How to Make Worcestershire Sauce
Oct 11, 2017, Updated Jul 27, 2022
Appearing in everything from Deviled Eggs to Olive Tapenade and my favorite Homemade Caesar Salad dressing, Worcestershire Sauce adds rich, meaty flavors to everything it touches. Unfortunately, the store-bought variety often includes sugar or, even worse, high fructose corn syrup.
Luckily, you can make it at home in minutes with pantry staples and a few Asian ingredients (all easy to find).
I started by toasting a variety of warm, fragrant spices in a dry skillet for a couple of minutes. While those cool, make a simple vinegar mixture with molasses, water, and fish sauce.
Blackstrap molasses has a strong flavor, but it works in this sauce. However, feel free to substitute regular molasses if that’s what you have.
Also, if you prefer to work with actual anchovy filets instead of the paste, 5 anchovy filets, rinsed and minced may be substituted for the paste.
I included both fish sauce and anchovy paste for the best, most complex savory flavor. (Be sure to use a fish sauce without sugar such as Red Boat brand.) Many recipes also include tamarind paste, but I had trouble tracking this down and thought the sauce tasted great without it. Still, if you have it in your pantry, feel free to include it in the vinegar mixture in Step 2.
Sauté some shallots in olive oil until softened, then stir in the toasted spices, anchovy paste, and garlic. Whisk in the vinegar mixture, bring everything to a boil, and cool. Finally, finish the sauce by straining out all of the solids.
This delicious, flavorful Worcestershire Sauce tastes even better than the national brands you can find at your local grocery store. And you made it yourself, and that’s always the best way!
Homemade Worcestershire Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon tamarind paste, optional
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 shallots, minced
- 2 teaspoons anchovy paste
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
Instructions
- In a small dry skillet over medium heat, toast pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, onion powder, and cayenne pepper until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to small bowl.
- Meanwhile, in a medium bowl whisk vinegar, molasses, water, fish sauce and tamarind paste (if using) together.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat oil until shimmering. Add shallots and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in spices, anchovy paste, and garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Whisk in vinegar mixture, scraping up any fond on the bottom of the pan. Bring to boil, remove from heat, and cool 1 hour.
- Strain through fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth into medium bowl, pressing down on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids.
- Transfer to jar with tight-fitting lid. Enjoy immediately or refrigerate for up to 6 months.
Nutrition
Born and Raised in Wisconsin, Meggan Hill brings her Midwestern food memories to her delicious take on modern family fare. There is nothing she loves more than cooking for her family, cooking for friends, cooking for every occasion! Food is love where she is from, and she is spreading the love every day on Culinary Hill. You can find Meggan on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
can use this for bbq recipe?
This isn’t really a BBQ sauce, but a small amount could be good. You might also want to check out this Homemade BBQ Sauce without Ketchup!
Two things here. You forgot the raisin’s and you have to let it ferment. Put in fridge for two weeks I believe it is. Maybe more.
Is your recipe very salty? Anchovies are very salty. I order my Tamarind paste online. BTW. I forgot the amount of raisins used.
I would like to know if I could can this and would it be pressure canned or water bath.
I’ve been making Homemade Worcestershire by the gallons for over a decade with a similar recipe. The only flavor profile that can be difficult to reproduce at home is that commercial Worcestershire is aged for a decade in oak barrels. Since I started a decade ago and I have canned mine in 1/2 gallon mason jars, and am in that decade rotation with mine, I find that aging does make a huge difference but the lack of oak barrels doesn’t seem enough for me to get some :). I have also found that Tamarind paste can be made, if one can not find it in stores. It was easy enough, but time consuming. Buy the tamarind fruit pods, remove the outer shell, with a small amount of water and inner part of the tamarind, let simmer until the fruit starts to come away from the seed and get pulpy. While… Read more »
How do you can it? Water bath or pressure and how long?
Why no raisins?