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Bread and Water

Banwy, Powys

Pouring a small quantity into a cast iron saucepan. Mrs Catrin Jones, Bala, Merioneth.

Siencyn and a lump of cheese was regarded as a nutritious meal served regularly for breakfast or supper in the industrial valleys of south Wales.

Dowlais, Glamorgan.

Sop was the term given to the same dish in other districts in south Wales.

Ystalyfera, Glamorgan.

 

Cereal and Milk Dishes

The Recipe

You will need

  • boiling water
  • a slice of bread
  • a knob of butter or dripping
  • salt and pepper

Method

  1. Break the bread into a basin and cover with boiling water. 
  2. Add the fat, and season with salt and pepper.

 A dish served generally for breakfast.

Upper Banwy, Montgomeryshire.

 

Siencyn Te (Bread and Tea)

  1. Add hot tea instead of the boiling water, sweeten the dish with sugar and top with a little cold milk.

Comments (13)

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John Edwards
24 March 2022, 16:24
On the farm in North Montgomeryshire I was given mothers version of Siencyn:-
Bread, butter, cheese tablespoon of Bovril and hot water. Given to me if not feeling well. Father had It if he was hungry!
Got Covid now so going to give it a go.
John Edwards
24 March 2022, 16:24
On the farm in North Montgomeryshire I was given mothers version of Siencyn:-
Bread, butter, cheese tablespoon of Bovril and hot water. Given to me if not feeling well. Father had It if he was hungry!
Got Covid now so going to give it a go.
Lyndon Golding
27 February 2022, 12:23
I grew up in Gorseinon near Swansea, my mother would make me sop if I was ill, her version was bread in hot milk with butter, and sugar, and some sultanas, havent had that in an awfully long time
Gareth Noakes
3 December 2021, 13:44
Absolutely loved the tea version of seincyn when I was a growing boy back in the 50s. My father told me the colliers used to eat it before their shift. Been many decades since I last tried but just got to give it another go. We lived in the lower South Wales valley.
25 September 2021, 17:29
I had butter sops for breakfast at my grans in the 50s. This was in Cornwall. Perhaps it's a Celtic tradition?
Eifion llewelyn
12 February 2021, 23:59
We always had sop with my gran, growing up in the 70's in Swansea. Buttered bread broken up with bits of cheese, mixed up in a bowl, then filled with hot sweet tea, and extra sugar on top. The chunks of cheese would melt in the tea...lovely! The alternative was to make it in the bowl, with slightly less tea so not so soggy, put a plate on top then turn it out like a hot steam pudding... known as a 'sop castle'... like a sand castle but tastier!
David John Davies
23 January 2021, 08:42
I still make Bara Te about every two weeks,using toast broken up into pieces,sugar,small pieces of butter and a chunk of cheddar on the side, always use tea....Lovely.
No one else in my Australian Family eats this,but my Welsh Family do.......at 78yo it is still tasty.
Alison Davies
21 January 2021, 01:28
My brother and I regularly had bara te as an afternoon fill you up or as a treat before bed. Happy memories
Ria Protheroe
11 July 2020, 16:55
bowl of tea and cut up squares of toast = siencyn in pontyberem/gwendraeth . farming family x x
Hywel Thomas
28 May 2020, 09:08
I remember my two Uncles having this for breakfast before going out to milk the cows at Groeswen farm near Caerphilly, in the 1960 s. My Mam Gu referred to it as Bara Te . After milking they would have a second breakfast of bacon and eggs cooked on the coal fired Rayburn. Though living in Glamorgan, the family originall came from Llandovery and Myddfai.
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