George Leonard Herter owned a sporting goods store in Wauseka Minnessota for the better part of 7 decades. His catalog was quite good, offering sourdough pancake mix, specially shaped glasses for "ditch and whiskey", which 'ditch' was branch water, that is, water that drained off of a hickory tree and was collected for drinking with bourbon. Herter was a sportsman and loved to hunt and fish. He also loved food and produced a "cook book". I put the words cook book in quotations. If you read his work: Bull Cook & Authentic Historical Recipes you will know why the quotation marks. Some of his recipes are truly world class as the one I will reproduce below. Some are pure crap or even dangerous. His BBQ Ribs Stonewall call for soaking the ribs in water and saltpeter for a few days at room temperature. I tried this only once. The meat turned fetid. I had to throw all my work out. I have modified his recipe to reflect what I believe to be the best sauce anyone has ever tasted. OK,OK,OK, best sauce for meat. OK-again, for beef. You all are sooooo picky.

But, friend, his other works, as I said above border on the great. And without further ado, I give you

Worcester Sauce
AKA Worcestershire Sauce

Servings: 128
Cooking time: 2 hours
Preparation time: 1 hour
Category: Condiments
Cuisine: English

* 15 ounces tamarinds
* 6-7 quarts cored/peeled/sliced apples (10 to 12 large apples)
* 1 yellow onion, 3 inch diameter, sliced
* 4 ounces peeled and sliced shallots
* 8 cloves garlic, peeled, pressed, (optional if not using shallots)
* 2 anchovy fillets, canned in oil
* 16 fl. ozs. apple cider vinegar (opt. red wine vinegar)
* 1 quart Malt Vinegar
* 3 tablespoons ground cloves
* 3 tablespoons ground allspice
* 2 tablespoons ground turmeric
* 6 ounces soy sauce
* 3 tablespoons ground coffee
* 2 teaspoons Cayenne ground
* 4 tablespoons light corn syrup
* 6 tablespoons sea salt
* 3 tablespoons dry mustard
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 2 tablespoons ground nutmeg

The above Prep times are approximate.

Mash 8 cloves of garlic. Cover and reserve. Add the anchovies to some vinegar to clean the oil off the anchovies a little setting them aside. Put the cider or wine vinegar and soy sauce into a stockpot. Add the tamarind. Peel, core and slice the apples, put them into the stock pot with the wine vinegar. Add the sliced onion. Next add the following: ground Cloves, ground Turmeric, Nutmeg, Allspice, all the shallots and mashed anchovies and ground Coffee. Bring to a low boil. As the vinegar evaporates, add a solution of half water-half malt vinegar solution to replace it. Stir frequently as the apples will scorch on the bottom of the pot. Keep on low boil (about 190 to 196 degrees F.) for 2 hours. When finished, run through a food mill to blend. Next, put all the sauce back in the pot and add the: Cayenne Chile, Corn Syrup, Salt, dry mustard, and sugar. Top off the jar with undiluted malt vinegar, to thin to a consistency to suit individual taste. Shake well and let stand 24 hours before using.

COOK'S NOTES: In place of fresh garlic, substitute 1 T. garlic powder, if fresh unavailable. Use either shallots or garlic, not both.

The sauce will taste poorly before 24 hours of aging. It keeps indefinitely and improves in flavor for a minimum of 2 years. I make it to the thickness of ketchup. It is best served with french fries. The apples are best prepped with a mechanical peeler/corer. Put the vinegar in the pot and toss the prepped apples into it to prevent them from turning brown.

Herter suggested using red beans if you had no tamarind. That shouldn't be a problem now-a-days. The malt vinegar is essential to this recipe. Herter didn't seem to understand that. I typically obtain about 5 quarts from the above proportions. The flavor is a blend of A-1 and Worcestershire sauce.

I tried to convince Fritz Maytag, of Anchor Brewing Co. to let me have the beer from the short-fills to turn into vinegar to make this sauce. He liked my idea until I said I wanted to put the sauce in the same bottles he uses for his beers. That seemed too much for him and we never did business.