You can't buy Branston Pickle in rural Andalucía. I've looked. What you can do is make your own homemade Branston pickle — and once you have, you'll wonder why you ever relied on the jar from the supermarket back home.

This is my version. Nearly Branston. Close enough to put on a mature cheddar sandwich and feel briefly, gloriously British. The swede is replaced with turnip – swede being the stuff of myth in Monte Lope Álvarez – but everything else follows the spirit of the original. Dark, sticky, tangy, and complex.

It takes about an hour to make and a few weeks to mature. The waiting is the hardest part.

INGREDIENTS

(makes approximately 2 x 300ml jars of homemade Branston pickle)

• 200g turnip, peeled and finely diced (swede if you can find it)
• 150g carrot, peeled and finely diced
• 150g cauliflower, broken into small florets
• 1 cooking apple, peeled, cored, and finely diced
• 100g dates, stoned and roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 300ml malt vinegar
• 100ml water
• 3 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp cold water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (use soy sauce for a vegan version — Worcestershire contains anchovies)

METHOD

1. Prep the vegetables Dice everything small and evenly — you want pieces roughly 5mm across. This is the most time-consuming part. Put on some music and embrace it.

2. Cook the base Put the turnip, carrot, and cauliflower into a large saucepan with the water. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 10 minutes until just starting to soften – you want them tender but not collapsing.

3. Add the flavour Add the malt vinegar, dark brown sugar, tomato purée, dates, apple, and all the spices. Stir well. Simmer gently for 25–30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened and darkened and the vegetables are completely soft.

4. Thicken Stir in the cornflour mixture and cook for a further 5 minutes until the pickle reaches a thick, glossy consistency. It should coat the back of a spoon. Add the Worcestershire sauce and taste - adjust the salt, sugar, or vinegar to your preference.

5. Jar it Leave to cool slightly, then spoon into sterilised jars. Seal tightly and label. Leave it in a cool, dark place for at least two weeks before opening — the flavour develops considerably with time.

A Few Notes on Homemade Branston Pickle

Swede is the traditional Branston vegetable, but turnip works well as a substitute – slightly sharper and slightly more peppery, but close enough. If you're in the UK and can get swede, use it.

The dates are doing important work here — they add sweetness and body without tasting obviously of dates. Don't leave them out.

For a vegan version, swap the Worcestershire sauce for soy sauce or tamari.

How Long Does Homemade Branston Pickle Keep?

This homemade Branston pickle keeps for several months unopened. Once open, store in the fridge and use within four weeks.

What Is Branston Pickle?

Branston Pickle is a British condiment made from diced vegetables — swede, carrot, cauliflower, onion — pickled in a dark, spiced vinegar and date sauce. It was first made in 1922 in Burton upon Trent by Crosse & Blackwell, named after the nearby village of Branston. It's been a fixture of the British storecupboard ever since, and the thing most likely to make an expat go slightly misty-eyed in a Spanish supermarket.

What to Serve Branston Pickle With

The classic is a mature cheddar sandwich — preferably on white bread, preferably with butter, and not too much pickle or it takes over. Beyond that: a ploughman's lunch, cold pork pie, cheese on toast, a burger that needs sharpening up, or anything coming off a Boxing Day table. It also works alongside a strong hard cheese and crackers as part of a cheeseboard — less refined than chutney, more honest.

A Reader's Tip

Since publishing this, a reader — Paula — got in touch with a rather good suggestion. She makes her Branston-style pickle with a fair amount of cardamom and a touch of cloves alongside the other spices, and crucially, she changes the method: she mixes and lightly boils the sauce, steams the vegetables separately and lightly, then combines the two and refrigerates to mature. Her point is that boiling the vegetables down in the sauce overcooks them before they colour properly — and she's quite right that it's easy to end up with mush.

I'm off on a three-month road trip around Northern Spain to escape the Andalucían summer heat, so I won't be testing this in the van — but I fully intend to give Paula's method a go when I'm back at Casa Adora in the autumn. If you try it before I do, let me know how you get on. Thank you, Paula.

This recipe is part of the Nearly Series — cupboard classics made from scratch in a Spanish kitchen. Explore the full collection.

Wonky photos, proper condiments, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef