In Praise of Worcestershire Sauce

I was listening to a radio show in which the subject of Worcestershire sauce came up.

One of the persons involved in the discussion spoke disdainfully of Worcestershire sauce. He said it was one of those things that people sometimes bought because they were supposed to have some on hand, but ended up throwing it out unused years later after the expiration date ran out.

I was appalled.

And not just at the waste.

I am a fan of Worcestershire sauce. I go through a couple of bottles a year.

I add it to so many things - like spaghetti sauce, scrambled eggs, and stir fries. Sometimes I put it on pasta instead of spaghetti sauce. I sprinkle it on such things as popcorn and French fries.

It is not the only sauce I use to spice up my food. Our refrigerator is stocked with tabasco sauce, Frank’s Redhot, various hot pepper and sriracha sauces, mustard with horseradish, and Chinese mustard. I go through several bottles of these each year as well, adding these spicy condiments to many of the same foods that I enhance with Worcestershire sauce..

I’ve always liked hot and spicy foods. In college, I even used to compete in hot pepper eating contests. Rather than driving fast or doing daredevil and dangerous and possibly life-threatening sports like too many other young men, I opted for palate challenges. 

What do you expect from an English major and teacher  who likes to read and write obscure kinds of poetry?

I tell people I like my food to fight back. I tell them that putting hot, spicy foods into my gullet has helped me fend off colds, the flu, and many other ills.

But back to Worcestershire sauce.

There’s a kind of mystery about the origins of Worcestershire sauce. The fermented sauce was supposedly created in the early 1800’s by two pharmacists in Worcester England, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins. They formed the Lea & Perrins company to sell the sauce.

The company originally claimed that  the sauce came "from the recipe of a nobleman in the county." Who that was was not initially stated.  The company apparently later  claimed that "Lord Marcus Sandys, ex-Governor of Bengal" encountered the sauce in India in the 1830s, and commissioned the local Lea and Perrins to recreate it. But Lord Marcus “Lord Sandys” ever visited India prior to the creation of the sauce..

Maybe Lea and Perrins were trying to make their sauce  seem more exotic. Another story of the origins of the sauce, and one that seems more plausible, is simply that they were experimenting with vinegar-based seasoning sauces and came up with a batch that was too strong. They put it in a basement and forgot about it for two years. There, it fermented and developed its distinct flavor.

A flavor I like.  

Whatever the truth about its origins, Worcestershire sauce is a staple in our household. 

As that gastronomic expert Geoffrey Chaucer once remarked, "Woe to the cook whose sauce has no sting."

Pax et bonum