Cawl

Cawl is a traditional Welsh stew-like dish consisting of meat and vegetables. Its ingredients tend to vary, but usually includes Welsh lamb and leeks. Cawl is translated as soup in modern day Welsh.

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, mutton, beef, pork or bacon, the bacon sometimes being added as an accompaniement to another meat. The vegetables used also vary, though leeks are usually included, as are potatoes and carrots. "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 the Latin caulis, meaning the stalk of a plant, a cabbage 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 father Llywelyn ap Seisyll had been king of a considerable part of Wales in the early 11th 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 by 1055 he was king of all Wales.

In Wales to make a cawl of something is to mess it up.

Recipes

• The cawl world championship