St Davids Day

This is the day when numerous Welsh ex-patriots across the world remember their patron saint. The celebrations on the day have to include some Welsh food, drink and entertainment. But fresh food specialities can be sparse at this time on the seasonal calendar. The fishing season has barely started; it's too early for spring lamb, though hoggets (year old lamb) are mature and tasty; vegetables are limited, and it's too early for new potatoes. Some ingredients that are cured, canned or smoked are possibly a good option at this time. These include cured hams and bacon, other smoked meats, smoked cod, and smoked salmon.

A Welsh breakfast is certainly a good way to celebrate St David's Day. Sausages from the local butcher, real dry-cured bacon, free range eggs, Penclawdd cockles and laverbread make up a regal feast. Welsh smoked salmon with scrambled eggs and laverbread is a lighter alternative.

Welsh ham

In the past every smallholding kept a few pigs that would forage the land, eat household scraps, and gorge on the autumn plenty, and then provide much meat for the winter months. Most would be salted to become bacon, and gammon. The traditional process of dry curing would enable the meat to keep for many months; some would be smoked in the large chimney of the kitchen to give a different wood-smoke flavour.

In the modern age ham is cured by injecting brine into the pork. This darkens the meat and breaks down the texture. Dry curing actually forms a crust on the meat, causing a slow chemical reaction and evaporation of the juices through this crust. It takes about six weeks to cure a whole ham, but the process will continue for many months, the raw meat eventually becoming totally cured. On the continent Bayonne, Parma and Iberico ham is a great delicacy.

In Wales traditional curing virtually disappeared, Albert Rees of Carmarthen market being one of few who kept the five generations of family tradition going. Chris and Ann Rees now cure about fifty hams a week; some are boiled and sold as cooked ham in the market, while the best of these are kept for nine months to become Carmarthen ham. This is eaten exactly as continental cured hams, usually sliced thinly and served cold, perhaps with some fruit as melon or figs. Trimmings can be grilled or fried to garnish a salad. It is not suitable for boiling or baking.



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