This is a universal sauce, in the past it was used by townspeople, officials, and the commercial and financial bourgeoisie, which became rich in the English colonies.
Worcestershire sauce is used for fried and stewed meat dishes of English national cuisine - roast beef, stew, for flavoring hot appetizers - bacon and scrambled eggs, for all sorts of quick bar snacks - sandwiches, etc. But at the same time, Worcestershire sauce is perfect for marinating fish fillets, for flavoring mainly boiled, but also fried fish. It is not for nothing that it is called the sauce of Lucullan dinners, without which even a rich table is poor.
Worcestershire is a highly concentrated sauce. Use it in drops. 2-3, maximum 5-7 drops per large (double) serving.
The sauce is produced only industrially. To have an idea of its composition, here is a list of the components of Worcestershire sauce published by the manufacturing company Harris and Williams, although this, of course, is not a complete recipe and, moreover, does not indicate the preparation technology. However, for a culinary educated person this is already the key to creating the famous seasoning.
The sauce contains only about 1/10 of tomato paste, and the rest consists of another 25 components, so, unlike other tomato-based sauces, the taste of tomato is not dominant here at all, but, on the contrary, is hidden beyond recognition. So, to produce the smallest dose of Worchester - 10 kg (!) - the following components are required:
950 g tomato paste,
190 g walnut extract,
570 g of champignon extract-decoction,
80 g ground black pepper,
760 g dessert wine (real port, Tokaj),
570 g tamarind,
190 g sardella (specially prepared spicy fish),
100 g curry (powder),
340 g red chili pepper extract,
4 g allspice,
190 g lemon,
40 g horseradish,
80 g celery,
80 g meat extract,
70 g aspic (meat broth concentrated to a jelly-like state, clarified and low-fat),
2.3 liters of 10% maltose vinegar (malt),
3 liters of water,
1 g ginger,
1 g bay leaf,
4 g nutmeg,
230 g salt,
230 g sugar,
1 g chili pod,
19 g burnt sugar,
10 g of tarragon extract (vinegar tincture).
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Worcestershire sauce is produced by several companies around the world. In Russia, it is optimal to buy Worcester either produced by Heinz, or produced by Lee and Perrins.
Why make the most complex Worcestershire sauce recipe at home? Firstly, because it is not always available in stores, secondly, because it is expensive, thirdly, because it is simply interesting.
Surely you have heard the name of this English sauce at least once. You may have even tried the sauce in dishes, because you can find it in stores. And if they didn’t find it or found it too expensive for themselves, they refused to prepare any dishes. And there are many such dishes, because the sauce with a slight taste of slightly rotten fish is the king of glazes and marinades for meat, especially when it comes to grilling or barbecuing. By the way, it is Worcestershire sauce that is included in the Bloody Mary cocktail, turning a mixture of tomato juice and vodka into a drink whose taste will be remembered for a lifetime. And it was he, Worcestershire sauce, who turned out to be an accidental participant in culinary improvisation, as a result of which he was born.
If you ask what you can replace Worcestershire sauce with, I will answer firmly: nothing. Think for yourself, more than 15 ingredients! And the cooking process is absolutely breathtaking!! If you prepare the sauce according to all the rules (which English chefs are silent about because the recipe is a trade secret), you will have to mix anchovies marinated in brine, soybeans, molasses (black molasses), tamarind (date variety), garlic soaked in vinegar , chili, cloves, cardamom, shallots, sugar and a few more spices. You will then age this mixture for 2 years, or 700 days, after which, stirring occasionally, strain and bottle. Like? That's what I'm talking about.
What do you want the impatient and thrifty to do (the sauce is quite expensive)? Making Worcestershire sauce at home - that's it! Of course, you won’t be able to get an authentic one, but it will be very close in taste – very much so. The main condition is to infuse it thoroughly if possible. As for the ingredients, after cooking I want to give you the following tips: it’s better to take shallots, marinate anchovies (if you’re lucky enough to buy fresh ones - I wasn’t lucky), for example, or buy Italian ones in a spicy marinade at the store, and instead of burnt ones you can use.
Worcestershire sauce has a very strong taste and unique aroma. This makes it less of a sauce and more of a spice, a seasoning, an accent. It is enough to add just a little sauce to the dish, give it a Worcestershire “accent” - and it will be transformed.
Preparation time: 20 minutes plus 3-4 weeks for infusion
Finished product yield: about 300 ml
Ingredients
- white or red wine vinegar 1 cup
- burning liquid 50 ml
- soy sauce 50 ml
- sugar 50 grams
- lime juice 25 ml
- anchovies 2 fillets
- hot pepper 1 pod
- 1 small root fresh ginger
- garlic 1 clove
- cinnamon 1 stick
- onion half head
- yellow/white mustard seeds 1.5 tbsp. spoons
- salt 1.5 tbsp. spoons
- black peppercorns 0.5 tbsp. spoons
- cloves 0.5 tbsp. spoons
- curry seasoning 0.25 tbsp. spoons
- cardamom 3 boxes
Preparation
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Crush the cardamom pods in a mortar. Inside you will see seeds - they contain the main aroma.
Add salt, mustard, curry, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and black peppercorns to a small saucepan.
Finely chop the garlic, cut the onion into small cubes, and cut the hot pepper into rings without removing the seeds.
Grate the ginger root on a fine grater—it will take 1 teaspoon when grated.
Squeeze the juice from the lime.
Finely chop the anchovy fillets.
Place the garlic, onion, pepper, ginger and lime juice in a saucepan with the spices. Drain the lime juice, burnt juice and soy sauce there.
Then add vinegar there.
Place the saucepan on the fire and bring the mixture to a boil. Cook Worcestershire sauce for 10 minutes from boiling.
At the same time, melt the sugar and cook a simple caramel, which you also add to the sauce.
Cook the sauce for another 5 minutes.
After this, pour the sauce into a glass jar and refrigerate for 3-4 weeks. Shake the sauce container thoroughly 1-2 times a week.
When the sauce has infused, strain it through a fine sieve.
Store the finished sauce in the refrigerator for 6 months.
Worcestershire sauce is one of the most popular sauces all over the world. In his homeland, England, the real recipe is still hidden. Thanks to its piquancy, you can improve the taste of a huge amount of food.
How did Worcestershire sauce come about?
According to history, people first learned about this product more than 170 years ago. This happened thanks to Lord Sandy, who worked for some time in Bengal, where various spices are very popular.
Returning to England, he said that the food here was too bland and tasteless. Then the lord invited two pharmacy workers, Lea and Perris, and asked them to prepare an exquisite seasoning, giving them a written down recipe.
All the ingredients were purchased and the dish was prepared according to the instructions, but the final result greatly disappointed Sandy, because in addition to the pungent taste, the product had an unpleasant odor. The failed experiment was forgotten, and the jars of gravy were hidden in the basement.
Only a few years later, while cleaning, Lea and Perris found the bottles and decided to take a sample again.
This time the taste exceeded all expectations. It was stupid to miss such an opportunity, and already in 1837 the official production of this product was established under the name “Lea & Perrins”. Since then, the product has spread throughout the world and become very popular. His recipe is still secret, but it is known that it takes 3 years and 3 months to prepare one bottle.
What can replace Worcestershire sauce?
Despite the fact that the original recipe is kept secret, there is still information that the composition includes 20 ingredients, among which there are both affordable products and exotic and unknown to many, for example, tamarind and sardella.
Many chefs strive to achieve an original taste using more affordable products, and some experiments can be called successful.
Let's look at some of them in more detail.
Recipe No. 1
The most common option, which is used if you need to replace English spice in a dish.
Ingredients:
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- ginger root;
- 3 tbsp. spoons of mustard in seeds;
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns;
- 1 teaspoon of cloves;
- 0.5 teaspoon hot pepper;
- 0.5 teaspoon ground cardamom;
- 0.5 teaspoon curry;
- 2.5 cm cinnamon sticks;
- 2 tbsp. vinegar;
- 0.5 tbsp. granulated sugar;
- 0.5 tbsp. soy sauce;
- 0.5 tbsp. water;
- 1/4 tbsp. tamarind pulp;
- anchovy;
- 3 tbsp. spoons of salt.
As you can see, there are a lot of ingredients, but believe me, the taste is worth it.
Cooking method:
Recipe No. 2
Another option that can be used to replace the original product is more accessible for home use, since the list of necessary ingredients is not so large and you can find them in almost any grocery store.
Ingredients:
- 0.5 liters of malt vinegar;
- 2 shallots;
- 2 tbsp. tablespoons chopped anchovy(
- 2 tbsp. spoons of soy sauce;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 3 tbsp. spoons of ketchup;
- 3 tbsp. spoons of chopped walnuts;
- a pinch of salt.
Cooking method:
- Finely chop the peeled onion along with the garlic. Grind the nuts in a coffee grinder.
- Combine all the ingredients and place them in a bottle with a tight lid.
- Leave in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.
- Remove and shake the container twice daily.
- After the time has passed, strain and you can use it.
Where is the popular English sauce used?
This product is characterized by a spicy and fairly concentrated taste. It is especially popular, of course, in its homeland, where it is added to meat dishes, stews, fish, etc.
It is loved in Greece and Spain, where it is often used in salad recipes.
In China, it is used to prepare marinades. In principle, we can say that this is a universal seasoning that is suitable for almost any dish and even drink.
For example, it will be surprising for many, but the original recipe for the famous Bloody Mary cocktail includes this interesting ingredient, which makes the combination of vodka and tomato juice ideal. We invite you to consider several original recipes for dishes using this popular product.
Caesar salad"
One of the most popular dishes that cannot be imagined without English spice. There are many salad options, let's stick to the classic recipe.
Ingredients:
- 450 g romaine lettuce;
- 120 g white bread;
- 1 clove of garlic;
- 50 g olive oil;
- egg;
- lemon;
- 2 tbsp. spoons of chopped parmesan;
- salt;
- pepper;
- a few drops of Worcestershire sauce.
Cooking method:
Beef tenderloin with onions
Another recipe with the famous English seasoning. This dish is worthy of the menu of many restaurants.
Ingredients:
- 0.5 kg beef;
- onion;
- 1 tbsp. dry red wine;
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce;
- parsley;
- pepper.
Cooking method:
Worcestershire sauce can be added to a variety of dishes to add spice, but it works best with meat.
Make this popular seasoning at home and add it to a variety of dishes. Bon appetit!
Culinary masterpieces are created all over the world. One of them is English Worcestershire sauce, which is made from vinegar and English seasonings. It is also known as Worcestershire, Worcestershire sauce, Worcestershire sauce or Worcestershire sauce. The recipe for the product is secret, but skilled chefs were able to figure out what is included in this sauce, so any housewife can repeat the culinary process of an English dish in her kitchen and surprise guests.
What is Worcestershire sauce
The birthplace of this dish is the English county of Worcestershire.. Lord Marques Sandys ordered its production from a pharmacy in 1837 according to a recipe he brought from Bengal. The prepared mixture bore little resemblance to the original, so they forgot about the dish for a while. However, a few months later the sauce was tested by one of the pharmacists. From that moment on, the production of Worcestershire sauce began a rich and successful history. The photo shows what color this dressing has.
Compound
The manufacturing technology takes more than one month, the mixture of seasonings is classified, so it is very difficult to repeat the recipe. However, a dish that is as close as possible to the original can be prepared. The composition of Worcestershire sauce is as follows: onions, garlic, anchovies, vinegar, spices. For those who want to know how to prepare a dressing, recipes with these and other ingredients will be interesting.
Application
Worcestershire is ideal for adding a piquant flavor to meat dishes such as steak. It is also included in classic recipes. The famous Caesar was originally made with the addition of English sauce, but now you can often find this salad with anchovies, which are placed separately. Many cocktails are prepared with Worcestershire. Decent bars add it to the Bloody Mary cocktail along with Tabasco, it turns out very tasty.
What to replace
Getting original Worcestershire sauce from the UK is difficult and expensive, and it’s easy to run into a fake. When purchasing sauce, pay attention to the pharmaceutical company Lea and Perrins, which is owned by the popular Heinz concern. Although, as tasters note, English Heintz sauce (pictured) differs in taste from the original. If you are a fan of homemade recipes, then when asked how to replace Worcestershire sauce, there is only one answer: make it yourself.
How to make Worcestershire sauce
There are a lot of recipes for preparing this dish with a sweet and sour taste. Add ginger, lemon juice, tomato juice. Each option has a right to exist, it all depends on taste. Before you cook this famous dish, find out what Worcestershire sauce is and how it is prepared. Explore several options to see what you can do and what you can't. Pay attention to the ingredients, some are hard to get but replaceable, like tamarind.
Worcestershire Sauce Recipes
Cooking is much more interesting than purchasing a finished product in a store. You know what ingredients you are putting in and accurately calculate the shelf life. This applies not only to mayonnaise or ketchup, but also to this dish. Below are four options for preparing the famous English Worcestershire sauce.
Classic recipe
- Time: 120 minutes.
- Cuisine: European.
- Difficulty: medium.
For a long time it was believed that it was impossible to prepare this culinary masterpiece on your own. Real Worcestershire requires 18 months to marinate. It contains a huge number of ingredients, the proportions of which are not disclosed. The following recipe for Worcestershire sauce, although it contains exotic ingredients, is as simplified and accessible as possible:
Ingredients:
- onion – 1 piece;
- mustard, seeds - 3 tbsp. spoons (can be replaced with powder);
- garlic – 2 cloves;
- apple cider vinegar – 0.5 cups;
- sugar – 0.5 cups;
- curry – 0.5 teaspoon.
- red hot pepper – 0.5 teaspoon.
- black pepper – 1 teaspoon;
- cardamom – 0.5 teaspoon;
- anchovies – 2 pcs;
- tamarind pulp – 2 tbsp. spoons;
- salt – 3 tbsp. spoons;
- water - half a glass.
Cooking method:
- Finely chop the onion, garlic and anchovies.
- Wrap the resulting pulp in a gauze bag.
- Pour vinegar, sugar and tamarind into a saucepan. Throw a bag of fish and vegetables in there too.
- Bring to a boil, turn down the heat to low. Leave the mixture to cook for 40 minutes.
- Mix spices and salt in water.
- Pour the water mixture into the vinegar mixture and remove from heat.
- Wait until it cools completely, remove the bag, and place the resulting Worcestershire sauce in a bottle.
Simple Worcestershire sauce
- Time: one hour.
- Number of servings: 10-12 servings.
- Calorie content of the dish: 90 kcal/100 g.
- Purpose: addition to main dishes.
- Cuisine: European.
- Difficulty: easy.
You can prepare the treasured additive in even more simple recipe without using ingredients that often confuse housewives, such as tamarind pulp. This mysterious ingredient is an Indian pulse and is used in many dishes. You won't have to wait the required 18 months either. Grill steaks and invite your loved ones to the table.
Ingredients:
- garlic - one head;
- onion – 1 piece;
- apple cider vinegar – 0.5 cups;
- honey - 3 tbsp. spoons;
- anchovy in oil – 1-2 pieces;
- lime juice - 1 tbsp. spoon;
- balsamic vinegar – 1 teaspoon;
- salt - to taste.
Cooking method:
- Chop the onion with a knife and the garlic in a press.
- Top it with vinegar, honey, lime juice and balsamic.
- Add spices and salt to the mixture.
- Finally, grind the anchovy fillet into a paste and add to the rest of the ingredients. Mix thoroughly.
- Time: 40 minutes.
- Number of servings: 20-22 servings.
- Calorie content of the dish: 100 kcal/100 g.
- Purpose: addition to Caesar salad.
- Cuisine: European.
- Difficulty: medium.
The original recipe for the popular European Caesar salad contains Worcestershire. It is added to the sauce to season the ingredients. The classic version of the salad includes Parmesan cheese, boiled chicken fillet, boiled eggs, lettuce, croutons, parsley and a dressing made from olive oil, garlic, and eggs. In the recipe below you will learn how to prepare Worcestershire for Caesar.
Ingredients:
- garlic – 2 cloves;
- onions – 2 pieces;
- malt vinegar – 2 cups;
- soy sauce - 3 tbsp. spoons;
- anchovy in oil – 1-2 tbsp. spoons;
- ground red pepper - to taste;
- chopped nuts – 2 tbsp. spoons;
- salt - to taste.
Cooking method:
- Pour the vinegar into a saucepan and place on low heat.
- Chop the onion and garlic and add to the vinegar.
- Add soy sauce to the pan.
- After 20 minutes of simmering, add the remaining ingredients to the list. Grind the anchovies into puree in advance.
- Leave to cool, then pour into a bottle with a lid.
- Time: 50 minutes.
- Servings: 15-18 servings.
- Calorie content of the dish: 80 kcal/100 g.
- Purpose: addition to the main dish.
- Cuisine: European.
- Difficulty: medium.
Grilled juicy meat requires tasty topping. No man can resist a steak with aromatic Worcestershire, so if you want to please your loved one with a hearty lunch, you need the recipe. Worcestershire sauce complements not only meat, but also meat and vegetable stews. Look at the photo how delicious the fish dish with sauce and herbs looks.
Ingredients:
- onion – 1 piece;
- garlic – 5 cloves;
- sugar - 1 tbsp. spoon;
- apple cider vinegar – 1 glass;
- lemon zest – 0.5 lemon;
- anchovies – 2 pieces;
- tomato – 1 piece;
- chili pepper – 1 piece;
- salt to taste.
Cooking method:
- Grind the onion and garlic in a meat grinder into a paste.
- Place sugar, salt and whole pepper into the vinegar and simmer on low heat.
- Remove the skin from the tomato and pass through a meat grinder.
- Add vegetables to vinegar.
- Puree the anchovy fillets, zest the lemon and add to the mixture.
- Keep the sauce on the fire for 20 minutes, cool.
Video
Worcestershire sauce has English roots and has a unique, unsurpassed aroma and rich sweet and sour taste due to the fact that its main composition includes fish, vinegar and sugar (see photo). It would seem, how can such ingredients create and give your dish a lasting and rich aroma? However, you just need to add even one teaspoon of this sauce to the dish - and it will truly sparkle with new colors for you.
Let's try for a moment to plunge into the history of the creation of this masterpiece. There are quite a few legends that tell about the origin of the sauce. One of them tells that one of the English pharmacies in the county of Worcestershire (hence the name of the sauce) was contacted by Lord Marquez Sendi, who had previously worked as a governor in India. From there he brought the recipe, as well as some spices for preparation, and asked the pharmacists to make the mixture according to the existing instructions. But something went wrong, and the lord refused to take this mixture, because, according to him, it was not what he wanted to get. Well, the pharmacists had no choice but to put this mixture in the basement. And only a few years or a few months later, this is where the legends differ from each other, when the pharmacists decided to conduct an audit, they stumbled upon the forgotten sauce. After tasting it, they could not believe their taste. During its stay in the basement, the sauce infused and acquired a tart, sweet and sour taste. Fortunately, pharmacists found the recipe brought by the lord and started producing the sauce. To date, it has received universal approval in many countries around the world.
The sauce is added mainly to fish and meat dishes, and alcoholic drinks such as “Bloody Mary” and “Caesar” cannot do without its participation.
Ingredients of Worcestershire sauce
Worcestershire sauce contains no less than 25 products, some of which vary depending on the country where the sauce is sold. Most of the ingredients are simply incompatible with each other, but this is what gives the sauce its zest and uniqueness.
The following main ingredients are used to prepare the sauce:
- anchovies;
- tomato paste;
- champignon extract;
- port wine;
- curry;
- aspic (fat-free concentrated meat extract);
- lemon juice;
- tarragon extract;
- corn syrup or sugar;
- malt vinegar;
- black molasses or burnt sugar;
- tamarind.
Let's figure out what gives the sauce its sweet and sour taste, besides lemon juice, vinegar and sugar. Is it really necessary to add such a huge amount of spices? Most of the seasonings used in the sauce have a pungent taste and a spicy aftertaste (asafetida, horseradish, bay leaf, nutmeg, chili pepper, black pepper, allspice, garlic), but they are softened by tamarind, as it adds sourness to the dish.
The latter is an important component of Worcestershire sauce. It is tamarind that gives that sweet and sour taste, which distinguishes it from other sauces. It is a long-lived plant, which is why it grows for a long time. Its fruit consists of pulp and seeds. Sometimes recipes call for the tamarind seed, but only the pulp is edible when the fruit is brown or red-brown in color. The consistency of the pulp is sticky, thick and has a spicy apricot aroma. Tamarind is rich in sugar and acids and is also a source of calcium. If you can't find it, then as a last resort you can substitute tamarind lemon juice, but the taste will still be different.
I would like to remind you once again that spices play an important role in preparing the sauce. If you do not add at least one of the above ingredients, then, alas, you will not get the amazing taste that Worcestershire sauce has. Chefs all over the world recommend being careful when preparing, observing a sense of proportion in everything, and not adding too much of everything, otherwise the taste will spoil, and this, in turn, threatens to spoil the dish.
Homemade recipe
The recipe for Worcestershire sauce is quite simple and can be prepared even at home. No one officially advertises the original recipe for the sauce, but if for some reason you couldn’t find the product on store shelves, then you can prepare it at home, and the taste certainly won’t be much different from the store-bought one.
We offer one of the simplest and best recipes preparing the sauce. To do this, prepare gauze in advance and fold it in several layers (it’s just better to cook some products in a gauze bag).
Now let's move on to the cooking method. To begin, pour 2 tablespoons of acetic acid into a bowl and place the onion in this solution, leave for a few minutes. Then chop finely. Next, chop two cloves of garlic and sprinkle with vinegar. In a gauze bag we put onion, garlic, a cinnamon stick, half a teaspoon each of red and black pepper, cloves and cardamom. On at this stage The prepared gauze pocket needs to be tied tightly enough, because during the cooking process we will periodically wring out this bag. Pour half a glass of soy sauce and acetic acid into a saucepan, pour in one hundred grams of sugar and add tamarind. Pour in some water and put on fire. Boil over low heat for about thirty minutes. Now cut the prepared anchovy into small pieces, put it in a separate bowl, add half a teaspoon of curry there, salt to taste, dilute with pure cold water and mix everything thoroughly. Pour the resulting mass into the pan, where the sauce itself is cooked, and continue cooking.
At the next stage, we transfer the gauze pocket with spices into a glass jar, after turning off the heat. Pour the sauce into it and screw the lid tightly. We wait until the liquid cools completely at room temperature, after which we put the jar in the refrigerator. Wring out the bag daily for a week, then remove the pocket with spices from the jar. Pour the sauce into small bottles and leave it in the refrigerator or some other dark, cool place for storage (this product is easily adapted to home storage conditions).
Use in cooking
The use of Worcestershire sauce in cooking has gained wide popularity among all peoples of the world. It is the most common seasoning in England, which is not surprising. Most often this sauce is used to create:
- meat dishes;
- fish dishes;
- drinks.
The sauce is commonly used as a marinade for meat dishes, such as cutlets, beef tenderloin, carbs, shish kebab, baked chicken, scrambled eggs and bacon, and roast beef. It can even be added to rice, pasta, dumplings, vegetable stew, and Caesar salad. Can't do without it and everyone knows alcoholic drink"Bloody Mary". But most of all, the sauce reveals its taste and aroma in the preparation of fish dishes. It is enough to add just a teaspoon of this sauce to the finished dish - and its taste will change beyond recognition, sparkling with new flavor shades.
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the sauce is contraindicated if you are allergic to seafood and increased acidity stomach. The calorie content of this product is relatively low, and most often it is added to dishes in small quantities, so it can be consumed by everyone, excluding the above contraindications.
What can be replaced?
“What can I replace this sauce with?” – this question very often worries housewives who, for some reason, cannot purchase this product. Some are trying to create its analogues, but finding something similar just won’t work for one simple reason: the sauce has too unique a taste, and the substitute is simply unable to replicate it. Some are trying to use soy sauce as a substitute. Others recommend using balsamic vinegar, a mixture of sauces containing seafood and similar seasonings. But, as culinary experts say, then you get a completely different taste. Therefore, it is better to find an original product, especially since the dish requires very little of it.
The original taste of this sauce cannot be described in words. At least once, prepare a dish with it yourself and appreciate its taste.
