9 local foods our region gave the world - some more popular than others

Walk through a town or city centre and you can find American burgers, German kebabs, Mexican burritos, fried chicken, steak bakes, sausage rolls and much more besides, coming from all over the world.

However, while the streets of the Black Country, Staffordshire and Shropshire are full of outside choices, there are still foods which are indigenous to the region and considered proper local delicacies, loved from Cradley to Clun, from Shrewbury to Sedgley and from Craven Arms to Coseley.

Pork scratchings

The humble pork scratching has been a staple part of Black Country food since the Industrial Revolution, when it was common for factory workers to keep a pig in their garden.

Walk into any pub in the region and you'll see bags of both pork scratching and the lighter pork crunch on sale, while bags of scratchings can be bought at newsagents, supermarkets and across the counter at butchers shops.

Pork scratchings are made from the skin of a pig's shank, which is the top of the hind leg.

The skin is cleaned, boiled until soft, cooled, and then the fat is removed before the skin is then sliced into small pieces and baked in the oven until crispy.

Pork scratchings are usually only seasoned with salt because they still have a lot of their natural pork flavour and are cooked once, which makes them harder and crunchier than pork crackling, which is typically fried twice.

Pork scratchings are high in fat, but two-thirds of that fat is mono and polyunsaturated, which is good for heart health.

Shrewsbury cakes

Traditionally, Shrewsbury cakes were baked as thick, large biscuits, able to be kept for long periods of time.

The cakes are renowned for their texture, being crisp and brittle, and were given to people of importance when they visited Shrewsbury.

There is a significant variation in recipes, but generally speaking a Shrewsbury cake is a large, round shortbread with rose flavouring.