Product type | Pickle, sauces |
---|---|
Owner | Mizkan |
Country | England |
Introduced | 1922 |
Previous owners | Crosse and Blackwell Nestlé Premier Foods |
Tagline | Bring out the Branston |
Website | bringoutthebranston |
Branston is an English food brand best known for the original Branston Pickle, a sweet pickle first made in 1922 in the village of Branston near Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, by Crosse & Blackwell. [1] [2] [3] The Branston factory proved to be uneconomical, and production was moved to Crosse & Blackwell subsidiary, E Lazenby & Sons in Bermondsey, London, where it invested in new buildings in 1924 and 1926, which remained in use until 1969. [4] [5]
In 2004, the pickle business was sold by Nestlé to Premier Foods and production was moved to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. [6] [7] Premier Foods sold the brand to Mizkan in 2013, [8] at which time it ceased to be labelled as Crosse and Blackwell because in Europe this name was sold separately to Princes Group. Over 17 million jars a year are sold in the UK. [9]
Branston Pickle is made from a variety of diced vegetables, including swede, carrots, onions and cauliflower pickled in a sauce made from vinegar, tomato, apple and spices. [9] While not a chutney, Branston Pickle is sweet and spicy with a "chutney-like" consistency, containing chunks of vegetables in a thick brown sticky sauce. [9] It is commonly served as part of a ploughman's lunch, a popular menu item in British pubs. [10] It is also frequently combined with cheese in sandwiches, and many sandwich shops in the UK offer cheese and pickle as an option. [10] It is available in the standard 'chunky' version, a 'small chunk' variety, and a 'smooth' variety that is pureed, which makes it easier to spread onto bread; convenient squeeze-bottle packs are amongst the range. Branston also has flavoured pickles including Sweet Chilli and Beetroot flavoured pickle. [11]
Additional Branston products include mayonnaise, tomato ketchup, piccalilli, brown sauce, salad cream, and baked beans. [12]
In October 2005, Premier Foods launched Branston Baked Beans. The marketing and promotion of this product were aimed at challenging Heinz's dominance of the UK baked bean market. [13] This marketing included an advert, featuring a Branston Bean Tin explaining how Branston Beans are very "saucy". [13] 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. [13] In the poll, 76% of participants picked Branston over Heinz. Heinz elected to change their recipe in the face of this aggressive activity. [14]
Premier Foods also attempted to leverage the traditional Branston Pickle brand name by producing Branston Relishes in four different flavours: Hot Chilli & Jalapeño, Gherkin, Sweet Onion and Tomato & Red Pepper. [15]
Around November 2015, a sweet chili-flavoured pickle was launched, and the brand's rich and fruity sauce was re-launched, along with two new sauce flavours, rich and spicy and rich and smoky. [11] In 2017, Branston launched its tomato ketchup, mayonnaise and brown sauce lines in single-serving sachet packaging. [16]
Walkers once produced a variety of crisps called "Cheese and Branston Pickle". [17]
In late 2012, it was announced that as part of an aggressive debt reduction strategy, Premier Foods would be selling the Branston brand to Japanese food manufacturer Mizkan Group for £92.5 million, joining Sarson's vinegar and Hayward's pickled onions as recent Premier Foods to Mizkan brand acquisitions. [1] The Bury St Edmunds plant continues to manufacture Branston products. [18]
A chutney is a spread typically associated with cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt, or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion, or mint dipping sauce.
Trinidad and Tobago cuisine is influenced by Indian-South Asian, West African, Creole, European, North American, Chinese, Amerindian, Latin American, and Levantine culinary styles.
Crosse & Blackwell is an English food brand. The original company was established in London in 1706, then was acquired by Edmund Crosse and Thomas Blackwell in 1830. It became independent until it was acquired by Swiss conglomerate Nestlé in 1960.
South African cuisine reflects the diverse range of culinary traditions embodied by the various communities that inhabit the country. Among the indigenous peoples of South Africa, the Khoisan foraged over 300 species of edible food plants, such as the rooibos shrub legume, whose culinary value continues to exert a salient influence on South African cuisine. Subsequent encounters with Bantu pastoralists facilitated the emergence of cultivated crops and domestic cattle, which supplemented traditional Khoisan techniques of meat preservation. In addition, Bantu-speaking communities forged an extensive repertoire of culinary ingredients and dishes, many of which are still consumed today in traditional settlements and urban entrepôts alike.
Chow-chow is a pickled dish from the American South.
Cheddars are a British brand of baked Cheddar cheese-flavoured savoury biscuits. They were originally manufactured and sold by Crawfords. Until 2014, Cheddars were marketed under the McVitie's brand, but are now marketed under the Jacob's brand. Mini Cheddars continue to be marketed under the McVitie's brand in Ireland. Cheddars are made using wheat flour, and include real cheese.
Premier Foods plc is a British food manufacturer headquartered in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The group owns many well-known brands, including Mr Kipling, Ambrosia, Bird's Custard, Angel Delight, Homepride cooking sauces, Lyons, Sharwood's, Loyd Grossman sauces, Oxo, Bisto, Batchelors and Plantastic. Premier Foods also produce cakes under the Cadbury's name, using the brand under licence. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Princes Group is an international food and drink group involved in the manufacture, import and distribution of branded and customer own-brand products. Founded in 1880 and headquartered in the UK, and recently acquired by Newlat Food S.p.A.
Sarson's is a brand of malt vinegar brewed in the United Kingdom. It is sold in pear shaped bottles with a flip top and the brand is currently owned by Mizkan. Sarson's also produces vinegar for Sainsbury's, 3663, Chef, Independent and Mizkan.
Mizkan Holdings is a Japanese company that produces vinegars, mustards, salad dressings, authentic East Asian sauces, nattō, and other food products. It is based in Handa, Aichi Prefecture, near Nagoya.
Cheese on toast is made by placing sliced or grated cheese on toasted bread and melting it under a grill. It is popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, United States, and in African countries.