Cawl is a slowly cooked meat-and-vegetable broth. The most common versions use lamb or beef with leek, turnip, carrot and potato. The word cawl means soup or broth in Welsh, but when people say cawl on its own they mean this particular dish.
It was the food of country households, prepared in a pot over the fire with whatever meat and vegetables were available, and every family has its own recipe. In parts of north Wales the dish is called lobscows, a name similar to the sailors’ lobscouse. Many families say cawl is better the next day after reheating.
The leek, present in most recipes, is one of the symbols of Wales. Cawl appears in winter and on occasions such as Saint David’s Day, the country’s patron, on March 1. It is served with a good piece of bread and often with cheese on the side.