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Saturday, October 2, 2010

homemade worcestershire sauce


it takes a lot of ingredients to make worcestershire sauce. a lot. and this particular sauce takes time-- 3 weeks, to be exact. but it is so.worth.it. the sauce is dark, thick, and incredibly rich. it's not a high yield recipe, but the flavor is so concentrated that the 2 cups it makes should theoretically last a while. that said, it's so good that i want to put it on everything, not just the bloody marys i originally made it for, so it's probably time to start on the next batch! 

homemade worcestershire sauce
adapted from saveur.com

2 cups white distilled vinegar
1/2 cup molasses (i used unsulphered blackstrap)
1/2 cup soy sauce (i used low-sodium tamari)
1/4 cup tamarind concentrate (i used tamarind pods, scraping out the gooey pulp. worked fine, but i'll use the concentrate next time.)
3 Tbsp yellow mustard seeds
3 Tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 tsp whole cloves
1/2 tsp curry powder
5 cardamom pods, smashed
4 chili de arbol, chopped (i used dried)
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 1" stick cinnamon'
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 1/2" piece ginger, peeled and crushed
1/2 cup sugar
(recipe also calls for 1 chopped anchovy, but i left it out.)



combine all ingredients except sugar in a saucepan. bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.

meanwhile, cook sugar in a skillet over medium heat until it breaks down and begins to caramelize, turning dark and syrupy, about 5 minutes. add sugar to other mixture and combine well. simmer another 5 minutes. transfer to jar with tight fitting lid.


refrigerate for 3 weeks. 


strain solids. 



sauce will keep, refrigerated, up to 8 months, but i doubt you'll have it around that long!

5 comments:

  1. awesome! what do you think about using honey instead of sugar?

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  2. i wonder! i'm sure it would be great, just a bit different since honey is such a strong flavor. might be fun to experiment with different honeys to see how the character changes. let me know if you try it!

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  3. This is way cool. Why did you leave out the anchovy -- didn't have it on hand? What if I used Granny's molasses instead of unsulphured blackstrap -- would it make it too sweet? This is right up my alley. Thanks!

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  4. hey donna, i thought this was your cup of tea! i left out the anchovy because it was just one and yeah, i didn't have any on hand. i think it would bring a little more savory dimension to the sauce, though. as for molasses variety, i just used what i had. there's so much going on in this sauce that i bet variations and substitutions in ingredients will still be wonderful, just each batch will be slightly different from the rest, which can be totally fun! (reminds me-- i should get your ketchup recipe, now that tomatoes are finally coming in!)

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