Worcestershire Sauce
Worcestershire is one of my “go-to” sauces. I use it for grilling meats, adding flavor to soups and chili, even making salad dressings. For years I was content buying bottled sauce, until I tried making my own. Now, I will say up front, the bottled stuff is a lot cheaper and it doesn’t require hours of simmering, but I think once you try this homemade sauce you will never go back.
My recipe has been tweeked a bit here and there over the last couple of years, I’m happy where it’s at right now though. You should easily be able to find everything needed, with the exception of the tamarind pods. You may have better luck getting tamarind paste, and if that’s the case you’ll want to use about 2 tablespoons of it instead of the whole pods like I do here.
Aside from grilling, one of my favorite uses for this is a simple version of a “steak house” style salad dressing. I don’t really measure, but it’s easy. Take about a tablespoon each of the Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and olive oil, about a teaspoon of red wine vinegar, add some fresh ground black pepper, a dash of salt and some granulated garlic. Cover and shake well to mix. Another great uses, mix half-and-half with your favorite BBQ sauce for a great dipping sauce for chicken, pork, whatever.
- 1 large yellow onion chopped
- 6 ounces prepared horseradish (NOT sauce)
- 2 jalapeno peppers stemmed, cored, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and chopped
- 2 ounces anchovy fillets in oil
- 3/4 tsp black pepper coarse ground
- 1 tsp whole cloves
- 1 tsp dry mustard
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 medium lemon peeled, cut in chunks
- 4 ounces whole tamarind removed from pods
- 2 cups water
- 3 cups distilled white vinegar
- 1 cup cider vinegar
- 1 cup molasses
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- Measuring and prepping everything a head of time makes this a bit easier to deal with. Chop the onion and set in a small bowl. Measure out the horseradish and put in a small bowl, chop the peppers and garlic, add to the horseradish. Peel and wedge the lemon, removing as much of the white pith as possible, cut in chunks. Measure the spices in to a small bowl. Shell the tamarind if using whole. You need a 6qt or so, non-reactive pot. Heat that up over medium-high heat and open the anchovies. The anchovies typically come in a 2 oz tin, packed in olive oil. You want the flat packed, not the ones rolled around capers. Drain the oil from them in to the pot and when it gets to the point that it’s starting to smoke, toss in the chopped onions and cook those for a couple minutes before adding the horseradish, jalapeño, and garlic. Cook this for about a minute or so.
- At this point, you pretty much add everything else… the liquids and spices. You can use all white vinegar if you want… but I saw a couple recipes that mentioned apple cider vinegar, so I thought I would use a bit of it to see how it went. A quick tip – measure the molasses first, then do a cup of the water, heating it in the microwave for about 30-60 seconds. This heats the molasses up and it comes clean from the cup easier than trying to scrape it out. Repeat for the corn syrup using the other cup of water needed.
- Bring this to a boil, then turn down to a low to medium heat and simmer for about 2.5 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally. You are looking to reduce the liquid to about a third of it’s original volume, and it should nicely coat the back of a spoon dipped in to it.
- Put a colander over a large bowl and carefully pour the contents of the pot in to filter out the larger pieces, transfer back to the pot and then repeat, this time using a fine mesh strainer. You may have to use the back of a spoon to press as much liquid through the strainer as possible.
- Once cooled, transfer to a nice clean bottle or jar. I have an old Frank’s Hot Sauce bottle that is just right. It’s a 20 oz bottle and this recipe usually fills it up perfectly.
