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. Or 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?

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.

Nigella Lawson listed it as one of the ten British foods she couldn’t survive without

Nigella Lawson listed it as one of........

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