The Inventors Of Worcestershire Sauce Didn't Even Like It At First

Long before Worcestershire sauce helped you make the best bloody mary you've ever tasted, two chemists In Worcester, England began experimenting with a sauce recipe in the 1830s. John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins combined fish sauce, cloves, tamarind, soy, pickles, and other ingredients for their new condiment. Unfortunately, they found the results totally unappetizing. However, after the concoction sat for a year and half in a stoneware jug in their shop cellar, they tasted it again.

The flavors had melded and mellowed and become something much more than the sum of their parts. And thus was born Worcestershire sauce, that sweet, salty, tangy, umami-rich condiment that now serves as many chefs' secret ingredient. Since 1837, when Lea and Perrins first began selling Worcestershire sauce, it has been a hit with consumers. But how the British business partners came up with the idea for the sauce in the first place has confounded historians for years. The problem stems from the duo's uncanny knack for creating hype through advertising.

Among John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins' innovative tactics to sell their Worcestershire sauce was getting the product on British ocean liners and paying each ship's waitstaff to serve it to passengers. While the company's self-promotion was great for business, it became a headache for historians since it was nearly impossible to parse truth from fiction. In one of the company's first advertisements, taken out in the Manchester Guardian in October 1840, Lea and Perrins claimed that they got the recipe for their sauce from an unnamed "nobleman" with good taste.

Over the years, the story grew. Some alleged that the wife of Lord Sandys asked the chemists to reproduce a curry powder that Lea and Perrins then turned into a sauce. Later on, Lord Marcus Sandys himself was identified as the nobleman. In this version, he approached the two chemists after returning from Bengal with the recipe for what would become Worcestershire sauce. Unfortunately, there's no record of Lord Sandys ever going to Bengal. While the story of Lea and Perrins disliking their Worcestershire sauce before it matured seems to be factual, the rest is still up for debate. Thankfully, they tasted their aged sauce instead of just tossing it out as a failed experiment — otherwise, you wouldn't be able to make the only steak sauce you'll ever need, which combines the condiment with browned butter, roasted garlic, and vermouth.