get that, calf’s liver will serve. The delicious taste of the ffagod from this recipe very closely approximates the ffagod from back home, yet is mild enough to be enjoyed by those members of your family who “can’t stand liver.” I serve them with peas, mashed potatoes (and brown gravy). Food Editor’s Note: These are Audrey’s original notes that accompanied the recipe. Audrey has moved back to her home town of Dolgellau , Wales from Denver . She is active in the community and continues to cook from basic ingredients. She still loves traditional Welsh food best! Audrey’s son and his family still reside in Denver .

“O Gornel y Gegin” - “From the Kitchen Corner” by Audrey Collins, published (1991) by Y Drych. This is the only Welsh cookbook ever published of a collection of an author’s own recipes adapted for North American measurements and ingredients! Copies may still be available. Call Ninnau 908 766-4151 or email: Ninnau@poboxes.com

Copyright © 1991-2005 Y Drych/Ken Thorne.