Worcestershire sauce
- Also called:
- Worcester sauce
- Related Topics:
- sauce
- Caesar salad
- umami
- condiment
Worcestershire sauce, fermented condiment that in its original form included tamarind, soy, garlic, red onions, anchovies, and spices.
Early in the 19th century there was a fashion in England for “store sauces”—sauces that could be kept in the pantry. Among them were mushroom ketchup, Harvey’s sauce, and Lord North’s sauce. About 1835 a retired governor of Bengal asked two Worcester chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, to create a sauce from a recipe he had acquired during his stay in the Indian subcontinent. Their efforts failed to please their client, so Lea and Perrins stored the barrel in their cellar and forgot about it for about 18 months, when they tried it again. Realizing that aging had improved it, they put it on sale in 1837 as yet another store sauce, about the time Queen Victoria assumed the throne. The popularity of Worcestershire sauce was instantaneous, and by 1843 it was being served in the first-class dining room of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s transatlantic steamship the Great Western. Today Lea & Perrins holds a large share of the market for the sauce, with its version aged for 18 months and exported to more than 130 countries.
A hidden ingredient in many dishes, notably in Caesar salad, the sauce is closely identified with the Bloody Mary cocktail and pairs well with melted cheese on toast. Worcestershire sauce’s main attraction is its balance and complexity, lending its earthy umami flavour to food and drink. The overall impression is of a tangy flavour-packed composite.
