Conference turris::cooks

    What is it?  
    
    Sue Rasmussen
    

Yes, it's around, though I can't recall the last time or place I saw
it. It's sort of like A1 sauce.

    I'm pretty sure I've seen it at Shaw's.

    	Wow, HP is even making sauce now? No wonder they're killing us here
    at Digital. I bet if Digital made a sauce (DECsauce), it would be
    colorless, bland, and you wouldn't be able to find it in the retail
    stores. Since we wouldn't advertise it, you'd find out about it through
    word of mouth. When you called to order some, you spend days trying to
    find someone who knew anything about it, it would cost twice as much as
    HP sauce (but would take twice as long to ooze out of the bottle), and
    you'd have to order the bottle cap and labels separately.

I can just see where this is going ... :-)

HP *STEAK* Sauce is available in many supermarkets in the US, but that's not 
the same thing as the English HP Sauce.  HP sauce should be available at the 
British imports product shop in downtown Nashua.  I don't remember the precise 
name of the place, but they're on the left, across from Simoneau Plaza, as you 
head north on main street towards downtown.  They fly a union jack outside so 
they're not too hard to miss.

--PSW

It's British.

It's a spicy brown sauce and should come in a bottle with a pale blue label on
it with a picture of the Houses of Parliament (hence HP). I would recommend it
to anyone as a vital ingedient of any hot dog, burger or bacon butty.

Nuff said
Simon

What's more I can get it here :-)

    The 'HP' in HP sauce stands for the 'Houses of Parliament'. It's one of
    those Trivial Persuit that most people know answer but not the why; and
    I'm one of those who can never exactly remember the why.
    
    I think it goes along the lines of: The sauce was developed by the chef
    of the Houses of Parliament restaurant; there seem to be a period where
    there were alot of saucy creations e.g. Reform club sauce. The rights
    for producing the sauce commercially were obtained by ? (Cross and
    Blackwell?) along with calling it HP sauce. A dim memory seems to be
    saying they (the manufacturers) wanted to call it the Houses of
    Parliament sauce but were not allowed to.
    
    I have seen it in the speciality food sections of some of the larger
    supermarkets in Texas. The bottle is about 8" tall and has a square
    (1 1/2" - 1 3/4") cross section. As -.1 says, it has a light blue
    label, with a natty picture of the Houses of Parliament on it, and HP
    predominently displayed; especially on the bottle's neck label.
    
    The most amazing thing I find with this sauce is the looonngggg list of
    astonishing ingredients which goes into its making.
    
    Angus

re: .8   ?? bacon butty ??

    HP is quite a staple here in Canada (or at least for those of us
    with that heritage in the U.K.). We have a jumbo 500 g Squeeze bottle
    of HP at home. I use it instead of ketchup for condiment and in 
    place of Worcestershire sauce in cooking.
    
    A-1 sauce is the same idea, but sweeter and not as spicy.
    
    Candace

    Bacon sandwich, using real butter, naturally.
    
    Angus

    Ummm...I'm afraid to ask but...what's the butter used for in a bacon
    sandwich?
    
    I've had BLT's (bacon-lettuce-tomato) with and without mayonaise,
    bacon and peanut butter, bacon and chicken breast...but "butter"?? 
    Where?  On the bread?
    
    D!

Butter, mayo, what's the difference? Mayo is almost all fat (egg yolk
and vegetable oil).

    The butter is used to butter the bread with i.e. a BLT but with mayo or
    butter on the bread/toast. However, while one would hope the bread used 
    in the sandwich would be buttered with butter (hence butty) it is more
    likely (in this day and age) to be margarine. The margarine is of a
    quality ranging from aweful to 'I can't believe its not butter'.
    Mostly, according to my wife, its of teh aweful variety.
    
    Angus

> You can cook bacon in butter.

 Seems rather redundant.

Continuing the digression...

One of my favorite sangies (sandwiches) when I was a kid (well, when I
was a younger kid) was a bacon sangy on white bread spread thickly with
butter and sparingly with French's mustard. The bacon had to come right
out of the skillet, so it would melt its way into the butter. 

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Cholesterol reading past the IR and clear into the UV zone.

Maybe it would have been good with HP sauce...

Art

    Perhaps I need to clarify something about British bacon which our
    American readership are not aware of.
    
    American bacon appears to be 95% fat. What meager concession to meat
    there is mainly occurs as a couple of faint marbled streaks in the fat.
    Sometimes even this appears to be missing. This is why American bacon is
    usually cooked crisp and a ton of fat thrown away. Note, I'm only going
    by what I've found in Texas. I've seen and used Canadian bacon, but if
    memory serves me correct it looks like reconstituted meat i.e. mince
    various cuts of bacon, reduce the fat content, then form into strips of
    'bacon'. I think the bacon on Continent Europe is like British bacon or
    vice versa.
    
    British bacon is generally 60-95% meat. The type of bacon I can afford
    to buy (Streaky) is the more fattier cut, but even here the meat
    content ranges from 60-90%. A quick hunt through the packets in the
    local supermarket generally yields a low fat streaky bacon. If you move
    up to Back bacon, then the meat content is more 80-90%.
    
    The higher meat content means you cook British bacon in a different
    manner to American bacon. You shouldn't really overcook British bacon
    as it tends to get very hard and leathery. You can cook it crisp, but
    because of the low fat content it can resemble burnt meat (Charcoal) if 
    you are not careful. So British bacon is cooked until its just done, its
    soft, its generally pink and its 70-95% meat; hence its great in a
    Sarnie.
    
    If you want a blow out, try a British fry up. Fried bread, bried bacon,
    fried sausages, fried egg, fried mushrooms, fried tomatoes, maybe some
    baked beans and of course, HP sauce. The most scrumptious use of HP
    sauce is to spread it on fried bread. Brillient, man! Naturally
    everything is cooked in the bacon and sausage fat; apart from the baked
    beans.
    
    A concession to cholestrol would be grill the mushrooms and tomatoes;
    the weak arteried might also wish to grill the sausages :-)
    
    Angus
    
    PS
    Streaky bacon I think comes from the belly cut. It has a couple of     
    alternating bands of meat and fat. There used to be a time when British
    bacon more resembled Americn bacon. However, over the past 20 years or
    so, the health fad has mean't a reduction is fat: so the fatty bands
    have decreased in size. American bacon appears to be Streaky bacon,
    except is looks like the manufacturers have simply used a pink pen to
    draw a pink line on pure fat. Back bacon I believe comes from the back
    of the pig; good assumption, eh? This has a thin strip of fat and a
    large 'wing' of meat.
    
    I cook my streaky bacon in a non-stick frying pan. The non-stick
    surface prevents the bacon from initially sticking to the pan, but
    allows some of the fat to be cooked out of the bacon and so help cook
    the bacon, if you see what I mean. However, if I cook Back bacon I have
    to add fat to the frying pan to help cook the bacon evenly.
    

    !Cholesterol and Salmonella alert!
    
    Ingredients:
    
    1 large slice of white bread spread thickly with butter
    2 slices of back bacon, cooked however you want
    2 thin slices of chedder cheese (optional)
    6-10 chips (French fries), made from decent potato, cut thick
    1 fried egg, cooked sunny side up, but with the yolk still runny
    HP sauce
    
    As per your sarnie, the bacon must be hot. Also the egg and chips
    should be warm to hot.
    
    Hold slice of bread in one hand, half fold the bread. Onto one side of
    the bread place the slices of hot bacon; butter begins to melt. Quickly
    spread on some HP sauce. Plonk the chips onto the bacon, some more HP  
    sauce, then the egg (pierce yolk) and then the cheese. Completely fold 
    over the bread (if you can, the sandwich gets very thick) and eat.
    
    As you can imagine, this gets messy. Normally I let the egg yolk and
    butter dribble over a plate of chips, and make a further butty from the
    resulting carnage. I also tend to add tomato ketchup on top of the HP  
    sauce. 
    
    Angus

    As a UK conference reader it makes a pleasant change to hear a British
    product being discussed rather than lots of American brand names that I
    have never heard of.
    
    HP sauce is THE brown sauce

    Ah yes, I forgot that British bacon bears no resemblence to American
    Bacon.  The whole point of American bacon is - crisp fried fat.  The
    strips are very small, and as far as sandwiches go, it's used mostly as
    a condiment or flavor adding ingredient than as a central focus (except
    in BLT's...mmmm).
    
    I love bacon, but these days about the only time I use it is I'll
    occasional fry up a slice or two to put in soup as flavoring...haven't
    had my "6 strips of bacon, 2 fried eggs and biscuits" breakfast in
    years.
    
    Hmmm...if English biscuits are American cookies, what are American
    biscuits called in England?
    
    D!

>    Hmmm...if English biscuits are American cookies, what are American
>    biscuits called in England?
    
    I don't think we have a direct equivalent, but then again I never did
    pay attention when (American) biscuits were the topic of conversation.
    
    What tends to come close, if I remember, are things like
    
    Yorkshire pudding: went down a storm, they were reffered to as 'biscuit'.
    
    Non-savoury scones
    
    Crusty dumplings
    
    Maybe Baps, even.
    
    Angus

    Re HP sauce: as you recall the base note talks about finding 
    HP sauce in CANADA. An old staple here (and we ARE part of North
    America, last I looked!)
    
    re Bacon: Canadian Bacon is not a reconsituted mess; its a different
    cut, usually round and often surround with pea meal. It is far leaner
    (and healthier!) than regular north american style bacon.
    
    Angus, your stuff sounds great, but have pity on our hearts!!!
    
    I can hear my arteries hardening!
    
    Monica

   > 	Wow, HP is even making sauce now? No wonder they're killing us here
   > at Digital. I bet if Digital made a sauce (DECsauce), it would be
    
    ...called "DigitalSauce", in keeping with our brand management effort.
    
    ;^)  ;^)
    
    Sue

    The HP sauce that I was referring to being available in US super
    markets is exactly the same stuff I bring home from trips to the UK!
    

    Of course, it's sooooo common and in most grocery stores.  Keep trying
    
    	
     
    
    
    	

> The HP sauce that I was referring to being available in US super
> markets is exactly the same stuff I bring home from trips to the UK!

That's what I thought, based on very limited experience with both. But
if that's the case, then (1) why are you bringing it home from the UK?
and (2) why would fancy imported goods shops bother to carry it?

    	This sauce is everywhere, even in Buffalo, N.Y. :)
    
    I think this is the only stuff that makes the inside of your mouth
    sweat.....yum
    
    						Jeff

Canadian bacon is cured pork tenderloin.  Both UK bacon and US bacon are from 
the pork belly, but the Brits use a much leaner part, closer to the belly 
muscle, while we Herns use a much fattier part, so that it fries up a bit like 
pork crackling.

--PSW

Another tip is to use it as a flavouring for "non fancy" stews or casseroles.
Add 1 desertspoonful prior to cooking.

Last weekend I had my favourite breakfast of:

Bacon, Eggs, Sausages (Linconshire), Fried Tomatoes, Black Pudding, Tattie
Scones, Fruit Dumpling, Fried Mushrooms, Fried Bread and Baked Beans, liberally
smoothered in HP and all washed down with a large pot of Orange Pekoe tea.

After a 30 minute lie down over the Sunday Paper I was set up for the day. Magic!

Simon

>  if that's the case, then (1) why are you bringing it home from the UK?
    
    I'm only guessing, but I'd say its the same reason we stock up on jars of 
    Japelaneos, packets of Jello, Pace Picante, Pam, etc: They're all a
    darn sight cheaper in the country of origin. We also ask all visiting
    friends or relations to bring over such items; its like a food convoy,
    heavens only knows what the customs officials think. Seeing as HP sauce
    seems to last ages when opened, like over a year, a couple or four mega
    bottles (correclty rationed) can last years or between visits.
    
>  and (2) why would fancy imported goods shops bother to carry it?
    
    There's one born every minute? I guess people just don't think that
    such 'exotica' (HP sauce exotic!! the mind boggles) are carried by the
    large supermarkets. However, the fancy imported goods shops over here
    are the same e.g. I can pick up a jar of Old El Paso picante (yuk) for
    about 95p from Safeway's or Sainsbury's, the same jar would cost about
    �1.50 from a fancy imported food shop just round the corner from the
    afore mentioned supermarkets. Even mundane things like black olives and
    olive oil (right down to particular brands) are carried by both types
    of shop, but in all cases they are more expensive from the fancy
    imported food shops.
    
    
    Regarding Canadian bacon. It must have been the particular brand we
    bought in Texas. It purported to be Canadian bacon, it certainly was
    expensive, but it definitely was re-constituted. Next time we're over I
    take a close look at the brands and make sure I get a non-reconstituted
    (i.e. proper) brand of Canadian Bacon.
    
    Angus
                               

Re .29, ok, "fod" (3827.15) and "fiendly" (3829.5) are misspellings
(clever, that last one), but what are "Herns"? I've been called a Yank,
a Dweeb, a Nerd, and worse, but never a Hern.

    The last time I was in the UK, I paid about 60 cents for a bottle of HP
    sauce that contained at least four times as much product as I paid
    $2.50 for here!!!
    

    I looked at the bottle the other day, and one
    of the main ingredients is dates!
    
     Monica

    
      While in Pakistan for 8 months, HP was on every table for every meal
    in the hotel, and a lot of the "local" places. I really got to dislike 
    that stuff. I much preferred A1(had some shipped out to me). I do like
    the Lee & Perrins(sp?) steak sause, a slight orange flavor with spices.
    As to American bacon. If you go to a good bucher shop you can get some 
    great meaty bacon that will fry up just fine. The generic brand bacon 
    you get in the stores is junk, %80 fat.
    
    					Joe

RE: .32

Hern = US American

Peter Sellers coined the term.  According to him, the standard US accent sounds 
like the speaker is saying "hern, hern, hern".

--PSW

    Well, I went over to the Safeway store next to CXO (Colorado Springs)
    and saw that they had HP sauce.  The description of the bottle is the
    same as mentioned in this file, and the maker is Lee & Perrins.  The
    price was over $3.  Is this the authentic stuff?  Could somebody post
    the ingredients from the bottle?  The list on the one I saw didn't seem
    to be very long.  Rasins was an ingredient mentioned second or third on
    the list.
    
    Steve

    Ingredients as stated on HP sauce bottle:
    
    Vinegar, tomatoes, sugar, dates,
    molasses, salt, rye flour,
    raisins, onions, starch, tamarinds,
    spices, soy sauce, modified starch,
    colour (caramel), defatted soya flour,
    garlic, mustard, flavouring.
    
    BTW, I checked my bottle, and it doesn't say Lee & Perrins anywhere
    on it.  Just "HP Foods Ltd, Market Harborough, Leics. LE16 9BG,
    England"
    
    

    re:  .38
    
    Thanks for entering that.  I'll check out what we have here.  Maybe
    it's a non-authentic copy.
    
    
    Steve

Here is the description of the HP sauce bottle at the Rockrimmon Safeway
by CXO (Colorado Springs, Colorado).

The bottle has a square cross section and holds 10 fluid ounces.  The label
is light blue in color, and wraps around three sides of the bottle.  There is
a dark blue strip across the label with the letters "HP" in white.  Below and 
adjacent to it is a red stripe with the words "steak sauce" in white letters.
There is a red stripe along the bottom of the label with the weight of the con-
tents in white letters.  Wording on the upper left panel of the label reads,
"Made by the Worchestershire Sauce People."  The upper center and upper right
panels read, "For over a half century the world's largest selling steak sauce."
The label is marked that it is a product of Lea & Perrins, Fair Lawn, N.J. (New
Jersey), 07410.  The contents are listed in decending order as:

     Water, vinegar, dates and/or raisins, tomato paste, tamarinds,
     molasses, corn sweetner, salt, modified food starch, onions,
     hydrolized soy protien, spices, garlic.

It would seem to me that the contents of the bottle are the same, but the list
is worded slightly different to comply to U.S. regulations.  Any opinions on
this?  Is this the "real stuff?"  The price at this particular store is $3.65
in U.S. currency, which was cheaper than "A-1" sauce at $4.19 for 10 fl. oz.
It was on the shelf with all the other steak sauces.
    

Steve

That is the HP Steak Sauce that I was referring to in an earlier reply.  It is 
not the same as the British HP Sauce.  It's more like A-1.

--PSW

    I suppose I'll just have to keep looking.  If there's none in Colorado
    Springs, then maybe I'll find it in Denver.
    
    
    Steve

    With some help from the noters in the COLORADO conference, I located a
    source for HP Sauce in Colorado Springs.  It's sold at the "British
    Home Shoppe, 323 N. Tejon, phone 520-5444.  It's pricey at $3.55 for an
    8 oz. bottle, and $5.45 for a 16 oz. bottle.  So here's your chance,
    Colorado COOKS noters, to try the stuff.  I'm certainly going to do
    just that.
    
    
    Steve

    Does HP Sauce need to be refrigerated?  It doesn't say anything about
    it, one way or the other, on the label.
    
    I suppose you figured out that I got some HP Sauce.  It's truly unique
    and, in my opinion, very good.  It compliments all kinds of things,
    except dessert items (unless, maybe, one is pregnant).  :-)
    
    
    Steve

    We've never refrigerated ours. It can take up to two years for us to go
    through a bottle. We also don't refrigerate our Ketchup, but do go through
    a bottle of that a little quicker.
    
    I suppose, to be on the safe side, you could stick it in the fridge. I
    doubt very much it would do the sauce any harm.
    
    Angus

    	I keep mine in the pantry as well since it says nothing about
    	refrigeration, have had no problems. 

	-Erik

    re:  -.1 & -.2
    
    Thanks for the input.  I supposed since the two kinds of vinegar (malt
    and spirit) are the predominant ingredients, refrigeration is not a
    requirement.  But I just felt that I needed the voice of experience.
    
    
    Steve

    Just some additional "where to get" information for Colorado noters and
    a source for HP Sauce, check with Zugspitze International Gourmet, 3819
    Maizeland Rd. (at Academy Blvd.), Colorado Springs, 574-3819.  They had
    the following HP Foods products:  HP Sauce in three varieties, original,
    fruity and chili plus one called Daddies' Sauce.  They also carry Hoe's
    Steak Sauce, from Hoe's Sauces & Chutney, Manchester, and Sharwood's
    Madras Curry Sauce, London.


    Steve

    I had no idea HP sauce was such a cult thing over there with you! Our
    local sells it in gallon containers for serious bacon buttie addicts.
    When I was a student I lived in Aston in Birmingham UK right next to the
    HP factory. If the wind was blowing the wrong way your washing always
    used to come in smelling of HP which put me off it for years!
    
    Do you have Lea and Perrins aka Worcester Sauce? This is wicked in
    tomato juice (5 drops), toasted cheese, stir fries and marinades. We
    get through heaps.
    
    Perhaps we could set up a culinary exchange scheme for those lucky
    people who are still able to hop the pond?
    
    Caroline
    
    You don't need to keep HP in the fridge, the vinegar is a preservative.
    
     
                                                    

    re:  .49  Caroline
    
    Well, I don't think it's such a cult thing over here.  I became real
    interested in it because I lived in England when I was little.  I
    started school there.  I don't even remember HP sauce from the time
    that I was there.  This topic got me started on my search for it.  I
    found an additional source for it here in Colorado Springs, so I
    thought I'd share it.  Now, if somebody would just tell me where I
    could find a butcher that sells a genuine British-cut of bacon, I'd try
    one of those bacon butties.
    
    Yes, we have all the Worchestershire sauce we can handle.  There are
    quite a few brands, but I think L & P is the best of the lot.
    
    
    Steve