Stars on Its Face | Sêr ar ei Wyneb
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Poised between the windswept coast and the stony volcanic spine of the land above Fishguard and Goodwick, the Pencaer peninsula’s acid soil has never borne rich harvests. Pembrokeshire’s early potato crop has become famous but once upon a time root vegetables were just the mainstay of everyday cooking, along with oats and the unreliable bounty of the sea. But every farm kept a pig and as many sheep as could be grazed. The prime cuts of meat would sold at the market leaving the remainder for family fare.
‘Cawl’ – which translates simply as soup or stew – is the Welsh version of Irish stew and Scotch broth: a lump of meat (or meaty bone) cooked long and slow over the fire with leeks, potatoes, onions and other roots plus a handful of oats thrown in at the end. The broth could be served as a starter with the solids as the second course, and any leftovers would do for weekday meals, bread and cheese being the usual accompaniment.
Every family has its own version of cawl with preferences that can make for heated arguments: whether to fry the meat first or not, whether to include parsnips or not, and so on. Every autumn in Fishguard a “cawl crawl” around the town’s pubs and restaurants sees folk doing the rounds to sample and compare each offering, giving marks to establish that year’s winner.
In 1980 Fishguard restaurateur, food lover and passionate advocate of Welsh produce, Bobby Freeman, published a Welsh food guide and cookery book called First Catch Your Peacock. She devoted eight pages to cawl and included a poem by local poet and bard Dewi Emrys (1881- 1952) who spent his childhood on Pencaer and went to school in Fishguard. His poem Pwllderi recalls his memories of that area and includes a verse in praise of cawl:
There’s only one house near the place
And that hides in the arm-pit of Garn Fawr,
Dolgaer it is called, an old barn of a house
But a place for a welcome and a cup of tea
Or a bowl of cawl, and that’s a better feed
With leeks and potatoes and stars on its face.
You’ll see the cauldron on the tripod there
And the gorse blazing gaily beneath it.
You shall have the ladle full, and filled again
And that lovelier than any mixture;
You shall have the wooden spoon in the bowl as well
And a great hunk of fine old cheese.
[Translated from the Pencaer dialect by Dillwyn Miles, Herald Bard of Wales.]
The ‘stars’ are of course the spots of fat that float on the surface of the broth - good sustenance for lives lived on land and sea.
Rhwng yr arfordir digysgod ac asgwrn cefn folcanig creigiog y tir uwch ben Abergwaun ac Wdig, nid yw pridd asid penrhyn Pencader fyth wedi cynnig cynaeafau cyfoethog. Mae cnwd tatws cynnar sir Benfro yn enwog, ond ers talwm, roedd gwreiddlysiau yn brif elfen coginio cyffredin, ynghyd â cheirch a haelioni annibynadwy y môr. Ond arferai pob fferm gadw mochyn a chymaint o ddefaid ag y byddai modd eu pori. Byddai'r cig gorau yn cael ei werthu yn y farchnad, gan adael y gweddill i'r teulu.
Cawl – sy'n golygu sŵp neu stiw yn syml – yw'r fersiwn Cymreig o stiw Gwyddelig a Sgot-brywes: talp o gig (neu asgwrn cigog) wedi'i goginio yn araf ac am amser hir dros y tân gyda chennin, tatws, winwns a gwreiddlysiau eraill, gan daflu llond dwrn o geirch i mewn ar y diwedd. Byddai modd gweini'r potes fel cwrs cyntaf, a'r bwyd solet fel yr ail gwrs, a byddai unrhyw beth dros ben yn cael ei fwyta fel pryd yn ystod yr wythnos, gydag ychydig fara a chaws fel arfer.
Mae gan bob teulu ei fersiwn ei hun o gawl, ac mae'r hyn sy'n cael ei ffafrio yn gallu bod yn destun dadleuon chwyrn: a ddylid ffrio'r cig yn gyntaf neu beidio, a ddylid cynnwys pannas neu beidio, ac ati. Bob hydref yn Abergwaun, cynhelir “crwydr cawl” o gwmpas tafarndai a bwytai y dref, wrth i bobl fynd o gwmpas yn blasu'r hyn sydd gan bawb i'w gynnig, gan roi marciau er mwyn pennu enillydd y flwyddyn honno.
Ym 1980, cyhoeddodd Bobby Freeman, perchennog bwyty yn Abergwaun, menyw sy'n dwli ar ei bwyd a chefnogwr brwd cynnyrch Cymreig, ganllaw i fwyd Cymreig a llyfr coginio o'r enw First Catch Your Peacock. Neilltuodd wyth dudalen i gawl, gan gynnwys cerdd gan Dewi Emrys (1881-1952), bardd lleol a dreuliodd ei blentyndod ar Bencaer ac a fynychodd yr ysgol yn Abergwaun. Mae ei gerdd Pwllderi yn sôn am ei atgofion o'r ardal honno ac mae'n cynnwys un pennill sy'n canmol cawl:
Dim ond un tŷ sy'n agos ato,
A hwnnw yng nghesel Garn Fowr yn cwato.
Dolgâr yw ei enw, hen orest o le,
Ond man am reso a dished o de,
Neu ffioled o gawl, a thina well bolied,
Yn genin a thato a sêrs ar'i wmed.
Cewch weld y crochon a dribe ino,
A'r eithin yn ffaglu a chretshan dano.
Cewch lond y lletwad, a'i llond hi lweth,
A hwnnw'n ffeinach nag un gimisgeth;
A chewch lwy bren yn y ffiol hefyd,
A chwlffyn o gaws o hen gosin hifryd,
Bara gwenith yn dafell lidan,
A chig ar drenshwn mor wyn â’r arian.
‘Pwllderi’ gan Dewi Emrys