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Home » The Domestic Sphere » Cookery and food » Cauldrons

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  • Carved oak mantelpiece from Tudor Street, Abergavenny. Within it is hung a 17th century tripod cooking pot, and in front of it is an 18th century pot hanger.
17th century fireplace, Abergavenny
  • The open fire with its many appliances was central to cooking in Wales throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and it prevailed in many rural homes well into the 20th century. The cooking pot, or cauldron, was the accepted vessel for boiling various stews or joints of meat, dumplings and boiled puddings, over an open fire. There were two different types of cauldron in general use; the crochan had bellied sides and the cetel, cidl or ffwrn fach (pictured here), had straight sides, tapering slightly towards the bottom and was fitted with a flat, iron lid.
Cast-iron cooking pot, 18th or 19th century
  • Around 500 years ago, a cook prepared meals for a rich family in this fine bronze cauldron. In the 19th century, a 'wise woman' found it hidden beneath a heap of stones on Myddfai Mountain. She used it to grind medicinal plants and herbs. In Celtic stories, cauldrons have powers of rebirth and healing. They also produce endless supplies of food to feed warriors. From the Bronze Age onwards, cauldrons were objects of prestige, and value. They are found in royal graves and as water offerings.
Medieval cauldron discovered at Myddfai
  • The cauldron became an important item of communal feasting equipment from the late Bronze Age onwards. This beautifully preserved example is one of two found in the Llyn Fawr hoard, alongside other tools and weapons. The hoard contains some of the earliest artefacts of iron from Britain.
Bronze Age cauldron from the Llyn Fawr hoard, near Rhigos
  • Hendre'r-ywydd Uchaf is a one-storey farmhouse which was built in 1508. It is typical of the type of farmhouse owned by the wealthier members of Welsh society in the Early Modern period. The livestock would have been kept in the far end of the house while the family lived in the other end. As can be seen in this photograph, the house would have been very sparsely furnished.
Hendre'r-ywydd Uchaf farmstead interior, Museum of Welsh Life
  • A fragment of mediaeval fireless cooking pot. The technique involved bringing food up to temperature on the fire as usual, but rather than allowing it to cook over the flame, the hot pot was placed in a 'nest' of hay, moss, dry leaves or other insulating material, in a box or hole in the ground, and covered. The heat in the pot was conserved for a considerable length of time, and the food inside would cook slowly, without the need for supervision. Both time and fuel were saved in this way, and foods that needed long slow cooking, such as pulses or tough meat, benefitted from this technique.
A fragment of a mediaeval fireless cooking pot, found in Monmouth Castle grounds