British brown sauce as sold in bottles is basically a tomato ketchup base which includes malt or spirit vinegar of-course to which are added the key spices Tamarind (the major ingredient of Worcester Sauce) and All Spice. To this are usually added fruits such as apple and raisins. Individual manufacturers might add other spices to give their own individual taste - just as we might add lemon juice or Tabasco Sauce to spice something up. The sauce does not contain any meat.
Brown Sauce is usually consumed with Full English breakfast like bacon, sandwiches, chips, and baked beans. It is also simply known as sauce or chippie sauce and is most commonly also used on fish and chips.
It is generally used in the French cuisine where it is referred to as a sauce with a meat stock bottom, thickened by reduction. Some of the famous ones are espagnole sauce and demi-glace.
On the other hand in the British and Irish Cuisine it is referred to as vinegar or a fruit and spice based condiment. It is very popular in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Some of the most famous brown sauce brands are Branston Brown Sauce, Chef Brown Sauce, Daddies, Hammonds Chop Sauce and HP Sauce.
The famous HP brand brown sauce is not the sauce it used to be as its ingredients have been changed twice in the past twenty years " THE DREADED NEW IMPROVED VERSION " i.e cheaper! Leading to a much thinner,sweeter and less spicy offering than in the past. The original version was very dark almost black like balsamic! The best Brown sauce on the market today is YR "Yorkshire Relish" brown sauce, recipe unchanged since before the first war.
Based on different cuisine types, brown sauce can be characterized in different fashions:-
1. French Cuisine: In French cuisine, the brown sauce comes in meat stock-based gravy form. 2. British Cuisine: In British cuisine, the brown sauce comes in as a mixture based on vinegar, fruit and spice. It is primarily used with bacon. 3. USA Cuisine: In USA cuisine, it comes with same ingredients like British cuisine, but it is usually preferred to have with steak instead of bacon. It comes under the brand name A1 Steak Sauce 4. Danish Cuisine: In Danish cuisine, it refers to a sauce prepared with a meat stock base or broth made from bouillon cubes, and condensed by flour or cornstarch, and tinted with a deep brown food colour such as brun kulør or mad kulør.
Brown sauce is available under variety of brand names like HP Sauce, Branston Brown Sauce, Daddies and Hammonds Chop Sauce. Also most of the UK supermarkets it is available in own-label brands.
