Laverbread with Bacon and Cockles

Name: Laverbread with Bacon and Cockles
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 3 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 200 g prepared laverbread; 50 g fine or medium oatmeal (plus extra for coating); 6 rashers of back or streaky bacon; 150 g cooked, shelled cockles (drained if from a jar); 1 squeeze of lemon juice; a knob of butter; ground black pepper; buttered toast, to serve

Laverbread oatmeal cakes fried in bacon fat with cockles: the traditional breakfast of south-west Wales.

By SerenAI-assistedApproved for publication by BeneRecipes Editor on 14 October 2026Updated 8 October 2026

Prep: 15 min
Cook: 15 min
Total: 30 min
Makes: 3 servings
Difficulty: Easy

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Laverbread spread on two slices of toast — Photo: Rosser1954 · CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

Laverbread (bara lawr) is not bread at all. It is laver, a seaweed gathered on the Gower and Pembrokeshire coasts, boiled for hours into a dark, soft purée. It tastes of the sea, a little like olives or spinach.

Almost everyone buys it ready-prepared, in tins or tubs from fishmongers and Welsh markets such as Swansea. Mixed with oatmeal and fried in bacon fat, it makes crisp little cakes to eat with bacon and cockles.

Ingredients

3 servings

200gprepared laverbread
50gfine or medium oatmeal, plus extra for coating
6rashers of back or streaky bacon
150gcooked, shelled cockles, drained if from a jar
1squeeze of lemon juice
a knob of butter
ground black pepper
buttered toast, to serve

Equipment

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Method

1
Tip the laverbread into a bowl and stir in the oatmeal and plenty of pepper. Leave for 10 minutes so the oats absorb the moisture. It should be thick enough to shape; add a little more oatmeal if it is too soft.
Photo: Rosser1954 · CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
2
Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a large frying pan until crisp. Keep it warm in a low oven and leave the fat in the pan.
3
With wet hands, shape the laverbread into 6 small, flat cakes and dust them in oatmeal. Fry in the hot bacon fat for 2–3 minutes each side, until crisp outside.
4
Push the cakes to one side, add the butter and the cockles and warm through for 1–2 minutes with a squeeze of lemon and more pepper. Serve at once with the bacon and toast.

Tips

Simpler still: warm the laverbread in the pan with a little bacon fat and spread it on toast.

A heavy frying pan keeps the cakes crisp. For another Welsh breakfast or supper, try Welsh rarebit.

If it goes wrong

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Cakes fall apart	Mixture too wet	Stir in more oatmeal and let it stand longer
Cockles rubbery	Overheated	They are already cooked; only warm them through

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