SIR – Your article ‘Have the secrets of the sauce been revealed?’ (November 3), prompted memories.
Us oldies know Worcestershire Sauce is a mere shadow of its former glory! It’s been ‘improved’ for half a century. It’s now pathetic brown gunk, with only the remotest connection to the pungent fiery hot sauce of yesteryear.
During my entire childhood the smell of Worcestershire Sauce wafted over my garden. The smell disappeared decades ago. ‘The Original Sauce’ always separated out into two very distinct layers. The top layer looked much as today’s sauce does. The bottom layer was opaque and grainy, like very fine silt, and would burn the uneducated palette with the equivalent of a flame thrower.
As children the words “Don’t shake the bottle” were an incessant mantra. And if you did, and ate it, no amount of water would put out that fire. Today’s sauce is just a poor imitation of what the whole world used to slosh over egg and bacon, or dump into tomato juice.
Wouldn’t that explain why the original recipe was found in a skip? Sadly, proper Worcester Sauce is one of the countless things takeover wars, fought for ever greater profits, has taken from us all.
N TAYLOR
Worcester
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