Worcestershire sauce was named for the town of Worcester, England, which is in the Shire (county) of Worcester. o_In 1835, when Lord Marcus Sandys, governor of Bengal, retired to Ombersley, England, he longed for his favorite Indian sauce. He took the recipe to a drugstore on Broad Street in nearby Worcester where he commissioned the shopkeepers, John Lea and William Perrins, to mix up a batch. Lea and Perrins made a large batch, hoping to sell the excess to other customers. The pungent fishy concoction wound up in the cellar where it sat undisturbed until Lea and Perrins rediscovered it two years later when house cleaning. Upon tasting the aged sauce, Lea and Perrin bottled Worcester sauce as a local dip.

When Lea and Perrins' salesmen convinced British passenger ships to put the sauce on their dining room tables, Worcestershire sauce became an established steak sauce across Europe and the United States.

To this day, the ingredients in Worcestershire sauce are stirred together and allowed to sit for two years before being bottled.

An advertisement in 1919 falsely claimed that Worcestershire sauce was "a wonderful liquid tonic that makes your hair grow beautiful."

In a famous photograph taken on September 30, 1938, of Neville Chamberlain having dinner with Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Edouard Daladier, a bottle of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sits on the table.

I hadn't gotten a chance to read this one and I was afraid you were going to advocate using it to polish your sink or clean your toilet!

I like that stuff but can't figure out why!

Try it on cheese on toast - mmmm, delicious.

Just don't try it if you're a vegetarian.

nenya, you didn't happen to see one lea and perrins worcester sauce advert did you..?

i use it with mince for chillis or bolognese or something

It's also good with poached eggs on toast

And who can forget it quintessential touch in a Bloody Mary/Caesar?!

It also makes baked beans more tasty. Americans always seem to have trouble with the name. It is pronounced Wuster-sheer (don't ask me why - it just is).

I love the stuff! I rub my roast beef with it before putting it in the oven (along with other secret ingredients). I can't drink tomato juice without adding a generous slosh. I love it on hamburgers.

I could not believe that one of the ingredients is anchovy paste, because I can't stand fish and I never detected that in all these years.

No matter what's in it, it is really good stuff!

Must say....a bottle lasts me a VERY long time!
Well, Worcestershire Sauce, anyway.

I'll put it on BBQ steak...and it is a secret ingredient in my world famous ****** salad dressing...

I like it, too!

I love Worcestershire sauce, but I agree with jub jub I can't imagine why, because I hate anchovies. My favorite use for it is on open faced cheese sandwiches cooked under a broiler. Nenya I'm not sure if that is the same as cheese toast, but it sure is good.