What’s shakin, cocktail fans?
Welcome to Episode 169 of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast! I’m your host, Modern Bar Cart CEO, Eric Kozlik.
Thanks for joining me for another installment of our Breaking Bloody series, where we’ve been carefully disassembling the Bloody Mary cocktail and examining each component in detail to see how precisely it works. In the past two installments, we spoke with Tomato expert Craig LeHoulier (Episode 155) about varieties of tomato experience, and we hit up bartender and cocktail author Brian Bartles (Episode 165) to break down the history and competing origins stories of this ubiquitous brunchtime sipper.
This time around, we’re getting funky, savory and a little bit fermented with the condiment that nobody can seem to pronounce: Worcestershire sauce.
Let’s meet the voices you’ll be hearing this episode.
Brinda Ayer – The editorial lead at Food52, which is a digital publication and community platform designed to bring cooks together from all over to exchange recipes and to support each other in the kitchen. Brinda published an exceptional article on Worcestershire sauce substitutes, which we discuss in this episode. You can get in touch with her on Twitter @brindayesterday.
Kate Quartaro – She’s the founder of Colonel Pabst Worcestershire Sauce, which is a Wisconsin-based company that uses a formula designed by Kate’s great grandfather, Gustave Pabst, the son of Pabst brewery founder Frederick Pabst.
Katie Parla is a cookbook author, food podcaster, and Italofile. She’s here for her expertise in the umami-laden realm of anchovies and fermented fish sauces. Check out her cookbook, Food of the Italian South, listen to her on the Gola Podcast, and get in touch on Facebook and Instagram.
And finally, I’m joined for this episode by my Breaking Bloody producer, Cera Baker. She’s here to taste through a number of different sauces on air and help me untangle the somewhat mysterious origins of Worcestershire sauce.
Just because Lea & Perrins is the ubiquitous condiment that you’ll find in every major grocery store doesn’t mean it’s the only game in town when it comes to umami sauces. I jumped on a call with Kate Quartaro about the story and ingredients behind her Col. Pabst Worcestershire Sauce, which also has some really cool ties to American drinking culture.
According to Kate, her mother sourced the recipe for Colonel Pabst Worcestershire Sauce from the kitchen of her grandfather, Gustave Pabst. It was only made occasionally, since it was a complex recipe, but it demonstrates a family tradition of cooking with beer. Gustave’s father (Captain Frederick Pabst) was the founder of the Pabst brewery, which explains the family’s connection to fermented malt products.
As the oldest son, Gustave became president of Pabst Brewing Co. in Milwaukee upon the death of his father and maintained that position until Prohibition. He married into another brewing family from St. Louis, and the couple subsequently spent time in England, where it is assumed that they derived their recipe for Worcestershire sauce.
Worcestershire sauce was originally made with malt vinegar (as opposed to the current recipe ingredient, distilled white vinegar), and the Pabst family decided to substitute some of that malt vinegar for the pre-vinegar ferment: beer. According to Kate, this produces a fuller-bodied, richer flavor experience when compared to Worcestershire sauces that only contain malt vinegar. (And to be clear, during the manufacturing process, the alcohol in the beer is boiled out.)
Many people assume that, due to its connection to the Pabst brewing family, Colonel Pabst Worcestershire Sauce is made with PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) beer. That is actually not the case. It’s made with Lakefront Brewery’s Lager, which produces a beef-driven umami flavor when fermented with the other ingredients in the sauce. Some other ingredients in the mix include sustainable anchovies, crushed cinnamon sticks, whole peppercorns, mustard seed, and curry. This produces a rich sauce that is thicker thank most other Worcestershire sauces on the market.
After hearing about the special malt- and spice-driven flavor profile of Col. Pabst Worcestershire sauce, you KNOW that Cera and I were ready to put it to the test. Here’s how it went.
Colonel Pabst Worcestershire Sauce – On the nose, it’s very different than Lea & Perrins. The complexity seems “baked in,” whereas the complexity in L&P seems “engineered.” It’s sweeter, darker, and more welcoming, with roasty flavors and welcoming vinegar encouraging a taste. On the palate, it is both meatier and milder than L&P. The mouthfeel is remarkable and buttery, making a point about texture without saying a word. Molasses, curry, and mustard notes back the texture and advance the conversation taking place on the palate. This is not a sauce that requires a palate cleanse, even with a straight tasting.
So, now that we’ve tasted through three different umami sauces, I wanted to return to what is probably the most interesting, misunderstood, and contentious ingredient in Worcestershire sauces around the world: anchovies. And not just any anchovies – the fermented kind.
Now, fermented fish sauces are part of many cultures around the world, but for some reason they’re not really well liked or well understood by the American palate. I mean, if Lea & Perrins were to market Worcestershire AS a fish sauce, I don’t think you’d see nearly as many people eager to snatch it off the shelves and add it to their next burger mix or sautee.
Of course, there are a number of reasons why you might not want stinky, fermented fish in your next meal or Bloody Mary, which is exactly why I found recipe developer and food expert Brinda Ayer’s article on Worcestershire sauce substitutes so fascinating. If you want to check that out (and you should), we’ll have a link to it right on the show notes page. But for now, here’s Brinda’s take on fish sauce, fish sauce alternatives, and why fermentation is an important process when it comes to establishing maximum flavor.
This whole segment of the podcast is derived from Brinda Ayer’s article on Worcestershire sauce substitutes on Food52. One of the remarkable aspects of this article is that approaches Worcestershire sauce substitutes from so many angles. She comes at it from an ingredient perspective (soy-based, fish-based, vinegar-based, wine-based, and wildcard), and each category of substitutes contains multiple levels of complexity to account for what different home chefs may have in their pantries. There are certain webpages on the internet that are definitive, and this is one of them.
According to Brinda, soy (and other vegetable ferments) are incredibly low-touch and high-impact. Fermentation adds layers of flavor to a dish, and omitting a fermented ingredient can leave you with a flat flavor profile. And what’s more, some of the ingredients she champions go through multiple fermentations (e.g. sherry vinegar), rendering layers within layers of flavor. Subtlety? Nuance? This is where it’s found.
So, let’s just say you’re the kind of person who’s cool with fermentation, and let’s say you’re also the kind of person who’s cool with little fishies donating their delicious flavors and aromas to your Bloody Mary. Here’s Katie Parla, host of the Gola Podcast, to teach us about the ins and outs of anchovies in general, and also the legendary sauces and condiments that are derived from them.
According to Katie, an anchovy is a little oily fish in a category of species that are all or mostly related and that have similar morphological and flavor characteristics. There are, however, small differences that may influence their size and/or color.
There are a number of different types of anchovies, including the European Anchovy (harvested from the Tyrrhenian Sea) and the Cantabrian Anchovy (more high-end and harvested from the Iberian Peninsula). The latter tend to be served on toast with butter to accentuate their delicate flavor.
What I was really interested to speak with Katie about is her knowledge of Italian fish sauces, which have a longstanding historical tradition, dating back at least as far as the Phoenicians.
Garum is a liquid obtained by fermenting the viscera, blood, and organs of anchovies. It would have been kept in sealed containers subjected to heat (and often sunlight). It would have been incredibly concentrated in flavor and used to accentuate the flavors of some foods or to impart greater flavor to other (read: blander) foods. As the Roman empire declined, so did garum, reducing it from an international commodity to a local product until even local production petered out during the late Roman period. Then, there was a centuries-long gap in large-scale fish sauce production until more modern variants arrived on the scene.
Colatura di Alici is in the same “universe” as garum, but it is made by layering evicerated anchovies (rather than using the offal) in a container with salt, such that the liquid fallout (a mixture of protein, fat, water, and other compounds) fall through the layers and collects at the bottom of the vessel. A hole is drilled in the bottom of the vessel to collect the liquid. This is the “modern day” version of garum because it is fish-based but does not contain the nastier bits of the fish.
I was researching the origins story of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce that I read at the beginning of this episode, and I happened to find myself on the website of a little-known historical society in the UK called The Badsey Society.
On this site was a biography of Marcus Hill, the 3rd Baron Sandys, who is credited with bringing the recipe for the sauce to Lea & Perrin for manufacturing after having traveled to Bengal (which is the British colonial region that encompassed portions of modern day India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar). And it was on this website that I ran into a puzzling fact. According to the historical society,
In the Sandys’ family considerable archives there is no correspondence or evidence to prove that Marcus ever travelled to Bengal…
According to the archives, he served in a diplomatic capacity in many European cities, including Madrid, Paris, Venice, Florence, and Lisbon. But there’s just no evidence that he set foot in Bengal, and that seems to me to be the linchpin of Lea & Perrins’ entire origin story.
So I reached out to the Badsey Society, who connected me with Martin Davis, the keeper of the Sandys family archives. He declined to record with me on the podcast but was kind enough to confirm that Marcus Sandys was indeed the gourmet of the family and that he left behind a recipe book upon his death.
But still, no evidence of Marcus Hill, the 3rd Lord Sandys traveling to Bengal, which means that he wouldn’t have likely sampled in person the fish sauces prevalent in Asia at the time. This begs the question: could there be another explanation for the anchovies that do most of the umami heavy lifting in Worcestershire Sauce?
According to Katie:
This is not a scientific assessment, but, when in doubt, it’s probably part of an Imperialist impulse to coopt and adapt South Asian cuisine. However, you also have to think about how the salt content of these products made them less perishable than a fresh version, so maybe his Lord Sandy’s buddy went traveling and brought back some cool samples of sauces for him to try.
Also according to Katie, there are a number of Italian sauces or dips that existed during the 1800s that could play a part in the origins of Worcestershire sauce (in that they share multiple ingredients and use cases in common), but as far as I’m concerned, none of them bear enough striking similarity to the Lea & Perrins product to warrant further cross-cultural investigation.
So, not the vindication I wanted. I was really hoping I could lob a conspiracy theory out there and have a food expert be like, YUP! HE TOTALLY GOT THAT IDEA IN ITALY! And then I could go to the press and have my revenge of Lea & Perrins and the Kraft Heinz corporation for snubbing the interview, but alas…the best I can do is to say that there’s something fishy about the origins story Lea & Perrins, and it ain’t just the anchovies.
I’d like to wrap up this installment of Breaking Bloody by, of course, summing up what we’ve learned and returning to the Bloody Mary family of cocktails as perhaps THE most popular savory cocktail in the world.
I think it has managed to retain that title not because tomato juice is delicious – because, let’s face it, that’s not exactly a given. And not because most vodka is super special. Ask any bartender. And not only because it’s an excellent vessel for outlandish garnishes. But rather because it’s a cocktail that serves a very utilitarian purpose as a hangover cure, but also manages to be delicious in the process. Its function is needed, but its form is pleasing, which is not something that can be said for most medicines.
The glutamate molecule – the thing that signals the presence of umami – is incredibly important to how humans evolved and formed cultures. It is literally the flavor of roasted meat shared around a communal fire that throws light and shadows on the painted walls of a Neanderthal cave. It satisfies a need for us in a real way.
So if you’re trying to perfect your Bloody Mary game, here are a few takeaways I want you to leave this episode with:
Umami is best enjoyed with friends – and I don’t mean human friends. I mean flavor friends. The reason why Worcestershire sauce is so compelling and complex is because it utilizes acids (in the form of different vinegars), spices, salt, and textural elements to create a tapestry of flavor notes that delight the senses. So don’t just dump some MSG in your Bloody Mary and hope for the best. Carefully consider what you’d like your source of umami to be, and then execute. A little intention can go a long way.
Don’t assume that your vegan, vegetarian, or otherwise ethically concerned friends are going to appreciate fish in their Bloody Mary. Is this move popular the world over? Yes. Otherwise we wouldn’t have the Caesar cocktail, which is a Bloody Mary with the addition of clam juice. But it’s just not for everybody. That’s why we’ve linked to Brinda Ayer’s incredibly thorough article on Worcestershire sauce substitutes, many of which are vegan friendly. Think about mushrooms, think about soy. These things can check your umami box, but also make your friends feel warm and fuzzy that you took their dietary choices into consideration.
If you’re thinking about going minimal or eliminating Worcestershire sauce in your Bloody Mary, PLEASE make sure you add salt. This is an ingredient that helps to cure the fermented ingredients in most of these sauces, and so eliminating them from your Bloody Mary is going to mean it will taste under-salted. As a secret trick, a lot of bartenders keep a very simple saline solution on-hand to ramp up the flavor in their cocktails, and the Bloody Mary should be no different. If you wouldn’t under-salt your food, please don’t undersalt your brunchtime hangover cure.
And finally, embrace fermentation on all levels. If there’s one thing I need to think more about following this episode, it’s what precisely happens when the microorganisms in our environment are allowed to break down animal protein and vegetable staches and cellulose. Something magical is clearly happening at the chemical level, and our ancestors have found ways to harness it through millennia of trial and error experiments. We benefit from their informal research, but I think there’s an opportunity for all of us to try and understand this process more fully. There are differences between fermentation that creates alcohol and fermentation that creates vinegar. Different microorganisms and compounds are at play in both cases. If you want to know what I’ll be thinking about in the wake of this episode it is with these little things that munch on our food and drink before we do, so if you need me, that’s where I’ll be.
This episode was produced by Cera Baker, with original music by Patrick Kilgannon.
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