by Gentleman’s Relish, Shippam’s Paste, Bath Olivers, Lea & Perrins -Sauce: The names are reminiscent of the Harderschauer of our grandparents and a past age. But many of these traditional British foods are still surprisingly available, and some even come back into fashion.
“It is true that food fashion is going well and round,” says Food Historian and Caterer Seren Lohlington-Hollins from bubbling stove. “Midlifers may remember these as foods that we eat as children in the house of older relatives, and nostalgia plays a major role. On the other hand, they see a new series of consumers as new and chic and different and will discover them for the first time.”
Many of these objects together have a spicy or salty taste that reveals their origin in the 19th century. “The Victorians developed sauces such as oysters Catsup and Worcestershire sauce to mix their meals and give them more taste,” says Lantington-Hollis.
“The upper class of this era also had a course called” Savouries “, in which the men at the end of the food started a harbor, a smoke and a snack such as pot chicken liver or gentleman’s relish,” says she-daher name of this highly seasoned anchora paste. “The women went for a” sweet “and play cards.”
This type of food began to be outdated at the end of the First World War-“They no longer had the staff on the one hand,” says Charrington-Hollis, and a simpler way of eating began. “But some of these objects remained a ‘Posh’ delicacy.”
With the rise of mass production foods in the middle of the century and the easily tangible snack such as chips or nuts, the upscale salty savouries went into the decline. However, some spreads remained common in moderate households. “I remember my school lunch boxes with Shippams Sardine and tomato paste,” says Charlington-Hollis, who is in the late 1940s. “And then, only the other day, I saw sandwich spread out in the supermarket. I couldn’t believe that they still made it.”
According to Statista, the market for hearty spreads, which comprises sandwich spreads and fish and meat paste, rose 4.35 percent with a sales value of 393 million GBP in the period 2018 to 2023. There is still a market for these products.
Some traditional British foods exceed all class boundaries – and probably the biggest comeback child is jam with the first known recipe in the 1670s. “Paddington Bear has done so much for Malade,” says Lantonton-Hollis, who has won several awards for her own canned goods at the Dalemain Marmalade Award, a festival that has been running in Cumbria for 20 years. After the famous Paddington sketch with the late Queen Elizabeth, who turned almost 20 percent to celebrate the platinum anniversary of her majesty-the sale of the orange jelly by almost 20 percent.
“Cheap jam is terrible, you have to buy the good stuff,” says Lohnton-Hollis, and lovers of traditional British food would always be recommended to go to Fortnum & Mason, for which Marmalade is a specialty. “We see more and more young people who buy in jam,” says Robert Pooley, director of Merchandising at the West End Food Emporium. “A few years ago we had a nine-year-old winner of the Dalemain Awards that we sponsor, and later we will start a no-peel Sunburst Marmalade this year to address the younger generation.”
Elsewhere in Fortnum, the turnover of Gentleman’s Relish has increased by 15 percent compared to the previous year, but the real winner seems to be 181 sauce. The Fortnums version of Brown Sauce, named after the street number of the property on London Piccadilly, rose by 113 percent.
“There was a return to the good old -fashioned British breakfast that supported the brown sauce,” says Liz Morgan, director of the purchase of Fortnum. “Our” Butchers Breakfast Box “(including sausages, bacon and 181 sauce) constantly overflows the alternatives. People experimented with the use of the products, for example as marinades for meat.”
It is difficult to determine exactly why objects come back into fashion, but marketing teams always have an eye on social media. During the Fashion Week 2023, Burberry Norman’s, a greasy spoon café in the London Tufnell Park, which updated it with Burberry Branding, the salt and pepper, the uniforms of the employees and the window.
“Perhaps gen z has started to have a taste for brown sauce on the back – which we sold for the first time in 1800,” says Louise Woof, deputy archivist of Fortnum. Harvey’s original brown sauce comprised anchovies in a thin vinegar and soy sauce; The recipe for the modern 181 sauce remains a closely guarded secret.
Perhaps the best will illustrate traditional to modern Fortnum by the Scotch egg that invented the Piccadilly business in 1738. The original of the pig sausage still flies from the shelves, but nowadays Fortnum also sells a vegetarian version with chickpeas. There is even an Easter bulge that is made from a Simnel milk chocolate chocolate with an orange ganache center and is covered with roasted hazelnuts and cocoa nibs.
Have other traditional British foods have developed into modern palate or have they finally disappeared? Here is a run of some of our old favorites.
Apparently gone forever
Bath Olivers
This water biscuit was intentionally, tasty in 1750 by William Oliver von Bath, to improve the taste of the cheese with which it was eaten. But Bath Oliver finally fell out of favor. Despite a short aftermath a few years ago, the Bath Oliver Preservation Society, in which the shops in which the crackers were sold, listed they seem to have been hired in 2020.
Updated and further developed
Mattessons’ spread
“Just try to say Mattessons without saying Mmm,” the annoying catchy tune of an advertisement from the 1970s went. But the radiatable meat pastes, which were invented by Richard Mattes and his son Werner (including the chubs started in 1966), seem to have been on the track. Fans of processed meat still find mattessons smoked sausages and fried southern style chicken in Asda and Iceland.
A niche, noble purchase
Gentleman’s Relish (or Patum Peperium)
James Bond enjoyed Gentleman’s gene Only for your eyesAnd Nigella Lawson said she can “not live without her”. The original recipe created by John Osborn in 1828 is only known a few; Similarly, sales are not published publicly. “But Patum Peperium was always available for those Platiny anniversary cogrecently. “After almost 200 years in the scene, it appeared in trendy places, like a Debonair -rake who strolls into a fashionable party.”
Hang in there
Shippams (now prince) fish paste
The Topf Food brand was founded by Charles Shippam in the 1750s before he received a royal appointment in 1948: Seven years later, Schippam was one of the first brands to advertise on television. Despite a management Buyout in 1997, the company was taken over by Princes Foods five years later. Specific numbers for prince pastes – still on the shelves of most supermarkets – are not available, but a report from 2010 suggested that meat and fish pastes “celebrate a comeback”. According to Statista, the sales of the entire market for hearty spreads (including butter) were flat, with growth of 0.9 percent in the previous year.
Bounce back
Brown sauce
Frederick Gibson Garton invented what we know as a brown sauce in 1895 and called the “HP” sauce because he had heard that it was served in the houses of Parliament. The political connection remained: Brown sauce was called “Wilson’s sauce” after Prime Minister Harold revealed a preference for the spicy spice.
In 2005, HP sauce was sold to the American package food giant Heinz, who had already taken over competitor daddies. In 2015, sales decreased by almost 20 percent, but the numbers from Fortnum and Mason and a restart of Burberry-related style indicate that Brown sauce is again injected on the nation’s breakfast.
Big in America
Worcestershire sauce
The Worcestershire sauce was apparently invented in the 1830s by accident after Mr. Lea and Mr. Perrins invented a terribly sharp sauce, left them in the basement and rediscovered 18 months later.
Lea & Perrins is the number one brand number one of the Worcestershire sauce in Great Britain with a dominant proportion of volume in the category. The sauce used in soups, casseroles and Bolognes is particularly popular throughout the Atlantic and was estimated in 2024 with a billion dollars and is expected to increase by 50 percent by 2031. “We noticed that many of these Lea & Perrin’s“ moments ”were around Brunch, an ever popular weekend -social event, and the advertising were able. Alcoholic drink at brunch?
