- Cawl
Cawl is a
traditional Welshstew -like dish consisting ofmeat andvegetable s. Its ingredients tend to vary, but usually includes Welsh lamb and leeks. Cawl is translated as soup in modern day Welsh.National dish
Cawl has a good claim to be considered the national dish of Wales, and there are a large number of regional variations. It usually contains meat, normally cut into small pieces, and this may be lamb or
mutton (with the fat trimmed if so wished, or the fat skimmed off the broth during cooking),beef ,pork orbacon , the bacon sometimes being added as an accompaniement to another meat. The vegetables used also vary, though leeks are usually included, as arepotato es andcarrot s along withcelery andonion and maybeparsnip orturnip ."Cawl cennin" or leek cawl, can be made without meat but using meat stock. In some areas cawl is often served with bread and cheese, (the bread is usually half a baguette or a piece of french bread). These are served separately on a plate. The dish was traditionally cooked in an iron pot or cauldron over the fire. It is often said that cawl was originally the leftover meat and vegetables from the rest of the week boiled for another meal.
Normally cawl is eaten in a bowl as a one-course meal. In some parts of Wales however the broth from the cawl was eaten as a first course and the meat and vegetables eaten separately as a second course.
History
The word "cawl" in Welsh is first recorded in the
14th century , and is thought to come from theLatin "caulis", meaning the stalk of a plant, acabbage stalk or a cabbage.It rhymes with 'foul', rather than with 'shawl'.
Cawl may once have played an important part in Welsh history. A story is related concerning the Welsh king
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn . Gruffydd's fatherLlywelyn ap Seisyll had been king of a considerable part of Wales in the early11th century , but on his death the throne was taken over by another dynasty. His son Gruffydd was said to be an idle youth, and one New Year's Day was driven out of the house by his exasperated sister. Leaning against the wall of another house he heard the comments of a cook who was cooking a dish which appears to be cawl. The cook complained that one piece of meat kept rising to the surface however often it was pushed down. Gruffydd took that to refer to himself and from that day on changed his outlook on life, to such effect that by1055 he was king of all Wales.In Welsh dialect, "to make a cawl of" something is to mess it up.
Recipes
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4749382.stm The cawl world championship]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/food/pages/cawlcennin.shtml BBC Mid Wales article and recipe for Cawl Cennin]
* [http://www.welshholidaycottages.com/food/welsh-cawl.htm Recipe for Cawl Cymreig]
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