Atora

Atora is a British brand of shredded suet, which is the hard fat around the kidneys, primarily used in the production of pastry and dumplings. Atora use only suet from cattle and sheep.

Atora also now available with a vegetable fat based version "vegetable suet"[1].

History

Suet had one of its first mentions in a recipe of 1617 as a key ingredient for "Cambridge pudding", served to students at that university. At this time, suet was time-consuming to use and prepare: preparation involved removing the fat from beef, clarifying it over heat, allowing it to solidify, and then chopping or grating it ready for use.

Through time, it was common to be able to find blocks of suet at grocers' shops; however, it was not until 1893 that the first pre-shredded suet became available. It was the brainchild of Gabriel Hugon, a French man living in Manchester. He observed his wife struggling to cut blocks of suet in the kitchen and set about to create ready-shredded suet.

Etymology

Hugon called his product "Atora", derived from "toro", the Spanish word for bull. To reinforce this connection, up until World War II, the suet was transported around the country by painted wagons pulled by six pairs of Hereford bulls.

Ownership

In 1974 production was moved from the factory in Ogden Lane, Openshaw, Manchester to another site at Greatham, near Hartlepool. Production at Greatham ceased in around 2002–2003.

The brand was bought by Rank Hovis McDougall in 1963; along with the rest of the group, it became part of Premier Foods in March 2007.

References

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