Welsh Journals

Everyday Things in Montgomeryshire. CHARLES H. HUMPHREYS. CAST IRON COOKING UTENSILS. BAKE-PLATES. Until the beginning of the 20th Century, the cooking utensils universally used in the farm-houses and cottages of our County were made of cast iron founded at Coalbrookdale. Among the articles in common use were cast iron frying-pans and bake-plates. The latter article was a flat circular piece of cast iron about half an inch thick and measuring from 15 ins. to 24 ins, in diameter. It was called in Welsh a cradell, and it was on this iron plate that the Welsh housewife baked the soda cakes and oatmeal cakes that formed the staple food of past generations. POTS AND KETTLES. The three legged cast iron pots were in general use in the rural districts of our County right into the present century. They were of two kinds. Some had straight sides tapering slightly to the bottom; others had bellied sides. The former were sometimes called kettles. Iron pots were supplied in all sizes containing from one gallon to eight gallons. The larger ones were used chiefly for boiling clothes, and the medium sizes for boiling potatoes, porridge. llymru, and the broths, which formed the chief items of the diet. BAKING-POTS. Another kind of pot was called the bake-pan, or Crochan Pobi. This was the utensil used in the remote mountain valleys for baking bread with peat. These pots were without feet, but had flat bottoms and strong cast iron lids. The method of baking bread was to place the dough in the pot and, after putting on the lid, to pile the pieces of peat around and over it. It was said that bread baked in this fashion tasted better than when baked in any other way. This method of baking bread survived to the 20th century and is still used in remote upland valleys. It is only comparatively recently that these old cast iron utensils were replaced by the modern enamelled steel and aluminium ware,