Skip to main content
Sauce

Imitation Worcestershire Sauce

A sauce made from molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, onions, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Imitation Worcestershire Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, onions, cayenne pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and mace in a pot.

  2. Simmer until the onions are thoroughly cooked.

  3. Strain the mixture and bottle it for use.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark color, rich body, and deep sweetness to the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and caramel notes that balance the sharp vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the sauce its tang.
Onions
Break down during simmering to add savory body and a mellow background flavor.
Cayenne pepper
Adds a lingering background heat.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma that rounds out the spice blend.

The step that matters

Simmer until the onions are thoroughly cooked. Onions that are only partly cooked keep sharp, raw flavors and a coarse texture. Thorough simmering softens them and lets their sugars and flavors blend into the sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, vinegar, pepper, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, vinegar, pepper, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Wine Sauce (for stewed fruit)Wine Sauce (for stewed fruit)186 recipesCaper SauceCaper Sauce180 recipesBrown SauceBrown Sauce141 recipesDutch SauceDutch Sauce74 recipes