Branston (brand)

Branston is a British food brand. It is best known for the original Branston Pickle, a jarred pickled chutney 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. Premier Foods sold the brand to Mizkan in 2013. The pickle product sells over 17 million jars a year in the UK.

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 high-fructose corn syrup has replaced sugar in the product sold in the American market. Sugar is still used in the British version.

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 common menu item in British pubs. It is also frequently combined with cheddar cheese in sandwiches, and many sandwich shops in the UK offer cheese and pickle as an option. It is available in the standard 'chunky' version, as well as a 'sandwich' variety, where the vegetable chunks are smaller and easier to spread. Premier Foods also introduced a 'squeezy' variety in a plastic bottle. A spicy variety was briefly manufactured, but was not as popular as the original versions, and is now in short supply.