https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/history-of-worcestershire-sauce This sauce is 180 years old. It was introduced to the world by chemists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins in 1837. Due to successful marketing, it became extremely popular, and many imitations soon appeared. By the 1870s, the company began including the Lea and Perrins signature on the label, to distinguish it from competitors. Part of the marketing was a romantic origin story involving a nobleman who had asked the chemists to recreate a recipe from India. Worcestershire sauce appears in over 30,000 cookbook recipes, as catalogued by website Eat Your Books. The worldwide market for the suace is valued at $950 million in 2022. The original recipe includes molasses, onions, sugar, vinegar, garlic cloves, chili peppers, anchovies, tamarind, and salt. In Mexico, it is known as salsa inglesa. Salvadorans call it salsa Perrins. > Now owned by Kraft Heinz, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce still dominates American supermarket shelves—but just as in the mid-19th century, alternative versions proliferate. Annie’s and Whole Foods both offer fish-free versions, while [Hawkshead Relish Company](https://www.hawksheadrelish.com/shop/savoury-sauces/hawkshead-relish-worcester-sauce), based in the U.K., also makes a vegan, treacle-sweetened “Worcester Sauce.” Wisconsin’s [Col Pabst](https://colonelpabst.com/about/) makes a Worcestershire sauce with amber lager as its base, with 21 other ingredients that include Madras curry powder and Grenadian ginger. > > [Vinegar world darling Acid League](https://www.bonappetit.com/story/acid-league-vinegars), based in Ontario, offers [its own inventive take](https://www.acidleague.com/products/worcestershire-sauce?_pos=1&_sid=dd620bea7&_ss=r) on Worcestershire. The brand’s cofounder, Allan Mai, says that developing a unique take on the sauce was “a fun challenge,” especially considering that the original version contains “a billion ingredients.” Acid League’s version retains the malt vinegar and tamarind of Lea & Perrins’ recipe, but it adds complexly flavored ingredients including umeboshi, habanero, and blood orange. “It really was about ‘let's not miss anything about Worcestershire sauce structurally and what it does from a culinary perspective. We kind of deconstructed and then kind of reconstructed it,” Mai tells me.