The Magic Cooking Pot

Autumn is truly here, my favourite month. The colder, damper months make us want to get all cosy and snug in our homes. Out with the salads and in with the good stuff, you know what I mean. Thick soups with homemade crusty bread or stew and dumplings. Food to keep us warm through the dark nights.

Perhaps it is no wonder then that this time of year brings to mind cooking pots (as I write this, I’m reminded I need a new slow cooker). The cauldron is one of those items perhaps most associated with witchcraft, magic and fire. While all the elements may be called to mind as we consider the cauldron — wrought from the Earth and cast from iron, holding the Water that quenches thirst and feeds us, with Air carrying the scent of whatever concoction is bubbling away within — it is Fire that transforms this vessel into a creative and sustaining force. It is through Fire that the cauldron becomes truly potent and full of magic.

Not only that, even in the most mundane sense, the cooking pot, whatever form it takes, is symbolic of family, of strength. Of coming together. Indeed, the title of this very piece is taken from a children’s story, ‘The Magic Cooking Pot’ or ‘The Magic Porridge Pot’, a story built around the central themes of food, sharing and community. The story is a Germanic folk story, known in German as ‘Sweet Porridge’ and was also recorded by the Brothers Grimm. It tells the tale of a poor woman and child who have no food. One day, the girl goes to the forest, where she meets a kindly old woman who gifts her a magic pot. All the girl has to do is utter the words ‘cook little pot, cook’ and the magic cooking pot then produces all the porridge they could want. When there’s enough, the words ‘stop little pot, stop’ do the trick. Of course some sort of trouble pursues, but it’s all good in the end and the whole community benefits.

Ceridwen and Her Magic Cauldron

In Celtic folklore, there are many stories, myths and legends that involve cauldrons, but one of my favourites is the story of Ceridwen’s Cauldron. Ceridwen is, depending on the version of the story, either a witch, sorceress or goddess associated with beauty, rebirth and inspiration. The story goes she had two children, a daughter named Creirwy, beautiful to behold, and a son named Morfran, who was neither handsome nor intelligent.

Worried that her son might struggle in life, what with the lack of beauty and brains, decided she would use her knowledge and power to make a special potion which would make whoever drank it smart beyond compare. The catch was that it took a year and a day to brew and needed to be heated and stirred continuously. And so, she hired an old man to tend the fire and a young lad, Gwion Batch, to stir the mixture. But that wasn’t the only issue. You see, only the first three drops of the potion contained the power, and the rest became a toxic soup.

When at last the potion was ready, Gwion Bach, giving it a final stir, dripped three drops of the hot liquid onto his thumb and without thinking, stuck his thumb in his mouth to soothe the burn. Instantly, he was bestowed with immense knowledge, and, having such knowledge, knew that Ceridwen would be furious with him, and so he decided to run away. However, noticing the sudden brain power of Gwion Bach, Ceridwen gave chase, overcome with fury.

However, not only did the potion give great intelligence but also bestowed the power of transformation, and so, Gwion Bach transformed himself into a hare, hoping to outwit and outrun Ceridwen. Not to be outdone, Ceridwen transformed herself into a greyhound and so the chance went on with each changing form in the hopes of outrunning or catching the other.

Finally, tired out from the chase, Gwion decided to transform into a single grain of corn, and he fell down to the ground where corn had been scattered. Surely the witch wouldn’t find him here among so many others.

However, Ceridwen was smart too, and so she took the form of a hen and proceeded to gobble up all the corn, including Gwion. But this is a story of magic and transformation, and so Ceridwen's delight was short-lived when she discovered she was pregnant. And not only that, but the baby was in fact Gwion Bach! Ceridwen decided she would kill the baby as soon as it was born, ending the chase once and for all, but when the baby arrived, and she saw a beautiful, golden haired boy, Ceridwen was overcome with love and could not go through with her plan. Instead, she sewed him into a seal skin and set him adrift in the ocean.

The story goes he washed up somewhere on the Welsh coast, where he was found by a queen and became the bard Taleisin.

The Gundestrup Cauldron

Dating from the Iron Age, this silver cauldron is highly decorated and is clearly a vessel that was deemed as important and not merely a cooking vessel. Found in a bog, and in several pieces, beaten plates that slotted together to form a cauldron.

This vessel again hints at the importance of the cauldron across cultures. It depicts objects found in Central Europe, but the style is typically found further east than where the pot was found and also shows animals found even further afield. The fact that it is made from precious metal, and skillfully so, is significant when you consider the age of the piece and the tools that would have been available to the craftsman who made it, it’s easy to see that this was a very important vessel. It was not simply a cooking pot from a regular home.

Easy One Pot Chilli

I couldn’t do a piece about cooking pots and cauldrons without giving one of my own recipes (and if you like it, then why not check out my cookbook). Add a little fire to your food with this easy one pot vegan chilli. If you want to add meat or a meat substitute, then you can.

To make this chilli, you will need:

• 1 cup of rice, washed

• 1 tin chopped tomatoes

• 1 tin kidney beans

• 1 tin of chickpeas

• 2 onions, chopped

• 1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1-2 tsp hot chilli powder

• 2 tbsp tomato purée

• 1tsp paprika

• 1tsp cumin

• 1 cup of vegetable stock

• Salt and pepper for seasoning

• 2tbsp oil

Heat the oil in the pot over a medium heat and add the onions and peppers. Cook for two minutes until softened and add the garlic before cooking for another two minutes.

Add the tomatoes, chickpeas and kidney beans and mix before adding the chili powder, cumin and paprika. Mix together well before adding the vegetable stock, tomato purée and rice. Stir everything together, cover and simmer for around twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. When the rice is soft and the sauce has thickened, the chilli is ready. Serve with nachos or flat bread.

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EMMA KATHRYN

Emma Kathryn, practises traditional British witchcraft, Vodou and Obeah, a mixture representing her heritage. She lives in the sticks with her family where she reads tarot, practises witchcraft and drink copious amounts of coffee.

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