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Worcester Sauce, to Make
Mince two cloves of shallot, put the mince into a dry bottle, and pour over it a pint of Bordeaux vinegar. Add three table-spoonfuls of essence of anchovy, three table-spoonfuls of walnut ketchup, two table-spoonfuls of soy, and as much cayenne as is approved: the quantity cannot be given, as cayenne varies so much in quality. Cork the bottle, keep it in a cool place, and shake it well twice a day for a fortnight. Strain the sauce, put it in small bottles, cork closely, and store for use.
A cold-infused imitation of the bottled commercial sauce, relying on strong vinegar rather than heat or fermentation. Nothing here needs cooking, but two of the four flavour bases are no longer stocked in ordinary shops.
- The hinge: acidity, not heatThe sauce is never cooked, so its keeping quality comes from the full pint of undiluted vinegar together with the salt carried by the anchovy essence and soy. Do not thin it with water or stock, and do not reduce the vinegar in favour of more ketchup or soy.
- A pint and a spoonfulAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz, about 2 1/2 US cups. Victorian tablespoons may have run slightly larger than modern ones, but at three spoonfuls the difference is immaterial.
- Two cloves of shallot"Clove" here means one of the separate bulbs in a shallot head, not a garlic clove and not the spice. Two small shallots, finely minced, is the intent.
- Bordeaux vinegarA red wine vinegar of ordinary strength, roughly 6 per cent acetic acid. Any decent red wine vinegar works; cider vinegar shifts the flavour sweeter and malt vinegar makes it taste like brown sauce.
- Essence of anchovyA thick salted anchovy extract sold bottled in the period. Anchovy paste from a tube is the closest current equivalent; Italian colatura di alici or a good Southeast Asian fish sauce will do, though both are thinner and saltier, so start with two spoonfuls and taste.
- Walnut ketchupA spiced vinegar infusion of green walnuts, dark and salty, still made by a few British producers. Mushroom ketchup is the usual substitute and is easier to find; both bring the savoury depth that plain vinegar cannot.
- SoyVictorian "soy" is soy sauce, then a thick imported condiment. Use a dark Chinese soy or a Japanese tamari rather than a light seasoning soy.
- CayenneThe refusal to give a quantity is sound: dried cayenne varies enormously in heat. Begin with a quarter teaspoon, since two weeks of steeping will draw out considerably more heat than the first taste suggests.
- The fortnight and the strainingShake twice daily as directed, then strain through muslin or a coffee filter. It will still be cloudy, unlike the commercial article, and the sediment will settle in the bottle.
- Yield and keepingA pint of vinegar plus some eleven tablespoonfuls of flavourings comes to roughly three US cups, and straining out the shallot mince costs very little of it. Kept corked in a cool dark cupboard it holds for months; refrigeration does no harm and slows the fading of the cayenne.
Lea and Perrins of Worcester had been selling their bottled sauce since the 1830s, and by the time Cassell's was compiled it was a fixture of the British table and its formula a closely guarded trade secret. That secrecy is exactly why recipes like this one exist: household manuals of the later nineteenth century routinely offered approximations of proprietary sauces, ketchups and pickles that readers otherwise had to buy. The result is a reconstruction rather than a copy, and the omissions are telling: no tamarind, no molasses, no garlic, and no long fermentation of salted anchovies, all of which the commercial sauce is generally understood to involve. What remains is the older English store-sauce tradition it grew out of, a bottle of vinegar carrying anchovy, soy and a nut or mushroom ketchup, kept on the shelf to be shaken into gravies and chops through the winter. The origin tale in which a Worcester nobleman brought a recipe home from Bengal is traditional and has never been documented.