Welsh cuisine
Encyclopedia
Welsh cuisine is the cuisine
of Wales
. It has influenced, and been influenced by, other British cuisine
. Beef and dairy cattle are raised widely. Sheep farming is extensive in the country and lamb is the meat traditionally associated with Welsh cooking, particularly in dishes such as roast lamb with fresh mint sauce
. Welsh cooking often includes seafood
, especially close to the coast, where fishing culture is strong and fisheries are common. This is exemplified by the use of cockles
and laver
in Welsh cuisine. The vegetable leek
, because of its role as the country's national vegetable, is also used frequently in Welsh cuisine.
, though many other types exist, including Y Fenni
, Tintern
and Pantysgawn
. Popular brands include Black Bomber made by the Snowdonia Cheese Company and Collier's Powerful Welsh Cheddar.
s and more than 20 vineyards in the country. Most of the vineyards have been started since the 1970s. By contrast, S A Brain and Felinfoel breweries have existed since the late 19th century, based on breweries which were yet older.
, particularly the Hanes Taliesin. This preparation, Gwîn a Bragawd, is said to have brought "science, inspiration and immortality". While King Ine of Wessex
, who ruled during the late 7th century, declared that food rent for ten hides of land should include 'twelve ambers of Welsh ale' (bragawd).
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
for 852 records a distinction between "fine ale" and Welsh ale.
Welsh beer is noted as a distinct style
as late as 1854, with a recipe made solely from pale malt and hops described in a recipe book of the time.
Wrexham was one of the first places in the UK to brew lager. Homesick German immigrant brothers from Saxony started the process in 1882. While Welsh local historian Deiniol ap Dafydd claims Arthur Guinness
used a Welsh recipe, from Llanfairfechan
, near Bangor
for his stout
In 1998, the Welsh Whisky Company, now known as Penderyn, was formed and whisky production began at Penderyn, Rhondda Cynon Taf in 2000. Penderyn single malt whisky was the first whisky commercially produced in Wales for a century and went on sale in 2004.
. The company is still operating, but it is unclear whether they still grow tea in Pembrokeshire.
Typhoo
produce a tea called Glengettie, which is specifically aimed at the Welsh market. The packaging is printed in both Welsh and English.
Murroughs Welsh Brew tea, sold in bilingual packaging, is packed and blended for Wales by Adwell Foods, of Langland, on the Gower Peninsula
.
Gaiman
, in Patagonia
, Argentina
is famous for its Welsh tea houses, run by the descendants of Welsh immigrants.
was a popular carbonated soft drink in Wales between 1896 and 1910.
fried with bacon and sausage, served with laverbread, is known as a 'traditional' Welsh breakfast.
Cuisine
Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...
of Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. It has influenced, and been influenced by, other British cuisine
British cuisine
English cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with England. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but also shares much with wider British cuisine, largely due to the importation of ingredients and ideas from places such as North America, China, and India...
. Beef and dairy cattle are raised widely. Sheep farming is extensive in the country and lamb is the meat traditionally associated with Welsh cooking, particularly in dishes such as roast lamb with fresh mint sauce
Mint Sauce
Mint sauce is a sauce traditionally made from finely chopped spearmint leaves, soaked in vinegar, and a small amount of sugar. Occasionally, the juice from a squeezed lime is added. The sauce should have the consistency of double cream...
. Welsh cooking often includes seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
, especially close to the coast, where fishing culture is strong and fisheries are common. This is exemplified by the use of cockles
Cockle (bivalve)
Cockle is the common name for a group of small, edible, saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Cardiidae.Various species of cockles live in sandy sheltered beaches throughout the world....
and laver
Laver (seaweed)
Laver is an edible algae often considered to be a seaweed that has a high mineral salt content, particularly iodine and iron. It is used for making laverbread, a traditional Welsh dish. Laver is common around the west coast of Britain and east coast of Ireland along the Irish Sea.It is smooth and...
in Welsh cuisine. The vegetable leek
Leek
The leek, Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum , also sometimes known as Allium porrum, is a vegetable which belongs, along with the onion and garlic, to family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Allioideae...
, because of its role as the country's national vegetable, is also used frequently in Welsh cuisine.
Welsh Dishes
- Tatws Pum MunudTatws Pum Munud' is a traditional Welsh stew, made with smoked bacon, stock, potatoes and other vegetables.As a stew, it is unique in that all the main ingredients are cut into slices, so as to lay flat. Because of this, it is normally cooked in a large frying pan, on top of the stove, and served on a plate...
(five minute potatoes), a traditional Welsh stew, made with potatoes, vegetables and bacon, and cooked on top of the stove. - Tatws Popty (oven potatoes), a traditional Welsh stew, made with potatoes, vegetables and a joint of meat, and cooked in an oven.
- Teisennau Tatws (Potato Cakes), is a potato dish, served as an accompaniment - not a main dish in its own right.
- Welsh rarebit or Welsh Rabbit, although now synonymous with Wales, the origins of this dish are unclear and the name may actually be an ironic English reference to Welsh cuisine. The Welsh term for this dish is caws pobi, meaning 'baked cheese'.
- Bara brithBara brithBara brith, sometimes known as "speckled bread" , can be either a yeast bread enriched with dried fruit or something more like a fruitcake made with self-raising flour...
, "speckled bread", is a sweet bread which originated in Wales. It is traditionally made with raisins, Zante currantZante currantThe Zante currant , or currant are dried berries of small, sweet, seedless grape variety Black Corinth . The name comes from the Anglo-French phrase "raisins de Corinthe" and the Ionian island of Zakynthos , which was once the major producer and exporter...
, and candied peel. - CawlCawlCawl is the Welsh word for soup or broth. The term is used in English to refer to traditional Welsh stews, usually containing meat and vegetables. Its ingredients tend to vary, but lamb and leeks are particularly common, owing to their association with Wales....
is a Welsh stew with lamb and leeks. - Roast lamb with laver sauceRoast lamb with laver sauceRoast lamb with laver sauce is a recipe associated with Wales and Welsh cuisine.Lamb and mutton dishes are widespread and common in all the old counties of Wales and have long been traditional, with all regions having their own variations and contribution, let alone the various sheep breeds, to...
or with mint sauce - Shepherd's pieShepherd's pieCottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791, when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term...
, a type of lamb meat pie made with mashed potatoes, is often associated with Wales. - CocklesCockle (bivalve)Cockle is the common name for a group of small, edible, saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Cardiidae.Various species of cockles live in sandy sheltered beaches throughout the world....
are very popular in Wales and served in a variety of ways although usually steamed. - CrempogCrempogA crempog is a Welsh pancake made with self-raising flour, salt, eggs, milk and salted butter. They are also known as ffroes and normally served piled into a stack and spread with butter...
au are Welsh buttermilkButtermilkButtermilk refers to a number of dairy drinks. Originally, buttermilk was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cream. It also refers to a range of fermented milk drinks, common in warm climates where unrefrigerated fresh milk otherwise sours quickly...
pancakePancakeA pancake is a thin, flat, round cake prepared from a batter, and cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan. Most pancakes are quick breads; some use a yeast-raised or fermented batter. Most pancakes are cooked one side on a griddle and flipped partway through to cook the other side...
s. - FaggotsFaggot (food)Faggots are a traditional dish in the UK, especially South and Mid Wales and the Midlands of England. It is made from meat off-cuts and offal, especially pork. A faggot is traditionally made from pig's heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon minced together, with herbs added for flavouring and...
are Welsh meatballs made from lamb or pig's liver, onions and a cereal binder. - Glamorgan sausageGlamorgan sausageGlamorgan sausage is a traditional Welsh vegetarian sausage whose main ingredients are cheese , leeks and breadcrumbs....
is cheese, eggs and breadcrumbs in the shape of a sausage. - Laverbread, or Bara Lawr in Welsh, is a Welsh seaweed delicacy. The laver is mixed with oatmealOatmealOatmeal is ground oat groats , or a porridge made from oats . Oatmeal can also be ground oat, steel-cut oats, crushed oats, or rolled oats....
, which is formed into patties and usually fried in bacon fat. - Welsh cakeWelsh cakeWelsh cakes are traditional Welsh snacks.The cakes are also known as bakestones within Wales because they are traditionally cooked on a bakestone , a cast iron griddle about 1.5 cm or more thick which is placed on the fire or cooker; on rare occasions, people may refer to them as griddle...
s are small cakes cooked on a bakestoneBakestoneBakestones are flat stones that can be placed on or next to a fire or stove to cook cakes of various kinds. In Wales, A bakestone, 'maen' in Welsh 'gradell' in the north of the county and 'planc' is the name for the cast iron or steel griddle used for cakes , especially in South Wales.The...
. - Leek soupLeek soupLeek soup is a soup based on potatoes, leeks, broth , and heavy cream. Other things used may be salt andpepper, and various spices.Generally the potatoes are diced and cooked in broth, while the leeks...
(Welsh: Cawl Cennin or Cawl Mamgu ("Granny's stew")). - LobscowsScouse (food)Scouse is a type of lamb or beef stew. The word comes from lobscouse or lapskaus, Norwegian for "stew" and refers to a meat based stew commonly eaten by sailors throughout Northern Europe, which became popular in seaports such as Liverpool.-Origin of the term:In the 18th and 19th centuries...
is a popular stew in HolyheadHolyheadHolyhead is the largest town in the county of Anglesey in the North Wales. It is also a major port adjacent to the Irish Sea serving Ireland....
and AngleseyAngleseyAnglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...
. - MonkfishMonkfishMonkfish is the English name of a number of types of fish in the northwest Atlantic, most notably the species of the anglerfish genus Lophius and the angelshark genus Squatina...
, often served with laver, common on the coast.
Cheese
Cheese has long been a traditional food of Wales, with Welsh Rarebit being a popular national dish by Tudor times, though known then as caws pobi. The best known Welsh cheese is CaerphillyCaerphilly cheese
Caerphilly is a hard, white cheese that originates in the area around the town of Caerphilly in Wales, although it is now also made in England, particularly in the South West and on the English border with Wales...
, though many other types exist, including Y Fenni
Y Fenni (cheese)
Y Fenni is a variety of Welsh cheese, consisting of Cheddar cheese blended with mustard seed and ale. It takes its name from the Welsh language name of Abergavenny, a market town in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. Y Fenni, when coated in red wax, is also known as 'Red Dragon', a name derived from...
, Tintern
Tintern (cheese)
Tintern is a blended mature creamy Cheddar cheese flavoured with fresh chives and shallots, made by Abergavenny Fine Foods. Typically produced in wheels of 2.25kg, it is sold in a distinctive lime green wax covering....
and Pantysgawn
Pantysgawn
Pantysgawn is a Welsh cheese made from goat's milk. It's sold in logs of 150 g or 1 kg. It has a high moisture content and limited shelf life....
. Popular brands include Black Bomber made by the Snowdonia Cheese Company and Collier's Powerful Welsh Cheddar.
Beverages
Beer is the national drink of Wales. There are a number of Welsh beerWelsh beer
Welsh beer describes beer brewed in Wales.-History:At least as early at the 6th century, the Druidic legendary person Ceridwen is associated with cauldrons and intoxicating preparations of grain in herbs in many poems of Taliesin, particularly the Hanes Taliesin...
s and more than 20 vineyards in the country. Most of the vineyards have been started since the 1970s. By contrast, S A Brain and Felinfoel breweries have existed since the late 19th century, based on breweries which were yet older.
Beer
References to intoxicating preparations of grain and herbs appear in several works by the 6th century Welsh poet TaliesinTaliesin
Taliesin was an early British poet of the post-Roman period whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the Book of Taliesin...
, particularly the Hanes Taliesin. This preparation, Gwîn a Bragawd, is said to have brought "science, inspiration and immortality". While King Ine of Wessex
Ine of Wessex
Ine was King of Wessex from 688 to 726. He was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor, Cædwalla, who had brought much of southern England under his control and expanded West Saxon territory substantially...
, who ruled during the late 7th century, declared that food rent for ten hides of land should include 'twelve ambers of Welsh ale' (bragawd).
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
for 852 records a distinction between "fine ale" and Welsh ale.
Welsh beer is noted as a distinct style
Beer style
Beer style is a term used to differentiate and categorize beers by various factors such as colour, flavour, strength, ingredients, production method, recipe, history, or origin....
as late as 1854, with a recipe made solely from pale malt and hops described in a recipe book of the time.
Wrexham was one of the first places in the UK to brew lager. Homesick German immigrant brothers from Saxony started the process in 1882. While Welsh local historian Deiniol ap Dafydd claims Arthur Guinness
Arthur Guinness
Arthur Guinness was an Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness brewery business and family.He was also an entrepreneur, visionary and philanthropist....
used a Welsh recipe, from Llanfairfechan
Llanfairfechan
Llanfairfechan is a town and community in the Conwy County Borough, Wales. It lies on the coast of north Wales on the route of the A55 road, between Penmaenmawr and Bangor. It previously was in Gwynedd and prior to that was in Caernarfonshire. For ceremonial and electoral boundary purposes it was...
, near Bangor
Bangor, Gwynedd
Bangor is a city in Gwynedd, north west Wales, and one of the smallest cities in Britain. It is a university city with a population of 13,725 at the 2001 census, not including around 10,000 students at Bangor University. Including nearby Menai Bridge on Anglesey, which does not however form part of...
for his stout
Stout
Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or barley, hops, water and yeast. Stouts were traditionally the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters, typically 7% or 8%, produced by a brewery....
Whisky
Unlike Ireland and Scotland, Wales does not have a long tradition of distilling, with only small cottage industries appearing over the last two centuries. Manufacturing of whisky ceased in Wales in 1910.In 1998, the Welsh Whisky Company, now known as Penderyn, was formed and whisky production began at Penderyn, Rhondda Cynon Taf in 2000. Penderyn single malt whisky was the first whisky commercially produced in Wales for a century and went on sale in 2004.
Water
List of brands of Welsh bottled water (spring and mineral)- Brecon Carreg - Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire.
- Cerist Natural Mineral Water - Dinas Mawddwy, Powys.
- Llanllyr SOURCE - Lampeter, Ceredigion.
- Princes Gate Spring Water - Narberth, Pembrokeshire.
- 3W - Llandrindod Wells, Powys.
- Ty Nant - Llanon, Ceredigion.
Tea
In 2009, the Pembrokeshire Tea Company established several tea plantations across PembrokeshirePembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
. The company is still operating, but it is unclear whether they still grow tea in Pembrokeshire.
Typhoo
Typhoo
Typhoo is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom. It was launched in 1903 by John Sumner Jr. of Birmingham, England.-History:In 1863, William Sumner published, A Popular Treatise on Tea as a by-product of the first trade missions to China from London....
produce a tea called Glengettie, which is specifically aimed at the Welsh market. The packaging is printed in both Welsh and English.
Murroughs Welsh Brew tea, sold in bilingual packaging, is packed and blended for Wales by Adwell Foods, of Langland, on the Gower Peninsula
Gower Peninsula
Gower or the Gower Peninsula is a peninsula in south Wales, jutting from the coast into the Bristol Channel, and administratively part of the City and County of Swansea. Locally it is known as "Gower"...
.
Gaiman
Gaiman, Chubut
Gaiman is a town in the Chubut Province of Patagonia in Argentina. It has a population of about 6,000 as per the . It is located close to the River Chubut, about 15 km west of Trelew....
, in Patagonia
Patagonia
Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
is famous for its Welsh tea houses, run by the descendants of Welsh immigrants.
Wine
List of Welsh vinyards;- Bryn Celynnog Vineyard - Penarth, South Glamorgan.
- Celtic Country Wines - Llandysul, Ceredigion.
- Cwm Deri Vineyard - Narberth, Pembrokeshire.
- Gelynis Vineyard - Morganstown, Cardiff.
- Glyndwr Vineyard - Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan.
- Gwinllan Ffynnon Las Vineyard - Aberaeron, Ceredigion.
- Llanerch Vineyard - Pendoylan, Vale of Glamorgan.
- Parva Farm Vineyard - Tintern, Monmouthshire.
- Sugarloaf Vineyard - Abergavenny, Monmouthshire.
- Wernddu Organics - Pen-Y-Clawdd, Monmouth.
- Worthenbury Wines - Worthenbury, Wrexham.
Soft drinks
Lurvills DelightLurvills Delight
Lurvills Delight was a popular carbonated soft drink in Wales between 1896 and 1910.Invented by Ynyshir resident twin brothers Harold and Iolo Lewis in 1895, the mixture was a carbonated mixture of stingy, Nettles, Dock leaves, infused with Juniper berry extract...
was a popular carbonated soft drink in Wales between 1896 and 1910.
Miscellaneous foods
Breakfast is traditionally an important meal in Wales. A hearty breakfast of eggs and cocklesCockle (bivalve)
Cockle is the common name for a group of small, edible, saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Cardiidae.Various species of cockles live in sandy sheltered beaches throughout the world....
fried with bacon and sausage, served with laverbread, is known as a 'traditional' Welsh breakfast.
External links
- Welsh Agricultural Statistics from the Welsh Assembly.
- Welsh Food
- Culture UK Welsh Food
- Article on Welsh food in Spectator Scoff