The Lea and Perrins factory in Worcester,
England.
They've been making Worcestershire sauce here
since 1897, when their first shop became too
small to meet demand.
The staple ingredients of the iconic sauce
are garlic, onions, anchovies and tamarind
paste.
Worcester sauce was invented in 1835 when
a posh army officer went to Bengal to help
run the British Empire.
He fell in love, not with a woman, but with
a fish sauce.
He comes back and asks two local chemists,
John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins
to try and recreate it.
What they came up with tasted revolting.
At least it did until it sat fermenting for
a couple of years in a cellar.
In the Worcester factory today, that magic
works exactly the same way.
It may sound revolting, but fish, spice and
veg maturing in vinegar forms a delicious
sauce.
Though pickling raw ingredients kicks up a
seriously strong smell.
First, 130 barrels of Spanish anchovies are
matured for up to three years.
Fresh fish goes bad very quickly, so the layers
of anchovies are cured with salt.
The salt sucks the water from the fish.
The unwanted bacteria can't survive in these
conditions so the fish is preserved.
But, that doesn't quite mask the stench.
You tend to get used to the smells, but every
now and then, don't matter how long you've
been here, you still get the effects.
In the next room, whole onions and garlic
bulbs are maturing in malt vinegar.
The acidity of the vinegar inhibits the growth
of bacteria and softens the texture of the
onions, allowing them to imbibe more flavor.
Chris Benion, is one of Lea and Perrins experts.
There'll be 100 kilos of onions or garlic
fed through the hopper, and then we add 100
liters of malt vinegar as well.
That's an eye watering amount of vinegar soaked
onions, 1500 barrels to be precise.
They're left to mature in a volt under the
factory for a year.
The trick, is knowing when they're mature
enough.
Chris has the Midas touch, squeezing the onions
to check when they're pickled perfectly to
flavor the final sauce.
When the sauce was first sold commercially,
small batches were made by hand.
Things have moved on a bit since then.
These blending tanks each hold up to 30,000
liters.
They work just like your kitchen mixer, only
6,000 times bigger.
They mix the aged onions and garlic with even
more malt vinegar and spirit vinegar.
Then add tamarind paste all the way from India.
Made from the sticky fruit of the tamarind
tree, it's what gives the sauce its tangy
kick.
Next, the anchovies.
Preserved in salt for 3 years, followed by
more salt, sugar, and molasses.
Worcestershire sauce includes a secret blend
of spices.
The exact recipe is now kept under lock and
key.
Bill Wood, is 1 of only 6 people allowed to
have the secret blend.
To perfect its flavor, the mix now spends
several months in a series of maturation tanks.
In 1839, a New York businessman brought the
first bottles of Worcestershire sauce to the
United States and people could not get enough
of it, and that's still true today.
The United States consumes more Worcestershire
sauce than every other country combined.
The bottling line can fill 450,000 bottles
every day.
Whether it's the 150 ml, 290 ml, or 568 ml
bottle, it must be filled to the right level.
So the nozzle has a sensor which prevents
overfilling, a bit like the pump that fills
your car with petrol.
A second machine closes each bottle with a
flip top cap.
Then a third, slaps on the iconic orange label.
Finally, the bottles are shrink wrapped ready
to be shipped 130 countries around the world.
They produce 26 million bottles a year here,
and 27 million more bottles a year at their
factory in New Jersey just for the US.
