As Wales celebrates St David’s Day this week, the country continues to mark many of the traditions and customs passed down from our ancestors, including the enjoyment of traditional Welsh cuisine including Welsh meat.
The Welsh food of our ancestors came from the diet of the working man: fisherman, farmer, coal miner or labourer. So, fresh vegetables from the garden, fish from the rivers, lakes or sea, meat from the family pig for example form the basis of traditional Welsh cooking with local lamb and beef also featuring predominantly
Welsh Meat Choices
Welsh sheep are small and have a particularly delicious flavour when eaten as a lamb. Salt-marsh lamb has a buttery texture and gentle well-rounded flavour, as a result of the flocks of sheep grazing on samphire and lavender y the seashore. Although lamb is the meat most often associated with Wales, in the past this was a meat eaten only on high days and holidays. Not so long ago the home-grown pig was the staple meat for the family.
Welsh lamb and beef both have the coveted status of Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) awarded by the European Commission in recognition of their unique quality.
Another popular choice on St David’s Day are local sausages, like our hand-made Gower Dragon Sausages which are made from pork, leek and chilli.
Welsh Cawl
Lamb, along with the two Welsh staple vegetables leeks and cabbage, goes to make the traditional Welsh dish cawl, which is a tasty and hearty soup. This classic one-pot meal, originally cooked in an iron pot over an open fire, used all local ingredients: home-cured bacon, scraps of Welsh lamb, cabbage, swede, potatoes and leeks.
Today, cawl remains one of the most popular Welsh dishes that people not only prepare and eat at home but is also served in many local pubs and restaurants.
In fact, Welsh cawl has developed such a great reputation that our guest writer, Non Evans MBE, opted for this dish on St David’s Day.
Says Non, “I have never made a lamb Cawl before but I had beautiful lamb shoulder from Hugh Phillips Butchers. So, had to give it a try! I was a bit tentative at first but I’ve never tasted such delicious stew!
“As ever I chopped my vegetables and put them in the slow cooker with the lamb shoulder. I cooked it for about 6 hours. I added herbs and spices a cup of water and some stock. The most beautiful Cawl I have ever tasted especially in this cold weather!
Give it a go. The meat melts off the bone. Delicious!!! Happy Saint David’s Day. Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus…!”
Hugh Phillips Gower Butcher
Traditional Welsh meat is the backbone of the produce supplied by Hugh Phillips Gower Butcher from our stall in Swansea Market and our online shop: www.bestonlinebutcher.co.uk
In addition to Dragon Sausages and Welsh bacon, we also offer a range of Welsh Beef and Lamb products, including Gower Salt Marsh Lamb and 21 Day Matured Grass Fed Welsh Beef with PGI Status.
Order today for delivery next week in time for Mother’s Day by clicking on the image below:
