Worcestershire sauce ( ( listen)), (Merriam-Webster: \'wu?s-t?(r)-?shir-, -sh?r- also -?sh?(-?)r-\ ) is a fermented liquid condiment of complex mixture originally created in England by the Worcester chemists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, who went on to form the company Lea & Perrins. Worcestershire sauce legally has been considered a generic term since 1876 when The High Court of the United Kingdom ruled that Lea and Perrins do not own the trademark to "Worcestershire"
Worcestershire sauce is frequently used to enhance food and drink recipes, included in traditional Welsh rarebit, Caesar salad, Oysters Kirkpatrick, and deviled eggs. As both background flavour and a source of umami, the savoury so-called "fifth flavour", it is also added to dishes which historically did not contain it, such as chili con carne and beef stew. It is also used directly as a condiment on steaks, hamburgers, and other finished dishes. The sauce is also used to flavour cocktails such as the Bloody Mary and Caesar.
Video Worcestershire sauce
History
A fermented fish sauce called garum was a staple of Greco-Roman cuisine and of the Mediterranean economy of the Roman Empire, as the first-century encyclopaedist Pliny the Elder writes in his Historia Naturalis and the fourth/fifth-century Roman culinary text Apicius includes garum in its recipes. The use of similar fermented anchovy sauces in Europe can be traced back to the 17th century.
Lea & Perrins
Product History
The Lea & Perrins brand was commercialised in 1837 and has continued to be the leading global brand of Worcestershire sauce. The origin of the Lea & Perrins recipe is unclear. The packaging originally stated that the sauce came "from the recipe of a nobleman in the county". The company has also claimed that "Lord Marcus Sandys, ex-Governor of Bengal" encountered it while in India with the East India Company in the 1830s, and commissioned the local apothecaries to recreate it.
According to company tradition, when the recipe was first mixed there the resulting product was so strong that it was considered inedible and the barrel was abandoned in the basement. Looking to make space in the storage area a few years later, the chemists decided to try it again, and discovered that the long fermented sauce had mellowed and was now palatable. In 1838 the first bottles of "Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce" were released to the general public. On 16 October 1897, Lea & Perrins relocated manufacturing of the sauce from their pharmacy to a factory in the city of Worcester on Midland Road, where it is still made. The factory produces ready-mixed bottles for domestic distribution and a concentrate for bottling abroad.
In 1930, the Lea & Perrins operation was purchased by HP Foods, which was in turn acquired by the Imperial Tobacco Company in 1967. HP was sold to Danone in 1988 and then to Heinz in 2005.
During world war II due to a shortage of soy sauce, Lea and Perrins switched from Soy Sauce to Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein and did not switch back afterwards
US version of Lea and Perrins
The US version is packaged differently from the British version, coming in a dark bottle with a beige label and wrapped in paper. Lea & Perrins USA claims this practice is a vestige of shipping practices from the 19th century, when the product was imported from England, as a measure of protection for the bottles. The producer also claims that its Worcestershire sauce is the oldest commercially bottled condiment in the US.
Ingredients
The original ingredients of bottle of Worcestershire sauce sold were:
- Barley malt vinegar
- Spirit vinegar
- Molasses
- Sugar
- Salt
- Anchovies
- Tamarind extract
- Onions
- Garlic
- Spice
- Flavourings
The "flavourings" are believed to include cloves, soy sauce, lemons, pickles and peppers.
Notes from the 1800s were found dumped in a skip in 2009 by company accountant Brian Keogh. The documents are to be placed on display at the Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum.
Anchovies in many Worcestershire sauces is a concern to people allergic to fish, vegans, other vegetarians and others who avoid eating fish. The Codex Alimentarius recommends that prepared food containing Worcestershire sauce with anchovies include a label warning of fish content although this is not required in most jurisdictions. The US Department of Agriculture has forced the recall of some products with undeclared Worcestershire sauce. Several brands sell anchovy-free varieties of Worcestershire sauce, often labelled as vegetarian or vegan. Generally, Orthodox Jews refrain from eating fish and meat in the same dish, so cannot use traditional Worcestershire sauce to flavour meat. However, certain brands are certified to contain less than 1/60th of the fish product and can be used with meat.
A teaspoon of low-sodium Worcestershire sauce available in the United States has:
- 5 calories
- 0 grams of fat
- 0 grams of protein
- 1 gram of carbohydrates
- 20 milligrams of sodium
- 0 milligrams of cholesterol
Other worcestershire sauces
Thailand
Gy-NGuang Worcestershire sauce has been produced since 1917
Japan
In Japan, Worcestershire sauce is labelled Worcester (rather than Worcestershire) in katakana. Thicker, Worcestershire sauce-based sauces are manufactured there under brand names such as Otafuku and Bulldog, but these are brown sauces more similar to HP Sauce rather than any type of Worcestershire sauce.
Tonkatsu sauce is a variation of Worcestershire sauce associated with the dish tonkatsu. It is a vegetarian sauce made from vegetables and fruits.
Denmark
In Denmark, Worcestershire sauce is commonly known as Engelsk sauce, meaning 'English sauce'.
El Salvador
Worcestershire Sauce (known colloquially as La salsa inglesa or La salsa Perrins) is extremely popular in El Salvador, where many restaurants provide a bottle on each table. Over 120,000 gallons is consumed annually, the highest per-capita consumption in the world.
United Kingdom
United States
French's worcestershire sauce Introduced in 1941
Heinz Worcestershire Sauce
Maps Worcestershire sauce
See also
- Anglo-Indian cuisine
- A1 Steak Sauce
- French's
- Sarson's
- Henderson's Relish
- List of sauces
- Food portal
References
External links
- Atkinson, Chef Greg (Jan 28, 2001), "Sauce of Legend", The Seattle Times, NW source, archived from the original on 2002-06-08 , abetted by Lea & Perrins, reports and debunks the myth, without unveiling Lady Sandys.
- A very different history of Worcester Sauce, Foods of England .
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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