The Great British food map
We were talking about five autumn food festivals on the blog earlier in the week, and it got us thinking about British foods and how certain foods are associated with places around Great Britain – from Caerphilly and Red Leicester cheeses to Cornish pasties and Lincolnshire sausages.
We decided to use OS OpenSpace, our free service allowing users to embed maps into web pages, to capture some of the foods and drinks that have names associated with places in Great Britain.
In some cases, we found that foods associated with places actually have protected status under EU law – such as Melton Mowbray pork pies. Interestingly, there are also foods associated with place names that seem to have very little link to the place itself. Did you know that Stilton cheese isn’t produced in the Cambridgeshire village of Stilton? Under the EU protected designation of origin (PDO) rules, Stilton can only be produced in the three English counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. There seems to be little to link it to the small village it appears to have been named after at all.
So, we’ve made a start with some foods that are associated with British places, but there are lots more out there. Have a look at our food map, is your favourite food related to a place name on there? If not, let us know on the blog.
Themocracy
Marlborough (wilts) has a bun. They sell it in waitrose there. Has large sugar crystals on top.
Is that a lardy-cake (as I think they are known locally)?
When I was living in Nottingham, I was told that the cheese was named after Stilton because it was traditionally sold there on the A1.
That’s right. It featured in a TV program recently (Countryfile?). The cheese can only be made in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire or Leicestershire, according to the official web site. Maybe that’s why Tesco don’t do “own label” Stilton, as all the cheeses are made in a creamery near Nantwich!
The map is missing the Staffordshire Oatcake. Not at all like the Scottish oatcake, the Staffordshire one is like a savoury pancake grilled on a hot plate from a batter of oatmeal, flour, salt and water or milk. In the Potteries they eat them filled with bacon or cheese or sausage or beans or black-pudding or all of the above.