Most of us have a bottle in our refrigerators. But if you are like me, it always comes off the tongue, with a little trepidation.
Worcestershire Sauce. It was on this date, August 28, 1837, that pharmacists John Lea & William Perrins manufactured the sauce.
The story behind its creation, the legend, is interesting. However, I should note, it takes 18 months to get the fermented sauce to taste the way it does. I’ll try not to be so long in telling the history.
Worcestershire sauce has its roots in India. There were similar sauces there for many centuries. But, the stuff we use today but was created by accident in its namesake town of Worcester, Worcestershire, England.
Here is the thing. I wish to the heavens they had lived in London or Manchester. York would have been fine. Or even Cambridge, or Oxford. But, it had to be Worcester, in Worcestershire. It would be so much easier to put Cambridge Sauce on things.
It is not that hard to say when you hear it. /ˈwo͝ostərSHər ˌsôs/ I’ll practice. Wooster Sure. Soss.
Back to the story. There was a haughty Englishman named Lord Sandys. He came back to England after a very long stint in Bengal, India. He was a successful governor there. When he got back home to retire, he missed his favorite Indian sauce. So, he called on his friends, a couple of drug store owners named John Lea and William Perrins. He asked them to come up with a similar recipe.
So, they mixed and stirred and cooked. And came up with a sauce.
They thought, if Lord Sandys liked the stuff so much, others would too. So their intent was to keep some of the batches to sell in their store. But it was a mix of cooked fish, vegetables, and spices. And it had a terrible odor. An odor way too strong to keep in the pharmacy. So they put it down in their cellar to be stored.
As happens with busy pharmacists, they get preoccupied with other things. So, it lay forgotten for two years until it was rediscovered during a big basement cleaning day.
They discovered the sauce had aged into a wonderfully flavored sauce. It tasted exactly like Worcestershire Sauce. Wooster Sure. So, they bottled the stuff, and it quickly became popular with their customers.
Lea and Perrins didn’t stop there. They decided to market their wares and convinced stewards on British passenger ships to include it on their dining tables. It wasn’t long before it was a British staple. Most people used it as a steak sauce at the time. It found its way to the U.S. and eventually all around the world.
Back then, they wrapped the bottles in paper to protect them from breaking during sea voyages. They still come in those neat-o brown paper wrappers. I love that about Worcestershire sauce. The incognito condiment.
Just like Kentucky Fried Chicken, the recipe is heavily guarded. The original bottle lists the ingredients to be barley malt vinegar, spirit vinegar, molasses, sugar, salt, anchovies, tamarind extract, onions, garlic, and unspecified spices and flavorings. Some of the additional ingredients may include lemons, soy sauce, pickles, and peppers. Or so they say.
I’d love to tell you more about William Henry Perrins and John Wheeley Lea. But history only tells us they were a couple of drug store chemists.
So, here’s to Cambridge Sauce. Errr, Worcestershire Sauce. And to all the little anchovies who make it what it is today.
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“He who controls the spice controls the universe.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune
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Variety’s the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.
William Cowper
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Spice a dish with love and it pleases every palate.
Plautus
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Wooster Sure. Soss. Say it like you mean it.
