It is the early hours of the morning and an email drops into my inbox. Lacking any kind of willpower, I open it. Now I’m wide awake. Because this isn’t the usual PR slop that starts my days. It’s a tip-off. A big one. A reader has discovered something about a company and they are urging me – me! – to investigate. Adrenaline surges. This must be what it felt like to be Woodward and Bernstein.
Only my informant is pointing me in a slightly different direction. Their intel is on Gentleman’s Relish: the incredibly niche spread is disappearing from our shelves. It has been available in the House of Lords dining rooms but for how much longer? Online supermarkets and delis are showing it as out of stock. What is going on?
Nigella Lawson listed it as one of the ten British foods she couldn’t survive without
More properly called Patum Peperium, Gentleman’s Relish is an intensely spiced version of potted anchovies and is traditionally spread thinly on hot toast. The fish paste was created in 1828 (the same year as The Spectator, no less) and would have also soon been looking to celebrate its 200th birthday. But it isn’t to be. Because the parent company, AB World Foods, confirmed to me that it has ceased production of this beloved English spread.
Dun-coloured and slightly textured, Patum Peperium is very fishy and very fermented. It is not for everyone. In fact, it knocks Marmite’s love-it-or-hate-it reputation into a cocked hat: those who love it are beyond evangelical, while haters would liken it to cat food. ‘Spread sparingly,’ the label cautions, lest the uninitiated go wild and start eating spoonfuls.
But it has become a British institution. James Bond enjoys it in For Your Eyes Only. Nigella Lawson listed it as one of the ten British foods she couldn’t survive without. Jessica Mitford chose it as her luxury item on her 1977 episode of Desert Island Discs. It became an integral part of the ‘savouries’ course, favoured at Victorian and Edwardian suppers and at members’ clubs long after. Savouries were small, very salty dishes which would be served after puddings, and Gentleman’s Relish was a key component of the Scotch woodcock, where the anchovy paste was spread on toast and then topped with buttery scrambled eggs.
The paste was invented by John Osborn, an Englishman living in Paris. He gave it a mock-Latin name, Patum Peperium, meaning ‘a paste of peppers’. The title by which it is most known now – Gentleman’s Relish – was originally a nickname, perhaps used by those who wanted to buy it, but couldn’t remember the bastardised Latin name. It wasn’t incorporated into its official branding until the 20th century.
Osborn unveiled it at the Paris Food Show in 1849, and his son later brought it to England, where the recipe was passed from father to son until 1971, when the lineage ran out. The remaining, heirless brothers sold the company to Elsenham Quality Foods, which made fancy preserves. In 1998, for the paste’s 170th birthday, two new pots were released: an Angler’s Relish, made with mackerel, and a Poacher’s Relish, with salmon. Elsenham was taken over by G. Costa, which was itself taken over by AB World Foods. Production was moved to Poland. In 2000, the Daily Telegraph reported that sales had increased by a third, with three-quarters of a million pots selling a year. But an industry source tells me that sales have since dropped drastically, bottoming out at 5 per cent of peak production.
Gentleman’s Relish was never straightforward to make: the anchovy fillets come from Spain and must be salted, packed and matured for 18 months before being rinsed, cooked and blended with butter and spices. The recipe is, of course, top secret. When the brand was handed over to Elsenham, it kept the recipe secret, too; some reports suggested no single employee knew the whole recipe, others that only one living person did. AB World will retain the intellectual property, including the recipe, meaning Gentleman’s Relish lovers will need to use their best guesswork, or settle for an alternative anchovy paste.
For 198 years, Patum Peperium endured. The ceasing of production came without funeral fanfare or a grand announcement; it was only thanks to the tip-off that I was able to confirm its death. A spokesman for AB World Foods said: ‘We can confirm that after some 20 years as custodian of the Gentleman’s Relish brand, we are no longer making Patum Peperium. While we recognise that this Victorian relish has a niche and loyal following, it sadly does not have wider commercial appeal and, despite our best efforts, retailer distribution has dwindled. With Gentleman’s Relish no longer commercially viable and unable to secure a buyer for the brand, we regrettably stopped production earlier this year.’
Those who mourn the loss of Gentleman’s Relish will be few, if its dwindling popularity is to be believed. But for aficionados, the lack of warning of its abrupt demise will be salt in the wound. If you can find a pot, count yourself lucky.
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