Among pre-Christian Welsh, the meal was not divided into starter-main-dessert but organized around the great hall (llys) where the household ate together. One distinguishes bwyd beunyddiol (everyday food of porridge and bread), y wledd (the feast of meat and mead for seasonal festivals like Calan Gaeaf), and yr aberth (the offering of first fruits deposited for mother goddesses like Dôn, guarantors of abundance). Drink — milk, buttermilk, mead — accompanies and structures each table rather than closing it.

Honey from wild hives and barley/oats toasted on stone are the two pillars of this cuisine. Mead (medd, which gives its name to the mead hall) is the noble drink par excellence, and toasted grain flavors both everyday porridge and travel cakes.