It is easy to be cynical and imagine that a successful brand could be trading on a famous connection, and Ballymaloe Country Relish is a case in point.
But it is not like that at all, like everything to do with Ballymaloe, it’s based on a genuine ethos - and, in this case, a genuine recipe developed by Myrtle Allen many decades ago in order to preserve the surplus tomatoes grown on the farm by her late husband, Ivan.
Roll forward to1990 and their daughter Yasmin Hyde started using Myrtle’s recipe, to make the country relish for local shops and restaurants in her own kitchen. Its success led to her moving into a purpose-built kitchen nearby at Little Island, where it has been made to the same traditional methods ever since.
The range has grown and now includes a number of other tasty relishes and dressings, including a very nice mint jelly, a Bramley apple sauce and Ballymaloe Mayo. But there’s nothing to beat the original Ballymaloe Country Relish; it’s just a consistently delicious great tasting everyday accompaniment to just about everything, and we all like to have it handy in our kitchens.
