The Original Worcestershire Sauce

Notes: Worcestershire is pronounced "wus - tuh - sher". Pronounce the "wus" part as you would "puss", except with the "w" at the front. The correct spelling is "Worcestershire", not "Worchestershire", with a "h".

The Origin of Worcestershire Sauce

The sauce that made the name of Worcestershire famous around the world was born almost by accident. John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins were born within a few years of each other in the early 1790s. Both became chemists, and partnered on opening a few chemist shops (pharmacies) together starting in 1823 in Worcester, in the shire of Worcestershire in England.

In 1835 a fellow named Marcus, Lord Sandys, had returned from India, where he had been governor of Bengal. He had a recipe for a brewed sauce that he asked his local chemists (who happened to be Lea & Perrins) to have a go at making. They brewed it up, found it tasted awful, put the cask of it in the cellar, and got back to their regular jobs. A year later, on a lark before finally clearing the cask out of their basement, they had a taste of it. To their immense surprise, they discovered that the sauce had matured like fine wine, gaining an aromatic scent and a wonderfully unique taste.

It was so tasty, that they bought the rights to the recipe from Lord Sandys, and were bottling and selling it out of their stores by the following year, 1837. Thus was born Lea & Perrins Original Worcestershire Sauce.

How Worcestershire Sauce is Made

Lea & Perrins is made in a factory on Midland Road in Worcester, England. The ingredients in the recipe for Lea & Perrins are a closely-guarded secret, known only to those who manage the company and to those who trouble to read the list of ingredients on the side of the bottle: Malt vinegar (from barley), spirit vinegar, water, refiner's molasses, sugar, salt, anchovies, tamarind extract, onions, garlic, spice, and natural flavour.

Brian Keogh, a Lea & Perrins accountant who retired in 1991, found what he believed were original leather-bound recipe books for the sauce in a trash skip (dumpster) used by the company. (No word on why he was rooting through the skip.) He died in 2006; his daughter Bonnie Clifford donated the books to the Worcester City Museums. The recipes he found seem to indicate that the "spice and natural flavour" could be cloves, soy sauce, lemon essence, peppers, and pickles.
Knowing the ingredients, of course, doesn't give away the secret to how they are assembled. For instance, it is known that the onion and garlic are pickled first in malt vinegar for a minimum of 12 months before being used in the recipe, and the anchovies are fermented in salt for three to five years.

Eventually, the ingredients are combined, then aged in blue fiberglass maturing tanks (aging used to be done in oak barrels), strained, the flavour checked, then pasteurized and bottled. - Their web site claims it is aged in wooden casks for 18 months

The sauce gives off a very aromatic, savoury scent and the taste is tangy and spicy, with a sense of sweetness and bitterness.

Brian Keogh, a Lea & Perrins accountant who retired in 1991, found what he believed were original leather-bound recipe books for the sauce in a trash skip used by the company. (No word on why he was rooting through the skip.) He died in 2006; his daughter Bonnie Clifford donated the books to the Worcester City Museums. The recipes he found seem to indicate that the "spice and natural flavour" could be cloves, soy sauce, lemon essence, peppers, and pickles. Knowing the ingredients, of course, doesn't give away the secret to how they are assembled.

The ingredients listed in the book found by Brian Keogh were written out, with costs beside them, in order for company accountants to work out costs and profit margins. This process was repeated and recorded over many years.

Here is the list for 1907:

water - 20 1/2 gallons
cloves - 2 lbs
salt - 10 lbs
sugar - 34 lbs
soy - 8 gallons
fish - 24 lbs
vinegar - 18 gallons
acetic acid - 2 gallons
essence of lemons - 8 oz
peppers - 5 lbs
tamoraide - 14 lbs (Victorian spelling of tamarind)
pickles - 40 lbs

A cask contains about 54 gallons

A cask of pickles was made from 160 lbs shallots, 80 lbs garlic, and 24 gal vinegar. The vinegar for the pickle is made by adding 1 gallon of acetic acid to 24 gallons of vinegar F.

Malt vinegar F = 5% acidity, acetic acid = 33%. Combined vinegar = 6.12% acidity.

Returned to old formula, 1907. Quantities for 1 cask.

red peppers - 5 lbs
pickles - 40 lbs

Mix together into a pulp:
tamoraide - 14 lbs (Victorian spelling of tamarind)
sugar - 14 lbs
1 1/2 gal. water

cloves - 2 lbs

Mixed together:
anchovies - 24 lbs
water - 2 gallons

soy - 8 gallons
sugar - 20 lbs
vinegar F - 18 gallons
acetic acid - 2 gallons
salt - 10 lbs
essence of lemons - 8 oz
water 17 gallons

The book notes that in 1908, the weight of peppers used was reduced to 4 pounds and pickles to 38 pounds but put back up to 5 pounds and 40 pounds in 1909. Also in 1909, acetic acid was dropped. In 1917, the sauce started to be made without sugar.