Welsh cuisine

This article is part of the series: British cuisine
Varieties: English cuisine Scottish cuisine Welsh cuisine Gibraltarian cuisine Anglo-Indian cuisine Indo-Pakistani cuisine
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Welsh cuisine is the cuisine of Wales. It has influenced, and been influenced by, other British cuisine

Although both beef and dairy cattle are raised widely, especially in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, Wales is best known for its sheep, and thus lamb is the meat traditionally associated with Welsh cooking, in dishes such as roast lamb with fresh mint sauce. Welsh cooking often involves 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 is also common in Welsh cuisine.

Welsh Dishes

• Tatws Pum Munud (English: five minute potatoes), a traditional Welsh stew, made with potatoes, vegetables and bacon, and cooked on top of the stove.
• Tatws Popty or Tatws Pobdu (English: oven potatoes), a traditional Welsh stew, made with potatoes, vegetables and a joint of meat, and cooked in an oven.
• Teisennau Tatws (English: Potato Cakes), is potato dish, served as an accompaniment - not a main dish in its own right.
• Welsh rarebit: 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 brith, "speckled bread", is a sweet bread which originated in Wales. It is traditionally made with raisins, Zante currant, and candied peel.
• Cawl is a Welsh stew with lamb and leeks.
• Roast lamb with laver sauce or with mint sauce
• Shepherd's pie, a type of lamb meat pie made with mashed potatoes, is often associated with Wales.
• Cockles are very popular in Wales and served in a variety of ways although usually steamed.
• Crempogs are Welsh buttermilk pancakes.
• Faggots are Welsh meatballs made from lamb or pig's liver, onions and a cereal binder.
• Glamorgan sausage (Welsh: Selsig Morgannwg) 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 oatmeal, which is formed into patties and usually fried in bacon fat.
• Welsh cakes (Welsh: picau ar y maen, pice bach, cacen gri or teisen radell) are small cakes cooked on a bakestone.
• Leek soup (Welsh: Cawl Cennin or Cawl Mamgu ("Granny's stew")).
• Lob Scows is a popular stew in Holyhead and Anglesey; the Liverpudlian 'Scouse' is derived from this.
• Monkfish, often served with laver, common on the coast.
• The Clark's Pie is a meat and potato pie first produced in Cardiff.

Breakfast is traditionally an important meal in Wales. A hearty breakfast of eggs and cockles fried with bacon and sausage, served with laverbread, is known as a 'traditional' Welsh breakfast.

Various cheeses are produced in Wales. These include Caerphilly, Y Fenni, Hen-Sir, Llanboidy, Tintern, Pantysgawn, Red Dragon, Red Devil, and an exceptionally strong variety of Cheddar – the "Black Bomber".

Welsh Beverages

There are a number of Welsh beers 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. Welsh whiskey also has a long tradition, starting from almost as far back as the 4th century^{[citation needed]}.

Beer

This section requires expansion with: a better potted history.

At least as early at the 6th century CE, the legendary Druid Ceridwen is associated with cauldrons and intoxicating preparations of grain in herbs in many poems of Taliesin.

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.^[1]

Wrexham was one of the first places in the UK to brew lager.^[2] Homesick German immigrant brothers from Saxony started the process in 1882.

Welsh local historian Deiniol ap Dafydd claims Arthur Guinness used a Welsh recipe, from Llanfairfechan, near Bangor for his stout^[3]

List of Welsh breweries

Whisky

The art of distillation arrived in Wales sometime in the Middle Ages^{[citation needed]}. Manufacturing of whisky ceased in Wales in 1894.^[4]

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.^[5]

Water

This section requires expansion with: adding bottled waters.

List 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.
• Tŷ Nant. Llanon, Ceredigion.

Tea

The Pembrokeshire Tea Company has several tea plantations across Pembrokeshire and produces a range of teas made using only tea grown in Wales, or made with a blend of Welsh and Indian tea.

Typhoo produce a tea called Glengettie, which is specifically aimed at the Welsh market. The packaging is printed in both Welsh and English.

Gaiman, in Patagonia, Argentina is famous for its Welsh tea houses, run by the decendants of Welsh imigrants.^[6]

Wine

This section requires expansion with: more vinyards.

List of Welsh vinyards;

• Bryn Ceiliog 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.
• Worthenbury Wines. Worthenbury, Wrexham.

References

External links

Welsh Agricultural Statistics from the Welsh Assembly.

• Welsh Food
• Food Stories — Explore a century of revolutionary change in UK food culture on the British Library's Food Stories website
• Culture UK Welsh Food