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Topics: UK Food, News, Social Media
Ella Scott
In a dire turn of events, an iconic British condiment beloved by Nigella Lawson and Sir Ian Fleming has been axed after almost 200 years on shelves.
Believe it or not, there are a slew of beloved Victorian-era food staples still going strong in the UK, including treacle tart, pork pie, and Battenberg cake.
Porridge remains a warming way to start the day; cucumber sandwiches can still be found on some fancy Afternoon Tea platters, and many of us enjoy indulging in omega-3-rich oily fish and seafood a couple of times per week.
However, a cupboard favourite invented back in the 1820s has officially been hauled from shelves, with manufacturers citing dwindling distribution.
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The now-defunct tinned delight, once described as Jessica Mitford’s luxury Desert Island Discs item and featured by Fleming as a James Bond-approved toast spread, is known as Gentleman’s Relish.
The savoury dish - usually served after dessert and before coffee, as per The Telegraph - was also previously listed as one of Lawson’s top ten foods she could not live without.
The once-essential dinner party component, unveiled at the Paris Food Show in 1849, was a sludgy, dun-coloured paste made from 60 percent crushed anchovies.
According to Country Life, it had a ‘pungent, overpowering fishy smell’ and was usually spread over lightly-toasted bread.
In 2025, Ameer Kotecha, author of Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Cookbook, wrote: “Patum Peperium has always been available for those who’ve hankered after its savoury piquancy ... it has started popping up in trendy spots, like a debonair rake sauntering into a party fashionably late.”
Gentleman’s Relish, officially known as Patum Peperium - a mock-Latin phrase for ‘pepper pâte’ - ceased production earlier this year, according to spread custodians AB World Foods.
“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,” they said, as per The Spectator.
“With Gentleman’s Relish no longer commercially viable and unable to secure a buyer for the brand, we regrettably stopped production earlier this year.”
Patum Peperium was previously manufactured in Poland. It’s said 750,000 tubs were sold in 2000.
Fans of Gentleman’s Relish have been mourning its loss online, with one X user typing: “For Heaven’s sake.”
Another echoed similar sentiments by commenting: “V sorry to hear this, divine stuff. Will have to hunt down any remaining pots in delis.”
“Can any hipsters manufacture guerilla homemade Gentleman’s Relish, perhaps for sale in a West London gastropub?,” a third joked.
Someone else penned: “I have never actually known what Gentleman's Relish is, let alone tasted it, and now it appears I'm too late.”