About Mr Brains
Mr Brain's is a beloved British brand famous for its traditional pork faggots, founded in 1925 by Herbert Hill Brain, a Bristol butcher. The brand has been producing its classic faggot recipe with the distinctive West Country sauce for nearly a century, making it a nostalgic favourite in British households. Herbert Hill Brain was born in 1864 in Kingswood near Bristol. He started his grocery business in Temple Street in 1890 and began producing hams in 1927. The faggots first appeared in the mid-1930s following an employee suggestion, originally called 'savoury ducks' - a name dating back to the Middle Ages. The recipe combined traditional West Country faggot-making with Brain's unique gravy recipe. Faggots are a traditional British peasant dish from the West Country, historically made from pork offal combined with onions, breadcrumbs and herbs. Mr Brain's modernised the recipe using choicer cuts of pork and pork liver while maintaining the authentic West Country sauce that made the brand famous. The products are still manufactured in Bristol, with approximately 100 million faggots produced annually. The brand passed through several owners including Unilever Bestfoods and Kraft before being acquired by Kerry Foods in 2003, where it sits alongside other British heritage brands including Walls, Richmond, Mattessons and Homepride. Today, Mr Brain's Pork Faggots remain a convenient, affordable comfort food available frozen in supermarkets across the UK.