Worcestershire Sauce
Food · Pantry & Condiment · Food, Typed Supps
Contains anchovies, which surprises a great many vegetarians.
Stage by stage
- Fermented depth (Taste): Tamarind, vinegar and anchovy fermented together give the sourness and the savoury note.
- Tiny serve (Stomach): A teaspoon or less, which makes every concentration figure here nearly irrelevant.
- Sodium (Circulation): 1,060 mg per 100 g — around 50 mg in a teaspoon, modest for this shelf.
- Anchovy (Gut): A real animal product, and one of the most commonly missed in vegetarian diets.
Timing
Nothing to time. The quantities involved are too small for any of the composition figures to matter.
Time to effect
- —: Nothing accumulates at teaspoon serves.
- Immediate: The only thing that matters is whether the anchovy is acceptable to you.
Allergens
Contains: Gluten, Fish, Sulphites. May contain: Celery, Soya. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Pescatarian, Kosher. Depends on the product: Halal, Low-FODMAP.
Satiety
Not scored: the satiety index is measured on 240 kcal servings, and nobody eats a 240 kcal serving of this. The question does not apply rather than the answer being unknown.
Cost band
Mid — roughly £5 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 74
- Protein: 1.3g
- Carbohydrate: 17.6g
- of which sugars: 16.9g
- Fat: 0.2g
- Sodium: 1060mg
Food vs. supplement
This is the entry where the nutrition panel is beside the point. What matters about Worcestershire sauce is what is in it, not how much of each thing — and the answer is anchovies, which the bottle does not advertise.
Kitchen tip
If you have gone vegetarian recently, this is one of the three things most likely to still be in the fridge — with fish sauce and some kimchi.
Common myth
“It’s a sauce made from vinegar and spices, so it’s vegetarian.” In reality: Fermented anchovy is a defining ingredient of the traditional recipe and is in most brands on the shelf. It is declared in the ingredient list, never on the front of the bottle, which is why it survives in a lot of newly vegetarian kitchens. Labelled vegetarian versions replace it with tamarind and soy and are easy to find once you know to look.
Recipes that use it
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