Brown sauce of vinegar, tamarind, dates, tomato and spice — the British full-English breakfast sidekick.
1895 Nottingham, grocer Frederick Gibson Garton registered the name 'Houses of Parliament Sauce' after hearing a restaurant in the Houses of Parliament served something similar. In 1899 he handed the name and recipe to Edwin Samson Moore for £150 to settle a vinegar debt; the sauce went on commercial sale in 1903; Moore moved production to Aston, Birmingham, where it stayed until Heinz shut the plant in 2007.
Britain pours 28 million bottles a year. Tony Blair was famously photographed with one on the No. 10 breakfast table in 2004; Heinz's 2006 reformulation cutting salt 25% caused a tabloid scandal called 'HPgate'. The recipe is now made in the Netherlands.
Thick brown, pourable but clings. Sharp malt-vinegar opening, then tamarind sour, date sweet, tomato body, black pepper and clove finish. Spooned cold onto bacon sandwiches, sausage, chips, full English. Never heated.
Tomato and date purées give body and natural sugar; tamarind paste delivers the sourness Worcestershire gets from anchovy ferment, without fish. Malt vinegar and salt cure the lot for shelf stability. Brief pan cook, then bottle and mature 4–6 weeks for flavour to round.
Variations
HP Original, HP Fruity (late 1960s, milder and more fruit-forward, made with orange and mango), HP BBQ, HP Reduced Salt & Sugar; Wilkin & Sons Tiptree and Daddies Sauce (Heinz, 1904) are direct rivals in the British 'brown sauce' aisle.
On the Palate
Where HP Sauce sits in the British flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
5 steps · 20 min active + 7 days 45 min waiting
- 15 min
Combine 400 g chopped tomato, 200 g pitted dates, 100 g tamarind paste, 200 ml malt vinegar in a pot.
- 25 min
Add 1 chopped onion, 4 cloves garlic, 1 tsp allspice, 1 tsp black pepper, 100 g brown sugar.
- 345 min
Bring to simmer; cook 45 min until very thick.
Watch outSimmer down until a spoon dragged across the bottom leaves a trail that holds — thin sauce won't keep and tastes raw.
- 410 min
Blend smooth; pass through fine sieve.
Watch outPush it through the sieve until only dry pulp is left behind; that's what makes HP glassy-smooth instead of chunky.
- 510080 min
Pour into sterilized bottles; refrigerate. Improves after 1 week.
Watch outBottle while hot into sterilized jars and let it sit at least a week — the flavor is flat and sharp on day one, rounded after resting.
