Dishes with Worcestershire sauce. Making Worcestershire sauce at home. How to make real Worcestershire sauce - recipe

It’s hard to say what to replace anchovies with if we're talking about about fresh fish. The first time we learned that this was fish was when a group of students were famously putting fish into jars while working at a factory processing saury, seaweed, and other products. Local housewives came running to snatch anchovies from under our hands, which we unknowingly threw into waste because we were told that they were not a game fish.

Then we began to put it on a tray to the side, and in the evening we fried it in a frying pan. A friend who had never eaten any fish ate anchovies on both cheeks, they were so tasty. Canned fish (in jars) cannot be compared with fresh fish. They are usually tough and very salty. You can replace them with sprat or anchovy paste (sold in tubes).

Many people don’t like the taste of soy, so they also often ask what to replace soy sauce with. Due to its specificity, it is quite difficult to replace it. You can also try different varieties and take sauce from different manufacturers to compare and choose the best one. If you really dislike its taste, then try changing it (depending on the dish that is being prepared) to Apple vinegar, just vinegar, use sour berries or balsamic vinegar. This is for salads, and if you use it as a spice, then use ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise or lecho.

Worcestershire Mystery Sauce

Questions are often asked about what Worcestershire sauce is and what to replace it with. Worcestershire, Worcestershire or Worchester - these are different names for the same thing from the English county of Worcestershire, which became known throughout the world thanks to its ingredients in an amount of at least 25 (and the exact composition is still kept a closely guarded secret), special manufacturing technology and very unique taste .

The story of its creation has more than one version, but the name of the county has been preserved exactly. One of the creators was Lord Marcus Sandy, as were the first sellers (and experimenters): apothecaries John Lea and William Perrins went down in history as the creators of the sauce.

The sauce is made only in production and never at home. Therefore, asking the question Worcestershire sauce What can be replaced, you risk getting the answer: nothing. This is a fish and vegetable mixture with a set of certain spices. Legend has it that when it was first made, it had such a strong smell that it was put into storage and forgotten there. Only two years later it was opened. Perhaps it was kept for so long on purpose in order to achieve a certain concentration, which remains very strong even now. The sauce is not used with spoons - in drops.

Worcestershire sauce is one of the most important components of the cocktail called Bloody Mary and Caesar salad. In such dishes and drinks, it is unlikely that it will be possible to answer the question: “Worcestershire sauce: what to replace?”, because it is unlikely to be possible to replace them where they are the center of the entire culinary composition. Then it will no longer be Caesar or Bloody Mary. Or English dishes with a strong Russian accent.

Therefore, if you want to get exactly the combination of products as in the recipe, then buy Heinz brand sauce or Lee and Perrins. Otherwise, replace with whatever you want, because you still won’t find anything similar, the desire will not be fulfilled, no matter who you ask “Worcestershire sauce: what to replace it with?” There are many recipes on the Internet for making a sauce under this name, but it is unlikely that you will get anything even close to the taste. Just another good sauce, but not Worcestershire.

What and with what can be replaced

As stated above, anchovies are replaced with sprat or, as the author of one of the recipes said, “worker-peasant” herring. Mascarpone is made from very heavy cream with the addition of wine or wine vinegar. Has a delicate creamy taste. If you can’t get it in the store, you can replace it with full-fat cottage cheese, having previously wiped it. replaced with wine, fennel with stalked celery, capers with olives and olives, and coconut milk with coconut flakes.

Why is a homemade Caesar different from a restaurant one? The secret is Worcestershire sauce - a unique English seasoning that is added to salad dressing to make it unique.

It has many names - Worcestershire, Worcestershire, Worcestershire, Worcestershire sauce. The taste is sweet and sour, and thanks to the unusual combination of more than 30 ingredients, it is spicy and unlike anything else.

Although Worcestershire sauce has gained unprecedented popularity, it is not so easy to find a natural product even in large supermarkets.

Most often, it is passed off as an ordinary fake, only vaguely reminiscent of an exquisite seasoning.

And sometimes you just don’t want to spend a fortune on a treasured bottle, because just a few drops of the concentrated ingredient are enough to add zest to any dish. Therefore, lovers of restaurant dishes are often interested in whether Worcestershire sauce can be replaced.

Composition and features of the original Worcestershire

Real Worcestershire sauce is not boiled, but kept in oak barrels at least 2 years, which complicates its production at home. Plus, the sauce proportions and production technology are still kept secret.

Interesting fact! Worcestershire sauce is named after the British county of Worcestershire, where it was invented in the distant 19th century by two pharmacists, W. Perrinsky and D. Lea. They later registered their own brand, Lea & Perrins, but commercial production began only 60 years later.

The history of Worcester is shrouded in secrets and legends. According to one of them, the sauce was prepared to order and the first time it was not successful. They simply forgot about it, and a few years later they found an unsuccessful, dusty sample in the cellar, tried it and were shocked by the taste that had changed over time..

Worcestershire sauce is not only original, but also versatile. At home, it is added to marinades, stews, scrambled eggs, many hot and cold snacks, and even flavored sandwiches.

However, Worcestershire brought enormous popularity classic salad Caesar, the legendary Bloody Mary cocktail and unique roast beef prepared according to an old English recipe.

Curious! For the British, Worcestershire is as popular a product as soy sauce is for the Chinese or teriyaki for the Japanese.

An approximate list of ingredients from which the original Worcestershire is made:

• drinking water;
• anchovies (small fish);
• vinegar;
• burnt sugar;
• onion;
• Bay leaf;
• horseradish;
• a mixture of different peppers, salt;
• tamarind (a legume family fruit);
• chilli;
• celery;
• lemon juice;
• meat extract;
• asafoetida (tree resin seasoning);

Curious! Lea & Perrins is the official supplier of Worcestershire to the Royal Court of England.

What can you substitute for Worcestershire sauce?

No ingredient will give such an effect as Worcestershire. But you can still try to replace it. The taste of a salad dressing or marinade, for example, can be enhanced by:

• 9% or apple cider vinegar.
• Balsamic vinegar.
• Grated sour berries.
• Soy sauce.
• Mix balsamic with Thai sauce.
• A mixture of soy sauce and fish sauce.

Of course, such options are not even close to Worcestershire sauce, so some enthusiasts prepare their own seasoning, which, although not exactly, still resembles the original in taste and aroma. But keep in mind that this process is very labor-intensive and takes a lot of time.

How to make your own Worcestershire sauce:

• Place in double-folded gauze: 2 cloves of chopped garlic, sprinkle with 9% vinegar, 1 grated ginger root, 1 tsp. cloves, 0.5 cardamom, 1 tsp. black peppercorns, 2 pinches of red pepper, 3 tbsp. l. mustard seeds, 2 cinnamon sticks. Finely chop 1 onion and marinate in vinegar for 3 minutes, and then add to the rest of the ingredients.
• Pour 100 g of cold water into a saucepan, add 1.5 cups of vinegar and half a cup of soy sauce.
• Add a quarter cup of crushed tamarind and half of sugar. Mix thoroughly until all sugar grains have dissolved.
• Place a tightly tied bag into the water and boil, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes.
• At this time, finely chop 2 anchovies, add 0.5 tsp to them. dry curry, add a little water and place in the pan with the remaining ingredients, about 10 minutes before the end of cooking.
• After the time has passed, pour the resulting mixture into a convenient glass jar. Place the bag of spices there too.
• Place in a cool place and periodically remove the bag, squeeze its contents into the sauce and put it back. Repeat this procedure once a day.
• After 2 weeks, pour the sauce into a bottle, preferably a glass one, tightly cap it and put it in the refrigerator.

On a note! If you have difficulty finding anchovies, replace them with sprat or sardella (spicy fish). Instead of vinegar, you can use lemon juice.

How to make Caesar dressing without Worcestershire

• Boil one poached egg. To do this, you need to boil water well, beat an egg without the shell into it and boil it for just a few seconds. The white will instantly coagulate.
• Place the boiled egg in a mixer bowl, add 2 tbsp. l. lemon juice, a quarter of mustard, a drop of Tabasco (the sauce is very spicy!). Start whisking, adding in a thin stream olive oil(3 tbsp.)
• Finely chop 3 anchovies, add to the bowl and whisk again.
• At the very end, pour in a quarter tsp. balsamic and a couple of drops of Thai fish sauce.
• Pour the finished sauce and add salt to taste.

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, since, according to him, it was not what he wanted to receive. 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 sharp taste and a spicy aftertaste (asafetida, horseradish, bay leaf, nutmeg, chili pepper, black pepper, allspice, garlic), but tamarind softens them, 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 replace the tamarind with 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. At this stage, the prepared gauze pocket needs to be tied quite tightly, 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 for the liquid to cool completely when 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.

Worcestershire sauce (Worcestershire) is a sweet and sour fermented English sauce, named after the county of Worcestershire. It is a spicy, highly concentrated seasoning, reminiscent of a thick liquid, the recipe for which is kept in the strictest confidence. The sauce is served with boiled and fried fish, stewed meat dishes, bacon and scrambled eggs, roast beef, and stew. Neither a Bloody Mary cocktail nor a Caesar salad can do without it.

Interestingly, Worcestershire sauce stimulates appetite and improves metabolism. In addition, it is added to herbal drinks to treat impotence, mental suffering, and hangover.

History of origin

The original ingredients of English sauce were brought in the form of spices from India in the 19th century. After delivering the spices, Lord Marcus Sandy persuaded local grocers to prepare a mixture of them according to an individually invented recipe. However, the partners doubted the result, since according to the data provided, the dish included 25 ingredients, most of which were not grown in England. When chemical grocers mixed the ingredients, they discovered that the mixture had a fishy smell and a strong vinegar taste that discouraged anyone from eating the product. However, ironically, whether by accident or not, the barrel of sauce ended up in the basement, where it remained for 2 years. When it was opened, to the surprise of the culinary specialists, in front of them was a spicy spice with great taste and mild aroma. As a result of the amazing discovery, the product began to be produced for sale on an industrial scale.

Composition and nutritional value

100 ml of sauce contains 78 kcal and 19.5 g of carbohydrates. According to classic version recipes, the composition of the traditional liquid seasoning of the British includes: water, nutmeg, curry, horseradish, garlic, ginger, table vinegar, onion, tarragon, bay leaf, a mixture of peppers, anchovies, tamarind, celery, asafoetida, aspic, lemon juice. Despite the exact composition of the sauce being known for certain, culinary experts to this day have not been able to reproduce its original taste.

Interestingly, real Worcestershire is aged in the basement for 3-4 years in oak barrels before being bottled and sold. This enhances its taste. Thanks to its concentrated composition, the sauce consumption is minimal, which makes it economical to use. For improvement taste qualities Only 3-5 drops of the product are enough for the dish.

Classic cooking option

Worcestershire sauce, no matter how much desire, culinary skill and precision in choosing the starting ingredients, is impossible to make at home on your own. However, it is quite possible to prepare a seasoning reminiscent of English concentrate. It should be borne in mind that this is a long, labor-intensive process that takes 2 weeks.

Worcestershire sauce

Ingredients:

• onion - 1 head;
• vinegar - 400 ml;
• anchovies - 2 pcs;
• cardamom, curry, red pepper - 2.5 g each;
• soy sauce, sugar - 100 ml each;
• tamarind - 50 g;
• salt, mustard seeds - 45 g each;
• allspice - 10 pcs;
• ginger - 1 root;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• cinnamon - 2 sticks;
• cloves - 5 g.

Cooking steps:

1. Peel the garlic, sprinkle with vinegar, chop.
2. Separate the onion from the peel and marinate for 2 minutes.
3. Place cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, pepper, mustard, ginger, garlic and onion in a gauze bag and tie tightly.
4. Mix soy sauce, vinegar and water, pour into a saucepan, add chopped tamarind, add sugar. Place a bag into the spicy mixture and simmer for 30 minutes over low heat.
5. Chop the anchovy fillets, add salt, combine with curry, and add to the vinegar-soy solution.
6. After half an hour, turn off the heat, remove the bag into a glass jar, pour the contents of the pan into it, leave until cool, then place in the refrigerator. Every day, take out the cheesecloth with spices and squeeze out the sauce a little. This procedure must be done for 14 days. After 2 weeks, throw away the bag, and pour the finished homemade Worcester into glass bottles and store in the refrigerator.

There is another recipe for making homemade English sauce, which involves using lemon juice instead of vinegar, and sprat - anchovy.

Currently, the most popular dish that has gained wide popularity among consumers is Caesar salad. The secret of its excellent taste lies in the use of a special dressing, which, in the original version, mandatory Worcester enters. What can you substitute for Worcestershire sauce? A mixture of Thai fish sauce and balsamic vinegar.

Where to add it and what to eat it with

The original Worcestershire sauce is produced exclusively under the Lea&Perrins brand. This is the only owner of the recipe who first created it. Currently, the Lea&Perrins brand belongs to the Heinz Company. Worcestershire analogs are also produced by other companies (“Cajun Power” and “French’s”) according to an approximate recipe, based on Jamaican allspice, Madagascar cloves, vinegar, anchovies, garlic, English red onion, black pepper, asafoetida, tamarind. However, the taste of this product differs from the original.

In China, Worcestershire is used to prepare marinades for vegetables, meat, fish, mushrooms, in Greece - Greek salad, in Spain - cold appetizers, in Central America and Canada - legumes, hamburgers.

Residents of Foggy Albion use the sauce as a seasoning for:

• boiled, stewed, fried vegetables and mushrooms;
• meat dishes (stew, roast beef);
• bread and cheese dishes (salty pastries);
• fried, boiled fish;
• hot appetizers (bacon with scrambled eggs);
• croutons, sandwiches.

Classic Worcestershire sauce is not usually served with tea, coffee, juices, sweet pastries, desserts and fruits.

Benefits and harms

At present, due to the secrecy of the recipe, the therapeutic effect of using the product has not been fully determined. At the same time, he is known chemical composition, which is represented by vitamin B2, PP, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, sodium. Worcestershire sauce increases the body's resistance to stress, improves the functioning of the digestive system, normalizes metabolism, increases the number of red blood cells in the blood, stimulates the functioning of the thyroid gland, protects the heart from strokes and heart attacks, and stimulates appetite.

The seasoning has a sedative effect on the body. It relieves headaches, normalizes sleep, relieves fatigue and irritation. In addition, the product provides relief from sprains, tissue swelling, PMS, muscle spasms, helps with constipation, and increases blood flow in the vessels.

Worcester is contraindicated in case of increased stomach acidity, seafood allergies, obesity, diabetes mellitus, ulcers and gastritis. Store store-bought sauce in a cool, dark place for no more than 1 year, and self-prepared “homemade” sauce - 4 days. Worcestershire product is made not only in England, it is produced in North America, Japan, Brazil, Canada, USA, Australia.

Interestingly, it acquired a second home in China, which is why it received the secret name - Shanghai sauce. To avoid purchasing a counterfeit, you should carefully read the composition of the product written on the label. The presence of soybeans indicates falsification of the product. This ingredient should not be present in real Worcestershire.

Conclusion

Worcestershire sauce is a traditional liquid seasoning of English origin, served with meat, fish and vegetable dishes. It is a spicy, preserved product made from more than 20 ingredients. In Anglo-Saxon cuisine it serves as soy sauce and teriyaki at the same time. Due to its rich sweet and sour taste, it diversifies the gastronomic bouquet of any dish. As a rule, only 3 drops are enough to fill one serving.

This sauce is produced under two brands: Lea & Perrins and Heinz. It is in vain to try to prepare the original yourself. This is impossible. The technology and recipe for producing Worcestershire have been kept a closely guarded secret for more than two centuries. The finished product is subject to noble aging (ripening) in conditions specially created in the basements of the Lea & Perrins plant. Thanks to this, the taste of the sauce softens, it acquires a characteristic sourness.

Remember, any original recipes- nothing more than another imitation of a product. English concentrate is not recommended to be consumed on a regular basis more than 10 drops per dose, otherwise it can cause exacerbation of gastrointestinal diseases and heartburn. In moderate quantities, the product stimulates the secretion of glands of the digestive tract, normalizes the condition nervous system, relieves areas of pain and relieves spasms.