⚙️ Table Talk #142: A Saucy Little Secret from Worcester 🧪
|Written by Luke Hemsley
TABLE TALK #142
You’ve probably got a bottle lurking somewhere. Behind the soy sauce. Next to the hot sauce. Half-forgotten until Bloody Mary brunches or steak night roll around.
But for a sauce so elusive in both pronunciation (for those stateside) and composition, Worcestershire Sauce has a surprisingly strong hold on our cupboards - and our taste buds.
Today's Table Talk tells its tale.
🍝 MAIN COURSE 🍝
It all began in a chemist’s shop on Broad Street, Worcester. The year? 1823. The chemists? John Wheeley Lea and William Perrins. The brief? Allegedly, to recreate a mysterious Indian recipe for one Lord Sandys - a nobleman who may or may not have existed. (Early marketing claimed he’d been the Governor of Bengal. Spoiler: he hadn’t.)
The original concoction was, by all accounts, disgusting. So they did what any of us might do with a culinary disaster: shoved it in the cellar and forgot about it. But months - possibly years - later, curiosity (or spring cleaning) led them back. One taste revealed something different altogether. Funky, fishy, punchy, delicious. Thus, Worcestershire Sauce was born.
By 1837, it was bottled and sold to the public. By the 1850s, it had crossed the Atlantic. By the 1870s, imitators were rife - over 30 brands existed in Worcester alone, and the Americans were making their own knock-offs too. Lea & Perrins fought back with PR wizardry, metallic caps, and trademark court cases. They even got their sauce onto ocean liners, so passengers could spread the gospel across the globe.
It was perfect for the time. Victorian cooks needed ways to add flavour fast - especially when working with less-than-tender cuts of meat. This inky elixir did the job, and then some.
Creator: Jay Paull | Credit: Getty Images
Today, it takes 18 months to make a bottle of Lea & Perrins. Not because it’s particularly hard to make. But because once they’ve mixed everything, they leave it all to sit quietly in wooden barrels for a year and a half. No shortcuts. No fast-tracks. Just a deep trust in time and flavour.
It's funny how so many sauces, like stories, get better the longer they’re left to develop. And how so many of the world’s most iconic condiments - ketchup, sriracha, soy sauce - aren’t just flavour-enhancers, but cultural carriers. Each one a bottle of history, local tweaks and borrowed techniques, passed from hand to hand and plate to plate.
There’s something wonderfully unmodern about it all. In a world obsessed with speed, condiments are a reminder that it’s ok - in fact, often better - to take the long way round. To let things infuse. To leave them be.
Photo Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
🍮 SWEET ENDINGS 🍮
Maybe it’s no coincidence that Worcestershire Sauce and many wines share a similar fate - tucked away in barrels, left to mellow, deepen, and absorb the flavours of the wood around them.
At Wednesday’s Domaine, we often talk about the quiet power of patience in what we do too. Letting things sit. Letting flavour find its own rhythm. Because some things just can’t be rushed - and are all the better for it.
P.S. If your appetite for origin stories isn'tquiteyet sated, enjoy a delve into our archives with this trio...
If you’ve ever wondered how (and why)Wednesday’s Domainecame to be - or how we think about the ritual of a midweek glass - I chatted about all that and more onThe Maffeo Drinks Podcastlast week.
We covered the early lightbulb moments, the small-but-mighty details (like the neck tag that quietly bolstered our sales), and the thinking behind our approach to non-alcoholic wine - from focusing on what it adds to your evening, to helping the brand stand out without shouting.
If you’re curious about the journey so far or just fancy an inside scoop, give it a listenhere.
Until next time,
Luke x
P.S. Our nextSurplus Supper Clubis 25th June - more shared plates, full glasses and a very good cause. Join us?
Creator: Jay Paull | Credit: Getty Images
