Henderson’s Relish is a condiment, not unlike Worcestershire Sauce, which has been made in Sheffield for over 100 years and would have adorned every dining table in South Yorkshire in the days when dinner was dinner, tea was tea and lunch was for southerners. Here’s the story of how it became lodged in my consciousness.
I’m not from Sheffield, although I have spent a lot of time there over the years for different reasons. My then girlfriend went to University there, so many weekends and several summers were spent very enjoyably doing nothing much around the city. Years later, I was to spend more time in Sheffield through work, sometimes spending three or four days and nights a week there while based in London. As a result, I’ve some very fond memories of the place, and am drawn back there regularly.Despite this experience, the existence of Henderson’s Relish completely passed me by until early 2007, when I was about to open the Yorkshire Deli and began to blog about the experience. The very first email I received - in response to an early blog post asking for suggestions for products to stock in the retail side of the business - was an enquiry as to whether we would stock Henderson’s Relish.
Some urgent googling soon educated me as to its prominence in South Yorkshire life, and further enquiries of wholesalers secured supplies of the condiment to sell in the café and online. To this day it remains by far the biggest selling product on our online store, and every week we ship it far and wide to exiled dee-dahs* across the globe.
Henry Henderson first began making his relish in the late 19th Century. Its success was immediate, and the business was sold to Yorkshire chutney manufacturer Shaws of Huddersfield in 1910, but retaining its inidividual identity. In 1940 Henderson’s was sold on - it is thought because Shaws feared the scarcity of some ingredients during and after the war - and became an independent limited company with Mr Charles Hinksman as Chairman and Managing Director. Although the business had moved premises on two or three occasions to allow for expansion, it has remained in its current premises since the 1960s, less than half a mile from where Henry Henderson first produced his relish.
In 1991, Dr Kenneth Freeman, nephew of Charles Hinksman, took over the company, and he remains in charge to this day. Henderson's
is fiercely proud and protective of its local roots, and has only recently been taking tentative steps to distribute beyond South Yorkshire and a few neighbouring counties.Previously used primarily as a condiment to add flavour to meat dishes and fish and chips, but always splashed into stocks and gravies by knowledgable locals, Henderson’s has also recently become well known as a cooking ingredient. It has been famously mentioned on a couple of occasions on prime-time TV cookery shows (after which by the way my sales always go through the roof!) and is useful as a vegetarian alternative to, say, Worcestershire Sauce, although most Henderson’s fans will tell you there is no comparison!
Henderson's remains staggeringly popular. From time to time rumours of the imminent closure of the business sweep Sheffield, causing shelves to empty and sheds to fill up with cases of the stuff, for fear of being without. But these rumours are always groundless.
I’m going to be trying out a few of the recipes from the book and will reproduce the successful ones on here. In the meantime, I’m collecting more Henderson’s recipes, historical anecdotes and experiences and would love to hear from anyone with a recipe, a tale to tell or a memory to recall.
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