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Travel around Wales through the pages of this book and discover a selection of the delicious traditional food of the area, as well as stories and fascinating facts behind the recipes. Your journey is given added flavour by the delightful historical images from The Francis Frith Collection, showing the people and places of Wales in the past.

A Taste of Wales includes 43 recipes, some traditional, some reflecting local products that Wales is famous for, some linked to characters or historical personages or events, some versions adapted to suit modern tastes.

Feeling nostalgic, and hungry? This stunning NEW book release from The Francis Frith Collection, is now available for only $30.00.
Buy A Taste of Wales Price: $30

A delicious journey through our culinary heritage

Rediscover 43 traditional locally-inspired dishes. Some recipes are modern interpretations using some of the fine local produce that Wales is famous for - we hope that this unique book provides you with a true taste of Wales!

  • Aberffraw Cakes – Teisennau Aberffro
  • Anglesey Eggs – Wyau Ynys Môn
  • Brecon Light Cakes
  • Cabbage and Leek Soup
  • Cinnamon Cake – Teisen Sinamon
  • Cockle Cakes – Teisennau Cocos
  • Cockle Pie – Pastai Cocos
  • Glamorgan Sausages – Selsig Morgannwg
  • Gower Fisherman's Stew – Gwyr Stiw Pysgotwr
  • Grilled Grayling
  • Harvest Broth – Cawl Cynhaeaf
  • Honey Cakes – Teisennau Mêl
  • Honeyed Welsh Lamb – Cig Oen Cymreig â Mêl
  • Laverbread Breakfast – Bara Lawr Brecwast
  • Leek Broth – Cawl Cennin
  • Leek Flan – Tarten Cennin
  • Loaf Cake – Teisen Dorth
  • Loin of Pork with Cabbage Cake
  • Mackerel with Walnut Stuffing
  • Miser's Feast – Ffest y Cybydd
  • Monmouth Pudding – Pwdin Mynwy
  • Mussels with Cider and Leeks
  • Parsley Pie – Pastai Persli
  • Penbryn Cheese Pudding – Pwdin Caws Penbryn
  • Pumpkin and Apple Tart
  • Punchnep
  • Red Flannel Hash – Bryn Teg
  • Seatrout (Siwin) with Herbed Mayonnaise Sauce
  • Shearing Cake – Cacen Gneifio
  • Snowdon Pudding – Pwdin Eryri
  • Speckled Bread – Bara Brith
  • Toffee Tart – Teisen Taffi
  • Tregaron Granny's Broth – Cawl Mamgu Tregaron
  • Trout Wrapped in Bacon – Brithyll Mewn Cig Moch
  • Welsh Amber Pudding – Pwdin Marmaléd Cymreig
  • Welsh Bread Pudding – Pwdin Bara
  • Welsh Cakes – Picau ar y Maen
  • Welsh Herring Supper – Swper Scadan
  • Welsh Lamb Chops with Teifi Sauce
  • Welsh Onion Cake – Teisen Nionod
  • Welsh Rabbit (or Rarebit) – Caws Pobi
  • Welsh Roast Potatoes and Bacon – Tatws Rhost
  • Welsh Salmon Steaks with Green Butter
History, folklore and fascinating facts

A Taste of Wales is peppered with topic boxes of additional snippets and information about traditional customs and local trivia, to convey a true flavour of Wales. Read on for a just a few of the fascinating facts from the book.

    • Many of the soups in this book are called 'cawls'. 'Cawl' is a Welsh word (pronounced like 'foul', rather than 'shawl') for which there is no definitive translation. It signifies 'broth' or 'soup', but a cawl is so much more than just a simple soup – it is a filling meal that would originally have been cooked in an iron pot over an open fire, made up of whatever ingredients were available at the time, such as pieces of bacon, scraps of mutton or lamb, cabbage, swedes, carrots, potatoes, leeks and any other seasonal vegetables. Cawl can be eaten all together, with the meat and broth served in a bowl at the same time, but in many Welsh homes the broth is served first and the meat and vegetables are eaten afterwards.
    • Cheese-making has a long tradition in Wales. Milk from goats and sheep as well as cows was used in the past to make a variety of cheeses, and it seems that some of these early cheeses were immersed in brine for part of their production process. Cheeses were considered so valuable in 10th-century Wales that they were included in divorce settlements when Hywel Dda ('Hywel the Good') codified Welsh law. Any cheese that was still in brine in the family home at the time the couple separated was considered to be the property of the wife, whilst any cheese which was hung up in the home, and had therefore finished its production process, went to the husband.
    • Whilst the Red Dragon is the banner of Wales, the national emblems of Wales are the daffodil and the humble leek. There are several theories about how the leek became a Welsh emblem, but they are all linked with battles fought between Welsh forces and Saxon (or English) foes. Legend says that that the Welsh leader (some tales say it was St David, others that it was King Cadwallawn) ordered his soldiers to gather the wild leeks growing on the battlefield and wear them on their caps or helmets, so they could identify themselves in the confusion of the fray. The Welsh were victorious, and thereafter adopted the leek as their national emblem in commemoration of the battle. There is a Welsh saying, 'Wear a leek in your cap, but also be sure to have one in your heart'. In more recent times, the daffodil was named the national flower of Wales. The daffodil is thought to have been chosen as a Welsh emblem because of the similarity of its name to Dafydd, the Welsh name for David, the patron saint of Wales. St David (or Dewi in Welsh) was a 6th-century monk who founded the abbey at St Davids in Pembrokeshire. An extremely popular saint, his shrine was a major centre for pilgrimages in the Middle Ages. St David's Day (March 1st) is the Welsh national day, when it is traditional to wear a leek or daffodil in your buttonhole. A Welsh tradition says that the person who sees the first flowering daffodil of the spring will be lucky enough to receive more gold than silver during the coming year.
    • The recipe for the small biscuit-like Aberffraw Cakes comes from Aberffraw in the south of the island of Anglesey. Nowadays they are made as simple round biscuits marked with lines to imitate the markings of a scallop shell, but in past times the dough was actually moulded in a scallop shell, to make shell-shaped cakes. One of the explanations for this is a romantic legend that whilst a Welsh prince was holding his court in Aberffraw many centuries ago, his wife went for a walk along the beach, picked up a pretty scallop shell and asked for a cake to be baked for her in the same shape.
    • The traditional Welsh vegetable dish of Punchnep combines potatoes and turnips to make a buttery purée that is then dotted with pools of hot cream. To obtain the authentic flavour of punchnep, it is essential to boil the potatoes and turnips in separate saucepans, and then to also drain and mash them separately.
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