Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce

Interesting item on today's Food Programme on BBC Radio 4 when they visited the Lea & Perrin factory making Worcestershire Sauce.

Various ingredients for the 162 year old recipe are individually aged and marinated for up to 3 years before being blended and then made in to the sauce which is then aged for 18 months before release.

Onions and garlic are separately aged in malt vinegar for 12 - 18 months, and anchovies are aged for 3 years.

Once mature, ingredients are brought together and made into a concentrate which is then blended with additional vinegar and water to make the final sauce.

The programme can be heard online for the next week at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/foodprogramme.shtml

The factory visit starts 5 mins into the recording.

I am a huge fan of talk radio and BBC is one of my faves. Thanks for sharing this.
I'm also a huge fan of Lea & Perrins. Since I watch my calories all week, I enjoy using this on my baked spuds instead of butter. Once at the Outback Restaurant, when I asked for a plain baked potato, and "bring the Lea & Perrins" the waitress was so surprised because this was the way she ate her baked spuds and had never met anyone else who did this. A surprise to both of us!

I will definitely look for this programme. BBC-Food is the homepage on my computer (although, in the spring I switch to BBC - Garden)

A lot of people keep their L&P in the fridge. What they don't know is that if it is kept at room temp it just keeps getting better.

rwj

There has also been a Food Network program, "Follow that Food' with host Gordon Elliot. One to air here recently was "Follow that Steak Sauce" which featured Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce and started in Worcestershire and had interviews with people in the factory. Elliot then followed the sauce to places all over the world.

Absolutely fascinating what goes into it. Glad I didn't know the ingredients when I was introduced to this as a kid.

There really is no substitute for it. Love it on grilled (or is that broiled?) baby lamb chops. Also recently used it as a substitute for Hoi Sin sauce in a Pork Char Siu marinade recipe, and I think the end result (to my palate) was better.

BTW, I keep it in the cupboard.

Cheers,
Sue

My husband loves the stuff--he's a big fan of all foods that are vinegary. Me, I'm only fond of it as a piquant addition to other things, like Bloody Marys and tortilla soup.

[Jenise]

Sue and Ines, I'm never without it either. Can't say I use it plain in anything, but it's an easy way of adding a complex piquance to a lot of foods, and it does so without taking over the dish even if you use a lot of it. No one would ever come along later and say, "Is there Worcestershire in this?", they just say, "it's SO good!"

That's because it's one of those ingredients that add umami to the flavor of the dish it's used in.

[Jenise]

That's because it's one of those ingredients that add umami to the flavor of the dish it's used in.

Yah, but that's saying adding MSG would achieve the same effect, and it's much more complicated than that. I use a significant amount in combination with lemon juice and tarragon to marinate shrimp for a cold appetizer, for instance, enough that the marinade is actually brown in flavor. But the Worcestershire seems to marry parts of itself away to the various other constituents and it no longer tastes like Worcestershire--just rich and spicy.

Okay. I'll buy that if you're using such a large quantity of Worcestershire. Personally, I love the stuff. I could eat it with a spoon.