Branston (food)
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Branston is a well known United Kingdom brand of savoury foods. They are most well known for their original Branston Pickle, a jarred pickled relish first made in 1922 in the Branston suburb of Burton upon Trent by Crosse & Blackwell.
In 2004 the brand was bought by Premier Foods and production was moved to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. Since its introduction, it has gone on to be the brand leader, selling over 28 million jars a year in the UK.[1]
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[edit] The original pickle
Branston Pickle is made from a variety of diced vegetables, including swede, carrots, onions, cauliflower and gherkins pickled in a sauce made from vinegar, tomato, apple and dates with spices such as mustard, coriander, garlic, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cayenne pepper with sugar. In recent years the sugar has been replaced with high fructose corn syrup.
Branston Pickle is sweet and spicy with a chutney-like consistency, containing small chunks of vegetables in a thick brown sticky sauce. It is commonly served as part of a ploughman's lunch, a once common menu item in British pubs. It is also frequently combined with cheddar cheese in sandwiches, and most sandwich shops in the UK offer "cheese and pickle" as an option. It is available in the standard 'chunky' version, though there is also a 'sandwich' variety, where the vegetable chunks are smaller and easier to spread. In recent times, Premier Foods have also brought out a 'squeezy' variety in a plastic bottle. There was also a spicy type made for a short time, but this did not prove as popular and is now hard to find. In December 2007 Premier announced it was adopting the Timestrip smart label [2] technology on jars being sold through Tesco in the UK. The Timestrip would help communicate the Period After Opening date (8 weeks) to consumers.
[edit] Generic varieties
As with any product that becomes popular, other manufacturers have developed their own brand of a Branston type pickle. Many supermarkets now have generic own brand versions. In order to prevent problems with the registered trade name, the term "sweet pickle" has been adopted by most manufacturers.
[edit] The Pickle Crisis of 2004
At 1:45am on 27 October 2004 a massive fire almost destroyed the entire Bury St Edmunds factory and cut the stocks of Branston Pickle in half [3], thus reducing the supply of the product and in some instances increasing the price. The factory is now back in production and has recently launched Branston Tomato Ketchup and Brown Sauce along with a range of relishes and Baked Beans.
[edit] Brand extension
At one stage Walkers produced a variety of crisps called "Cheese and Branston Pickle"[4]
In October 2005, Premier Foods Plc launched Branston Baked Beans. The marketing and promotion of this product was aimed squarely at challenging Heinz's dominance of the UK baked bean market. This marketing included an advert, featuring a Branston Bean Tin explaining how Branston Beans are very "saucy." Promotional activities included a 'Great British Bean Poll' where members of the public across the country were invited to blind taste both 'the brand leader' (assumed to be Heinz) and Branston. In the poll 76% of participants picked Branston over the brand leader. Heinz was subsequently obliged to re-evaluate its advertising strategy in the face of this aggressive activity, although in public Heinz spokespeople dismissed the challenge as a 'non-starter'.[citation needed]. Premier Foods have also attempted to leverage the traditional Branston Pickle brand name by producing Branston Relishes in four different flavours: Hot Chlli & Jalapeno, Gherkin, Sweet Onion and Tomato & Red Pepper.
[edit] Availability outside of the UK
Branston Pickle is available in many large supermarkets in the United States, especially those that stock a decent inventory of foreign or specialty items such as Wegmans.
In 2008, Branston Pickle Relish and Branston Curry (?) Relish were introduced for the German market. At the moment, two German chains (REWE and Globus Warenhaus) carry both aforementioned flavors in a 400g plastic squeeze bottle.
[edit] In popular culture
In the video game review series Zero Punctuation, created by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, Yahtzee makes frequent reference to Branston Pickle calling it "so unique you have to try it". This became a metaphor for a game that has flaws but is so unique he still sees it as a game everyone should play, if only because there will probably never be another game like it.[5]
The English cricket captain, Mike Gatting, was so taken with the spicy tang of Branston Pickle that he always carried a suitcase full of jars when England toured overseas.
Author Neil Gaiman mentions Branston Pickle in his short story "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar", where an American tourist encounters the garnish alongside a ploughman's lunch in a tavern in the fictional Lovecraftian town of Innsmouth.
In the 2001 film Bridget Jones's Diary, the titular character is seen eating Branston Pickle directly from the jar while whining to her friends over the state of her personal life.
In the BBC comedy series The Vicar of Dibley, Letitia Cropley served an orange cake with Branston Pickle icing at the Dibley autumn fayre.
[edit] References
- ^ Premier Food web site(accessed 2007-02-21)
- ^ "Timestrip". http://www.timestrip.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-11.
- ^ "Blaze forces pickle plant closure". BBC News. 2004-10-27. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/suffolk/3957303.stm. Retrieved on 2007-01-30.
- ^ Cheese and Branston flavour Walkers Crisps(accessed 2007-02-21)
- ^ "Zero Punctuation". http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/. Retrieved on 2008-12-14.
