Editing Worcestershire sauce (section)

==History==

Fish-based fermented sauces, such as [[garum]], date back to antiquity. In the seventeenth century, English recipes for sauces (typically to put ''on'' fish) already combined anchovies with other ingredients.<ref name="monitor">{{cite book |last1=H |first1=W |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ivlmAAAAcAAJ&dq=fish%20sauce%20anchovies&pg=PA101|title=The Young Cook's Monitor: Or, Directions for Cookery and Distilling|publisher=William Downing |year=1683  }}</ref>

The [[Lea & Perrins]] brand was commercialised in 1837 and was the first sauce to bear the Worcestershire name.<ref name="Heinz_Acq" /><ref name="Epicurious" /> The origin of the Lea & Perrins recipe is unclear. The packaging originally stated that the sauce came "from the recipe of a nobleman in the county". The company has also claimed that "[[Marcus Sandys, 3rd Baron Sandys|Lord Sandys]], ex-Governor of [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]]" encountered it while in India with the [[East India Company]] in the 1830s, and commissioned the local [[pharmacists]] (the partnership of John Wheeley Lea and William Perrins of 63 Broad Street, Worcester) to recreate it.<ref name="Epicurious" /> However, neither Marcus Lord Sandys nor any Baron Sandys was ever a Governor of Bengal, nor had they ever visited India as far as available records indicate.<ref name="LiveHistory">{{Cite web|language=en|url=https://www.livehistoryindia.com/story/living-culture/worcestershire-a-sauce-from-india|title=Worcestershire A Sauce from India?|last=Pezarkar|first=Leora|website=Live History India|date=12 June 2017|access-date=23 January 2022|archive-date=23 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123110656/https://www.livehistoryindia.com/story/living-culture/worcestershire-a-sauce-from-india|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to company lore, when the recipe was first mixed, the resulting product was so strong that it was considered inedible and the barrel was abandoned in the basement. Looking to make space in the storage area some 18 months later, the chemists decided to try it and discovered that the long-fermented sauce had mellowed and become palatable. In 1838, the first bottles of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce were released to the general public.<ref name="soyinfocenter.com">{{cite book |last1=Shurtleff |first1=William |url=http://www.soyinfocenter.com/pdf/152/Worc.pdf |title=History of Worcestershire Sauce (1837–2012) |last2=Aoyagi |first2=Akiko |publisher=Soyinfo Center |year=2012 |isbn=9781928914433 |access-date=21 May 2018 |archive-date=16 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180516182913/http://www.soyinfocenter.com/pdf/152/Worc.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="brian">Keogh, Brian (1997) ''The Secret Sauce: a History of Lea & Perrins'' {{ISBN|978-0-9532169-1-8}}</ref>