Rutabaga be augmented with black pepper. Onions are never used. Regionally, neeps are a common ingredient in soups and stews. In England, swede is boiled together with carrots and served either mashed or pureed with butter and ground pepper. The flavored cooking water is often retained for soup, or as an addition to gravy. Swede is an essential vegetable component of the traditional Welsh lamb broth called cawl and Irish stew as eaten in England. Swede is also a component of the popular condiment Branston Pickle. The swede is also one of the four traditional ingredients of the pasty originating in
Lancashire hotpot and preparation time. Often lacking their own cooking facilities, housewives would carry a pudding or stew to the baker's oven and leave it there to cook. The recipe usually calls for a mix of mutton (nowadays more frequently lamb) and onions covered with sliced potato. Many regional variations add vegetables (carrot, turnip, or leeks). Many early recipes add lamb kidneys and modern variants may use beef or bacon chops instead of lamb, or have a pastry topping. The traditional recipe once included oysters, but increasing cost eliminated them from common usage. Pickled red cabbage or beetroot, and in some areas