Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce stands head and shoulders above its competitors. Imitation products tend to be thin, overly sweet and without much of the characteristic Lea & Perrins spice or tangy character.

Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce recipe
The recipe for Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, to the best of my knowledge, is as follows:

1. Pickle 18kg of shallots, unpeeled heads of garlic and unpeeled red onions. Then add 11kg of salted Spanish anchovies. Allow the vegetables and anchovies to age for three years.

2. Take your vegetable and anchovy mixture and add:
* 2.3kg of fresh raw green peppers from Fujian in China
* 6.4kg of black tamarinds from Calcutta
* 1kg cloves
* 36 litres of soy sauce (Lea & Perrins have used hydrolysed vegetable protein since the Second World War, but originally used soy)
* ginger
* “various fruits” (understood to include 225ml of essence of lemon)

Blend together and allow to ferment for a minimum of six weeks.

3. Before bottling, add molasses (presumably for colour), 15kg of sugar, 4.5kg of salt and 82 litres of malt vinegar. Add water to get to the desired consistency.

4. Finally, filter and pasteurise the sauce.

Always use the finest ingredients you can find, and for best results, ferment in wooden barrels.

Mike Page, the Lea & Perrins technical manager, argues that the sauce will continue to age and improve in the bottle.