Best West Midlands Foods
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Staffordshire oatcakes are traditional English savory pancakes with an oaty flavor and coarse texture. They're typically made with a combination of white flour, wholemeal flour, porridge oats, salt, sugar, yeast, milk, and water. The batter should be left to ferment, and it's then cooked on a griddle called a backstone.
In the area, the oatcakes are offered with fillings such as tomatoes, bacon, cheese, sausages, and eggs. In the past, they used to be sold directly from the windows of a house to people on the streets.
MOST ICONIC Staffordshire oatcakes
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Birmingham balti is a curry variety prepared with chicken or lamb (although, some may use vegetables or fish), served in a traditional steel bowl in which it was cooked. It is usually paired with naan bread on the side. Although it falls under the category of Indian curries, it is very probable that balti was created in the United Kingdom, more specifically in Birmingham, as the name suggests.
The city has a large Pakistani population, who probably invented balti according to their authentic culinary traditions. In the 1970s, they started opening restaurants in Birmingham, serving the popular, slow-cooked curries. Their choice of spices included commercially available curry pastes and dried herbs since the fresh produce was not yet available.
OTHER VARIATIONS OF Curry
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Faggots are old-fashioned, traditional offal-based meatballs characterized by their large size. They are especially popular in Wales and the Midlands region of England, made from pork offal and cheap cuts of meat that are mixed with spices and fresh herbs, making it an inexpensive, yet extremely nutritious dish.
What makes faggots unique is the addition of caul fat (stomach membrane) on the external layer, helping to hold the meat in place. Traditionally, the dish is served with mushy peas, mashed potatoes, and onion gravy. The dish gained popularity during World War II, when meat was scarce, and people found a way to use all of the leftover meat in the preparation of this hearty delicacy.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
In the late 19th century a scientist named Justus von Liebig discovered that brewer’s yeast could be concentrated, conserved, and eaten. Officially, the production of this sticky, thick spread started in 1902, when the Marmite Food Company was founded in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
The product was originally sold packed in earthenware pots and in the 1920s they were replaced with glass jars that are still used today. In 1908, the New Zealand company Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing bought the rights to sell Marmite, but they slightly altered its taste by adding caramel and sugar.
Malvern is a traditional cheese made in the Severn Valley. The cheese is made from raw sheep's milk. It has a texture that's semi-hard and dry, yet creamy and dense on the palate. The flavors are sweet, herbaceous, and reminiscent of butterscotch, with hints of thyme.
Malvern is aged from 2 to 4 months and has a high-fat content of 50%. It's recommended to grill it or grate it over pasta dishes and various salads. Interestingly, at the 1997 British Cheese Awards, this cheese won a silver medal.
Double Worcester is an English cheese hailing from Worcester, where it's produced as a smaller version of Double Gloucester. The cheese is made from pasteurized cow's milk and annatto. It's typically aged from 5 to 7 months. Underneath its hard natural rind, the texture is flaky and firm.
The flavors are nutty, robust, complex, citrusy, tangy, and slightly sharp. In 2001, Double Worcester won a silver medal at the British Cheese Awards.
Staffordshire is a cylindrical, hard or semi hard cheese made from Staffordshire cows' milk with a smooth and crumbly texture. Its taste is creamy and fresh with a hint of citrus, and the cheese itself is pale cream in color. When sold, it must be cloth-bound.
The young cheese is left to ripen for two to four weeks, but it can be left to mature for up to twelve months. Its unique flavor and texture come from the specific Staffordshire pastures and warm, wet climate in the region.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
This classic English shortbread biscuit takes its name after its place of origin, although different versions can be found in many other parts of England. While some use lemon, cinnamon, or even caraway seeds, the earliest recorded recipe goes back to 1621 when these brittle, buttery cookies were typically flavored with nutmeg and rosewater.
Thanks to several literary references—including William Congreve's play The Way of the World in which he uses the expression as short as a Shrewsbury cake—by the end of the 18th century, these crispy English biscuits became known even beyond the borders of their homeland, and are especially popular in India.
Fidget pie is a traditional pie originating from Shropshire. Although there are a few variations on the dish, it’s usually made with a combination of bacon, onions, Granny Smith or Bramley apples, salt, pepper, cider, parsley, cornstarch, beaten eggs, and hot-water crust or shortcrust pastry.
The crust or pie shell consists of flour, milk, salt, water, and beef suet, lard, or shortening. It’s placed into a pan pie, then filled with the mixture of bacon, chopped apples, onion, parsley, salt, and pepper. The combination is topped with a mixture of cider and cornstarch.
OTHER VARIATIONS OF British Pie
Innes Log is an English cheese hailing from Tamworth, Staffordshire, where it's produced by Joe Bennett and Innes Button. The cheese is made from raw goat's milk and it's shaped into a log. Underneath its bloomy rind, the texture is dense, creamy, and fudgy.
The aromas are lactic and fresh, while the flavors are grassy, acidic, citrusy, bright, milky, and nutty. Innes Log has won multiple medals at the British Cheese Awards, but in recent times, the coronavirus pandemic has slightly halted its production.
Best West Midlands Food Producers
Belton Farm is a British cheese producer. The farm has been producing cheese since the 1920s, leveraging traditional methods to craft its products. They specialize in making British territorial cheeses, including Cheshire, Red Leicester, and Double Gloucester.
Belton Farm has won numerous awards for their cheeses, indicating a high standard of quality in their production processes.
AWARDS

World Cheese Awards - Gold
2022

Great Taste Awards - 2 stars
2024

Global Cheese Awards - Gold
2024, 2023, 2021, 2019, 2018
BEST Belton Farm Cheeses
AWARDS

IWSC- International wine & spirit competition - Spirit Gold
2024, 2019

ISC-International Spirits Challenge - Gold
2024

The World Whiskey Masters - Gold
2023, 2022
BEST Cotswolds Distillery Spirits
AWARDS

International Cheese Awards - Gold
2023, 2022, 2019
BEST Appleby's Dairy Cheeses
The Zanzibar Liquor Company is a UK-based producer of premium spirits, including Zanzibar Spiced Gin and Zanzibar Spiced Rum. Their products are crafted using organic spices sourced directly from local farmers in Zanzibar, known as the "Spice Islands." The company emphasizes fair trade practices, ensuring that local farmers receive fair compensation, and reinvests in local industries on the islands.
Their gin incorporates spices such as cloves, cardamom, black pepper, star anise, and cinnamon, delivering a warm and rich flavor profile. The rum is a blend of premium aged rum infused with Zanzibar spices, offering a smooth and aromatic experience.
AWARDS

London Spirits Competition - Gold
2024
BEST Zanzibar Liquor Company Spirits
Market Harborough Honey Co. is a British company specializing in the production of high-quality raw honey and honey-based products. Their beehives are strategically placed in areas rich in woodlands, agricultural crops, and hedgerows, allowing bees to collect nectar from a diverse range of flowers within a 5-kilometer radius of the hive.
This floral diversity, including oilseed rape, clover, blackberry, hawthorn, dandelion, wild rose, maple, lime, and chestnut, contributes to the unique and rich flavor of their honey. Founded in 2016, Market Harborough Honey Co. prides itself on producing unfiltered, unpasteurized honey of exceptional quality, harvested directly from the hive.
AWARDS

London Spirits Competition - Gold
2024
BEST Market Harborough Honey Spirits
Monsoon Estates Coffee Co is an independent coffee roaster in the United Kingdom. The company specializes in small batch roasting to ensure quality and freshness. They source their beans from various coffee-growing regions around the world and roast them in-house.
Monsoon Estates Coffee Co focuses on sustainability and ethical sourcing practices.
AWARDS

Great Taste Awards - 3 stars
2024, 2023, 2021

Great Taste Awards - 2 stars
2024, 2023, 2022, 2021
BEST Monsoon Estates Coffee Coffee Beans
AWARDS

Great Taste Awards - 3 stars
2024, 2023, 2021

Great Taste Awards - 2 stars
2023, 2022, 2021
Tiger Gin, crafted by The Shropshire Gin Co. Ltd in England, is an award-winning gin known for its smooth and sweet flavor, achieved through a blend of premium botanicals and traditional copperpot distillation. Founder JJ Lawrence emphasizes using high-quality ingredients, and the brand supports big cat and kitten charities with a portion of profits.
Alongside gin, Tiger offers Tiger Vodka and Ruby Tiger Gin.
AWARDS

The DB & SB Autumn Blind Tasting - Gold
2022

Bartender Spirits Awards - Gold
2020

European Spirits Challenge - Gold
2024, 2023
BEST Tiger Gin Spirits
AWARDS

International Cheese Awards - Gold
2024, 2023
BEST Bridge Cheese Cheeses
TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.