Pan Yan Pickle recipe
Jan 05, 2010
*PLEASE NOTE - this is a very old blog post - WE NO LONGER SELL PAN YAN PICKLE - Thank you :D *
Happy New Year, at present it's a very pretty one although I would like the snow to go fairly soon.
I was contacted by quite a few people last year when a jar of pan yan pickle was shown in the background during Kirsties Homemade Christmas. I was initiated into the story of the lost recipe and the 'to date' failure of Premier Foods to reproduce the product once so familiar to so many. I promised to investigate and eventually blog.
The jar behind me was made by Rose who sells in the local market. She says her recipe is one passed down to her from her mother, its main constituents are: spiced vinegar, apples, sugar and saltanas. I searched online and discovered there are variations on this recipe type using curry powder etc
The original recipe taken from ageneric jar of Pan Yan Pickle shown 19.03.08 on mailonline. is as follows
Rutabagar (swede), sugar, apples, carrots, vinegar, thickener (modified starch) gerkins, acetic acid, peppers, onions, spices, colour (caramel), flavourings.
As I am told the pickle was a fine dice one, I suspect the swede/carrots etc were bought in pre-diced to provide the texture, there would be a background of apple (hence its preponderance in the other recipes ) within an spiced emulsion/sauce. The recipe would be fairly easy to unpick if I had tasted it.
I like a challenge and if you can tell me your memories of its flavour as precisely as possible I would be happy to have a go at reconstituting it. This comes with the caviat that I don't buy in pre-prepared vegetables so the texture won't be accurate.
Once I have sufficient feedback to try and work out the 'spices' and 'flavourings' I will make a batch and put it on the website so it can be sampled. If it manages to replicate the pickle then I will put the recipe in the book and/or offer it to Premier Foods as it is essentially a pickle for mass production.
If this is too much bother you may like to try Fortnum's pickle (I was given a jar at Christmas......you have to check out the opposition) Ingredients (not in full): sugar, vinegar, swede, parsnip, carrot, turnip, apple etc a similar texture (pre prep veg etc) to that described.
I'll be fascinated to see what the response is.........over to you, this is definitely something I can't do alone!
******************** *UPDATE* May 2013 ..... http://cranfieldsfoods.wordpress.com/2013/05/27/panyan-pickle-reconstructed/ Better late than never! ********************
61 comments
Hi Eddie
Sorry for the delay in response a cross between being out of action and consequently over busy. This is also the reason for the lack of progress on the pickle. Other comments posted indicate various brands that may fill the brief and indeed a recipe link to follow if you are so inclined!
I have just made the Chutney recipe from the Sunday Times Style 5th September and it is more or less the same as I remember Pan Yan. If anyone wants to try it go to “thesundaytimes.co.uk/style” click on “Style” cursor down to “Food and Drink” click on “Eat In” then cursor down to “Get in a Pickle by Lucas Hollweg”. I must admit that my vegetables did break up a bit and so did not look exactly like the picture. Also I substituted carrot for a small amount of the apple. The only thing I will do next time is to not put in so much ginger into the mixture bearing in mind that there is also ginger in the spice bag. Would highly recommend this one – have just have some with fresh home made crusty bread and mature cheddar – smashing.
Have just chased up Premier Foods to find out why they haven’t yet brought back Pan Yan. It’s been a couple of years since the Chris Evans campaign when they sounded very interested.
Meanwhile, I can’t wait to see the results of this experiment in re-creation. Started in January. How’s it going ?