Welsh Breakfast Recipe Film | The Recipe Hunters in Wales (2024)

FAQs

What is the traditional Welsh breakfast? ›

The Welsh Breakfast is a unique combination of some of the most symbolic food of Wales, such as Welsh bacon, Laverbread, and Penclawdd co*ckles. The breakfast begins with thick slices of Welsh bacon. Historically, bacon was kept and used as a staple source of fat in most kitchens throughout Wales.

The Full Welsh Breakfast

This version typically includes bacon, sausages, eggs, and tomatoes, similar to its English counterpart. However, the addition of laverbread and co*ckles sets it apart. Laverbread, a traditional Welsh delicacy made from seaweed, is often fried into small cakes or served as a side.

Laver bread is a weird green substance made from Laver, a type of rock clinging seaweed. This dark green substance is usually mixed with the co*ckles and served on a plate with eggs, bacon, etc. Laverbread is made by boiling Laver seaweed, which is technically an edible, littoral alga.

Welsh Laverbread is made from cooked laver (seaweed) which has been plucked by hand from the Welsh coastline. It has a unique texture and salty flavour which provides a taste of the fresh, Welsh sea. Laver or Laver porphyra umbilicalis is the only seaweed which is only one cell thick.

Dishes such as cawl, Welsh rarebit, laverbread, Welsh cakes, bara brith (literally "speckled bread") or the Glamorgan sausage have all been regarded as symbols of Welsh food. Cawl, pronounced in a similar way to the English word "cowl", can be regarded as Wales' national dish.

Perhaps a trickier question to answer, Penderyn whisky is the most famous Welsh spirit, and perry and cider have certainly gained in popularity, but beer is considered by most to be the national drink of Wales.

Laverbread is a specific type of seaweed, but in the absence of this locally, I used dried wakame that I rehydrated which worked as a great alternative.

Laverbread can be heated and served with boiled bacon. Laverbread is traditionally eaten fried with bacon and co*ckles as part of a Welsh breakfast. It can also be used to make a sauce to accompany lamb, crab, monkfish, etc., and to make laver soup (cawl lafwr).

Traditional Laverbread recipes

Traditionally, the Welsh like to eat Laverbread raw, spread onto hot toast, or mixed with rolled oats to form flat patties known as 'Lavercakes', which are fried in butter or bacon fat, until crispy.

Cawl. Dating back to the 14th century, cawl, also known as 'lobscows' in areas of North Wales, is a hearty stew of lamb and seasonal vegetables that is considered to be the national dish of Wales.

What food is Wales famous for? ›

Staple fruits of the land include oats, barley, wheat and vegetables, including the famous Welsh leek – an enduring symbol of Wales and found in traditional dishes, such as Glamorgan sausage and the hearty broth known simply as cawl. Nothing showcases the Welsh tradition of simple wholesome fare more than cawl.

But if it wasn't for this boiling, laverbread would never have existed and the culinary world would be a much poorer place without it. Laver seaweed has a high iodine content that gives it a distinctive marine olive flavour, it is not always a food you will fall in love with straight away - it's a grower.

Cawl. Dating back to the 14th century, cawl, also known as 'lobscows' in areas of North Wales, is a hearty stew of lamb and seasonal vegetables that is considered to be the national dish of Wales. Usually accompanied by slabs of fresh bread, it's the perfect meal to warm up during a frosty Welsh winter.

What do you like for breakfast? Or, in the more informal way, "Beth wyt ti'n hoffi i frecwast?" Beth wyt ti'n hoffi i frecwast?

While both languages originate from the same source, the written and spoken forms are different. A Welsh speaker would find it hard to understand Irish Gaelic. The alphabets are slightly different too - the Irish alphabet uses 18 letters, while the Welsh alphabet has 29.