HP sauce
HP Sauce is a British seasoning sauce made from the pods of the tamarind tree . It was previously produced by HP Foods, a subsidiary of the Danone Group in Aston , Birmingham , England . In 2006 the HJ Heinz Company bought HP Food. The brown sauce has been produced in Elst in the Netherlands since March 2007 . With a market share of 71%, HP Sauce is the most famous brown sauce in the UK . It is preferably used with meat dishes or as an ingredient in soups or stews.
history
The original recipe was developed by Frederick Gibson Garton, a Nottingham grocer . He patented the recipe under the name HP Sauce in 1869. The reason for the name was the rumor that a restaurant in the Houses of Parliament started serving this sauce. For many years the labels bore the image of the Palace of Westminster . Garton eventually sold the recipe and the HP brand for £ 150 in 1903.
Another story says that the name HP Sauce came from the initials of "Harry Palmer". This was said to have sold the recipe under "Harry Palmer's Famous Epsom Sauce". Legend has it that the avid gambler had to sell the recipe for the brown sauce in order to repay his gambling debts. However, there is no evidence of the existence of a "Harry Palmer" in company history.
Wilson's Gravy
In the 1960s and 1970s, the HP sauce was also called Wilson's Gravy (English gravy = "sauce"). British Prime Minister Harold Wilson's wife , Mary, mentioned in an interview with the Sunday Times that her husband drowns everything he eats in HP sauce. At a 1975 banquet, Wilson admitted that he preferred Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce to HP Sauce.
composition
According to the manufacturer includes HP Sauce following ingredients: malt vinegar from barley , tomatoes , molasses , vinegar , glucose - fructose syrup, dates , sugar , salt , modified corn starch , rye flour , tamarind extract , spices and onion extract .
variants
In addition to The Original HP Sauce, there are other varieties such as HP Chilli, BBQ and Fruity.
The takeover by Heinz
In June 2005, the Heinz concern took over the company HP Foods from competitor Danone for 470 million pounds. 125 jobs were lost as a result of the takeover; the last bottle of HP sauce left the company on March 16, 2007 at 6:00 am GMT .
The products changed their appearance only slightly after Heinz took over the company; the brand name was also retained. In contrast to the old labels, the new bottles now also contain content information in German, French and Dutch in addition to the English one.
The factory halls in Aston were removed from July 2007 during a 16-week demolition phase. The factory tower had been a landmark along the Aston Expressway for many years .
