Brown sauce

This article is about the common British and Irish condiment. For the meat stock based sauce, see Brown sauce (meat stock based). For other uses, see Brown sauce (disambiguation).

Brown sauce is a traditional condiment served with food in the United Kingdom and Ireland, normally dark brown in colour. The best known brown sauce is HP Sauce, a spicy and tangy variety. Brown sauce is traditionally eaten with meals and dishes such as full breakfasts, bacon sandwiches, chips, and baked beans.

The ingredients include a varying combination of tomatoes, molasses, dates, apples, tamarind, spices, vinegar, and sometimes raisins or anchovies. The taste is either tart or sweet with a peppery taste similar to that of Worcestershire sauce. It is similar to brown sauce marketed as steak sauce in the United States.

A combination of spirit vinegar (or water) and brown sauce, known simply as "sauce" or "chippy sauce", is popular on fish and chips throughout Scotland and other parts of the UK. The sauce itself is reported to have been popularised beginning in Edinburgh.

A recipe for "sauce for steaks," composed of ale, wine, ketchup, pepper, and butter, appeared in an 1862 cookbook published in London.

Common brands

• HP Sauce
• Heinz Ideal Sauce
• Branston brown sauce (formerly Crosse & Blackwell)
• Wilkin & Sons
• Daddies brown sauce
• Hammonds of Yorkshire Chop Brown Sauce
• OK Sauce
• Powell's Lucknow Sauce
• Chef brown sauce (popular in Ireland)
• YR sauce (popular in Ireland)
• Crucials

HP Sauce is the most popular brown sauce in the UK, accounting for around 75% of value sales in the UK. In some regions of the UK, Daddies is also a very popular sauce, especially in the Midlands and West Country.

Chef Brown Sauce and YR Sauce are popular brown sauce brands in Ireland. While 'YR' stands for 'Yorkshire Relish', the sauce has been produced in Ireland since 1933 and is currently manufactured in Co Donegal, by Robert Roberts.

Most supermarket chains in the UK and Ireland also stock their own brand of brown sauce. As with other condiments like ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard, brown sauce is widely available in catering sachets and dispenser bottles in restaurants.

See also

• Burger sauce
• Henderson's Relish