j biesinger
TVWBB Platinum Member
Sunday I was a bit bored (nothing to cook) and a bit hung over. Combine that situation with a lot of time recently spent thinking about Worcestershire sauce and Worcestershire powder. I’ve use w. powder with some success on briskets unfortunately there aren’t any local sources that I’m aware of and I’m not a big fan of mail ordering a few grams of something. I was also curious about the flavor of w. sauce, and having a brick of tamarind pulp with nothing to do only furthered my curiosity. Anyways, I guess it was more the bored part than anything that led me to this post.
Using a couple recipes that I found on line, and what ever ingredients that I had on hand, I tried to make a small batch of w. sauce. Observation one: tasting the tamarind pulp, I was surprised at how similar the unadulterated flavor was to w. sauce. I knew tamarind was in it, but I realize now how dominant a flavor it is.
One I got the basic sauce bubbling away, I was a bit disappointed in the flavor. I ended up chucking in way more tamarind, clove, ginger, anchovy, molasses, and salt to get anything resembling w. sauce. Observation two: everything I read states that w. sauce is a FERMENTED sauce and not a single recipe I read called for anything other than a simple sauce that is boiled and reduced. I’m looking for serious umami, which might not be obtainable at home with out fermentation. Some time later, I might try experimenting with asian fish sauce which is fermented anchovies already to go in liquid form.
Lime was stated as being a typical flavoring of w. sauce but it added a bitter bite that luckily eventually cooked out.
Not being entirely thrilled with the result (and not really having an immediate use for it) I decided to see how far I could take the sauce. I strained out the solids (onion, garlic, ginger) and reduced the w. sauce until it was tar-like and had enough body so that it wouldn’t run. I smeared the w. tar on a silpat sheet and put it in the oven on warm (150*). I ran the oven for an hour or so then, a couple hours later, and one more in the morning. By this afternoon it had dried to the point where it was very brittle and easily crumbled and pulverized in a mortar.
Dried w. on silpat straight from the oven:
The end result wasn’t half bad and actually might have some potential when incorporated into a dry rub. I figure it might take some experimenting, but I might reduce the starting recipe to only those ingredients which aren’t already available as a powder (tamarind, anchovy, vinegar, etc.) and omitting things that are (clove, ginger, onion, sugar, salt etc.) so that they can be added in after drying. There was a slight burnt taste that I hope was a result of the large quantity of molasses that I had in the mix, because I figure this could easily be omitted and added in later as brown sugar. Also I was wondering what would happen if I tossed a bottle of prepared w. sauce into the mix to see if it helped the final flavor, I imagine it would be far too salty to use straight but might do ok if it just a fraction of the mix.
End product:
If any of you have tried to store w. powder, you’re well aware of how quickly it turns into a brick. This homemade powder starts out as a brick. I put the broken up sheet of dried w. in a jar to see how it stores. Observation 3: I’m thinking this might be interesting consequence of making it myself, because it might not change state during storage and I can break off and pulverize only what I need.
Conclusion: making w. sauce might be a bit trickier than I originally anticipated but making w. powder might be easier than I thought.
Here’s the recipe that I loosely based my first attempt on. I made ¼ batch but had to omit the jalapenos, corn syrup, and lemon. It yielded 50g of dried Worcestershire.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large sweet onions, roughly chopped
1/2 cup tamarind paste
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
2 jalapenos, seeds removed and minced
1/4 cup chopped canned anchovies
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 whole cloves
2 tablespoons freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup molasses
3 cups white vinegar
1 cup dark beer
1/2 cup orange juice
2 cups water
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1 lime, thinly sliced
Using a couple recipes that I found on line, and what ever ingredients that I had on hand, I tried to make a small batch of w. sauce. Observation one: tasting the tamarind pulp, I was surprised at how similar the unadulterated flavor was to w. sauce. I knew tamarind was in it, but I realize now how dominant a flavor it is.
One I got the basic sauce bubbling away, I was a bit disappointed in the flavor. I ended up chucking in way more tamarind, clove, ginger, anchovy, molasses, and salt to get anything resembling w. sauce. Observation two: everything I read states that w. sauce is a FERMENTED sauce and not a single recipe I read called for anything other than a simple sauce that is boiled and reduced. I’m looking for serious umami, which might not be obtainable at home with out fermentation. Some time later, I might try experimenting with asian fish sauce which is fermented anchovies already to go in liquid form.
Lime was stated as being a typical flavoring of w. sauce but it added a bitter bite that luckily eventually cooked out.
Not being entirely thrilled with the result (and not really having an immediate use for it) I decided to see how far I could take the sauce. I strained out the solids (onion, garlic, ginger) and reduced the w. sauce until it was tar-like and had enough body so that it wouldn’t run. I smeared the w. tar on a silpat sheet and put it in the oven on warm (150*). I ran the oven for an hour or so then, a couple hours later, and one more in the morning. By this afternoon it had dried to the point where it was very brittle and easily crumbled and pulverized in a mortar.
Dried w. on silpat straight from the oven:
The end result wasn’t half bad and actually might have some potential when incorporated into a dry rub. I figure it might take some experimenting, but I might reduce the starting recipe to only those ingredients which aren’t already available as a powder (tamarind, anchovy, vinegar, etc.) and omitting things that are (clove, ginger, onion, sugar, salt etc.) so that they can be added in after drying. There was a slight burnt taste that I hope was a result of the large quantity of molasses that I had in the mix, because I figure this could easily be omitted and added in later as brown sugar. Also I was wondering what would happen if I tossed a bottle of prepared w. sauce into the mix to see if it helped the final flavor, I imagine it would be far too salty to use straight but might do ok if it just a fraction of the mix.
End product:
If any of you have tried to store w. powder, you’re well aware of how quickly it turns into a brick. This homemade powder starts out as a brick. I put the broken up sheet of dried w. in a jar to see how it stores. Observation 3: I’m thinking this might be interesting consequence of making it myself, because it might not change state during storage and I can break off and pulverize only what I need.
Conclusion: making w. sauce might be a bit trickier than I originally anticipated but making w. powder might be easier than I thought.
Here’s the recipe that I loosely based my first attempt on. I made ¼ batch but had to omit the jalapenos, corn syrup, and lemon. It yielded 50g of dried Worcestershire.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large sweet onions, roughly chopped
1/2 cup tamarind paste
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
2 jalapenos, seeds removed and minced
1/4 cup chopped canned anchovies
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 whole cloves
2 tablespoons freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup molasses
3 cups white vinegar
1 cup dark beer
1/2 cup orange juice
2 cups water
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1 lime, thinly sliced