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Imitation Worcestershire Sauce
Here are two formulas, both excellent for making palatable sauces resembling the real Worcestershire : 1. White vinegar, one gallon; Canton soy, one pint; molasses, one pint; walnut catsup, one and onehalf pints; table-salt four ounces; powdered capsicum, one ounce; allspice, one ounce; coriander, one-fourth ounce; cloves, one-half ounce; mace, one-half ounce; cinnamon, six drachms; assafœtida, one-fourth ounce, digested in four ounces of rum; mix.
XIII. Strawberry Acid.
DISSOLVE in a quart of spring water, two ounces of citric acid, and pour the solution on as many quite ripe strawberries-the wild fruit is preferable-stripped from their stalks, as it will just cover; in twenty-four hours drain the liquid closely from the fruit, and pour it over as many fresh strawberries as it will cover, keeping it in a cool place; the next day drain the liquid again entirely from the fruit, and boil it gently for three or four minutes, with its own weight of very fine sugar, which should be dissolved in the juice before it is placed over the fire. It should be boiled in an enameled pan. When perfectly cold, put it into small, dry bottles, closely corked for use, and store it in a cool place. It is one of the most delicate and deliciouslyflavored preparations possible, and of a beautiful color. If allowed to remain longer in the preparation than forty-eight hours before it is boiled, it commences to ferment. In very hot weather, fermentation may take place inside of forty-eight hours. 0
Two unrelated preparations have been run together on one page: a bottled steak sauce and a strawberry cordial base. Both are workable, but the units and a few ingredients need translating.
- Drachms and ouncesRead as avoirdupois drams, six drachms of cinnamon is about 3/8 ounce, roughly 10 g; if the compiler meant apothecaries' drachms, as formula books of this cast often did, it is nearer 23 g. Either way, measure the spices by weight, not by spoon, since ground spices vary enormously in density.
- Scale of the sauceOne gallon of vinegar plus just under two quarts of other liquid (soy, molasses, walnut catsup and the rum) yields close to a gallon and a half of finished sauce. Quarter the formula unless you intend to give bottles away.
- Canton soyChinese-style soy sauce. A dark Chinese soy is the closest match; add the four ounces of salt only after tasting.
- Walnut catsupA spiced, near-black condiment made from green walnuts, once sold everywhere and now almost impossible to buy outside specialist British grocers. Mushroom ketchup is the usual substitute and gives a similar dark, savoury depth.
- Powdered capsicumA full ounce of ground hot chilli in this volume is assertive but not extreme once diluted. Cayenne is the direct equivalent; paprika is not, having been bred for colour rather than heat.
- AsafoetidaStill sold, usually as a yellow compounded powder in Indian groceries, where it is normally used a pinch at a time. The quarter ounce steeped in rum is presumably what supplies the pungency real Worcestershire gets from fermented anchovy; do not leave it out and do not increase it.
- Enamelled panFor the strawberry acid this means nonreactive. Citric acid strips tin and copper and will pick up a metallic taste; stainless steel or a well-glazed enamelled pan is correct.
- Strawberry acid timingThe forty-eight hour limit is the whole point of the recipe. Refrigerate the fruit and liquid during both macerations and boil on schedule, or the mixture starts to ferment and the clear colour is lost.
- Using the strawberry acidIt is a syrup base, not a sauce. Two or three tablespoons in a glass of cold or sparkling water makes the drink it was intended for; starting from a quart of water, and allowing for what the two batches of fruit absorb, expect somewhere upwards of a litre of finished syrup once the sugar is dissolved in it.
Worcestershire sauce was being sold from Lea & Perrins' Worcester chemist's shop by the late 1830s, and the story that it was worked up from a recipe brought home by a returning colonial official is traditional rather than documented. What is certain is that the commercial formula was a trade secret, so nineteenth-century cookbooks are thick with imitations built from the flavours a household cook could actually buy: vinegar, soy, molasses, walnut or mushroom ketchup, chilli and warm spice. The heading "English Mansion House" is not explained on the page. Beneath it the strawberry acid has been dropped in, still carrying its own roman numeral XIII, a seam left showing in the compilation.