A new website has been launched which hopes to grow sales of salt beef and put the once-popular British dish back on the menu.

Funded by London catering butchers and salt beef suppliers, Hensons Foodservice, saltbeef.com contains salt beef facts and history about the meat.

It also contains salt beef recipes supplied by Tom Parker-Bowles, Jack Foster – the chef at Hyde Park’s Serpentine Bar & Kitchen – and Mark Taylor, head chef at Selfridges’ The Brass Rail deli.

Until the early part of the previous century, the London’s East and West Ends were full of flourishing salt beef bars. But the meat fell out of favour with the advent of foreign holidays in the 60s and 70s and increased interest in world cuisine, said Hensons MD Andrew Brook.

“An increasing demand for salt beef has encouraged us to take this step, and our aim is to attract the interest of restaurateurs and food lovers.”

Salt beef formed the staple part of the diet of sailors on board Henry VIII’s Mary Rose flagship.