Dear Listers, Worcestershire sauce apparently is a gift of the Raj and India to the world! I accidentally came across this and toss it to the List in case someone knows more about this piece of useless knowledge. A widely reported legend has it that "Lord Marcus Sandys, ex-Governor of Bengal" encountered this sauce while in India in the 1830s, missed it on his return, and commissioned the local apothecaries Lee and Perrin to recreate it. The Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcestershire_sauce has the following: <We quote the following history of the well-known Worcester Sauce, as given in the World. The label shows it is prepared "from the recipe of a nobleman in the county." The nobleman is Lord Sandys. Many years ago, Mrs. Grey, author of The Gambler's Wife and other novels, was on a visit at Ombersley Court, when Lady Sandys chanced to remark that she wished she could get some very good curry powder, which elicited from Mrs. Grey that she had in her desk an excellent recipe, which her uncle, Sir Charles, Chief Justice of India, had brought thence, and given her. Lady Sandys said that there were some clever chemists in Worcester, who perhaps might be able to make up the powder. Messrs. Lea and Perrins looked at the recipe, doubted if they could procure all the ingredients, but said they would do their best, and in due time forwarded a packet of the powder. Subsequently the happy thought struck someone in the business that the powder might, in solution, make a good sauce. The profits now amount to thousands of pounds a year.> There seems to be a lot of confusion about the names. There never was any 'Lord Marcus Sandys, Governor of Bengal', though several other sites credit him with bringing the recipe from India. I think Sir Charles, Chief Justice of India and uncle of Mrs. Grey mentioned above would be the same as the one mentioned in the following quote, taken from p. 297 of the 'Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, January-April 1832. If this is so, it was his recipe, passed on to his niece Mrs. Grey, came in the possession of Lady Sandys and from her went to the chemist firm Lee and Perrins of Worcester, who eventually made huge profits from it. Lee and Perrins is now a part of the Heinz empire and the sauce continues to bring in a steady flow of profit to Heinz. If this is so, we now know to whom thanks are due for the Worcestershire sauce! <HINDU LAW OF INHERITANCE. THE power of Hindus over property acquired by their ancestors has lately been a subject of discussion in the Supreme Court at Calcutta, where the view reported to have been taken of the question has created considerable anxiety amongst the holders of alienated ancestral property. Sir Charles Grey, the chief justice, it is stated, delivered an opinion, in 1830, that, by the Hindu law, every disposition by a father of his ancestral real property, without the sanction of his sons and grandsons, is null and void. This dictum induced Rajah Rammohun Roy to draw up an essay on the Right of Hindus over Ancestral Property, showing not only that the view taken by the chief justice is contrary to the practice of half a century, but that it is at variance with the law of Bengal. > Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, January 22, 2008.

One cannot mention Worcestershire sauce without remembering this immortal tribute : ** Worcester sauce he is a gondiment and not a fluid ** [Muller, the gigantic German, reminding his cook in Rudyard Kipling's ''In the Rukh'' from ''Many Inventions''.] ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India ----- Original Message ----- From: "Arvind Kolhatkar" Worcestershire sauce apparently is a gift of the Raj and India to the world! I accidentally came across this and toss it to the List in case someone knows more about this piece of useless knowledge.