Worcestershire sauce The US version is packaged differently from the British version, coming in a dark bottle with a beige label and wrapped in paper. Lea & Perrins USA claims this practice is a vestige of shipping practices from the 19th century, when the product was imported from England, as a measure of protection for the bottles. The producer also claims that its Worcestershire sauce is the oldest commercially bottled condiment in the US. The original ingredients of bottle of Worcestershire sauce sold were: The "spice" and "flavourings" are believed to include cloves, soy sauce, lemons, pickles and peppers. Notes from the
Soy sauce books: "Shanjia Qinggong" (山家清供) and "Pujiang Wushi Zhongkuilu" (浦江吳氏中饋錄) during the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD). Like many salty condiments, soy sauce was originally a way to stretch salt, historically an expensive commodity. During the Zhou dynasty of ancient China, fermented fish with salt was used as a condiment in which soybeans were included during the fermentation process. By the time of the Han dynasty, this had been replaced with the recipe for soy paste and its by-product soy sauce, by using soybeans as the principal ingredient, with fermented fish-based sauces developing separately into fish sauce. The 19th century Sinologist Samuel