1. David Holdford from the United States writes:

I wonder if you can help me please? I am trying to find the French text from the label of a HP Sauce bottle of the type that was on sale in the 1960s. I recollect that it started “Cette sauce de haut qualite…”
Can you help please?
Many thanks.

Thanks for your question David.

As it happens I was scanning some images from “The Road from Aston Cross - An Industrial History 1875-1975″ when I came across your question. As luck would have it, I recalled seeing a French label printed earlier in the book. This sample comes from a label printed in 1917 which although dated much earlier than what you had requested, may closely match the wording on the 1960’s label. From what I know of these labels, HP didn’t change the wording on their labels all that often, and minor revisions usually came in the form of refining a single word or two rather than the entire phrase. What’s less clear however is when the overall phrase was changed. If say they dropped the salad dressing recommendation in around this time, then it is likely that the rest of the phrasing could also be different as well.

Unfortunately I was unable to find a more recent example of a French HP Sauce label. I hope this helps!

HP Sauce French Label circa 1917
Source: The Road from Aston Cross - An Industrial History 1875-1975

1917 French HP Sauce Label:

Daddie's Favourite Sauce Label circa 1909
Source: The Road from Aston Cross - An Industrial History 1875-1975

2. Alison from Hull, United Kingdom writes:

I have 16 bottles of Daddies brown sauce, Kingswood Asda in Hull had a stock of them a while back, my uncle was getting frustrated that he couldn’t buy this brown sauce anywhere, he has taken what he wanted and i still have a lot left. Does anyone want it?

Running low on Daddie’s Brown Sauce?? Here’s your chance to stock up! Drop us a line and I’ll forward your email to Alison.

Good Luck!

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Visitor Submissions: French Label? Anyone for Daddies?

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As Time Goes By - HP Antics

Back to the movie. Warning, the following may contain spoilers. If you’ve not seen the film, I suggest simply clicking on the photos to fill your boots with HP Sauce, which is of course why we’re all here…

The story of Billy Elliot takes place in the fictional town in ‘Everington’ in County Durham, northern England during the mid 1980’s. Its in this setting where young 11 year old Billy, the son of an impoverished coal miner, discovers a love for ballet while taking and later avoiding boxing lessons at the local community hall as was expected of boys his age. With the help of dance instructor Mrs. Wilkinson, Billy secretly develops his ballet talents amidst the turmoil of the miners’ strike occurring outside the boxing gym walls.

Billy’s secret cannot be kept indefinitely however once Mrs. Wilkinson encourages Billy to try out for the Royal Ballet school in London. The timing could not have been worse as Billy’s father struggles to keep food on the table and the home fires lit. With no money left, he resorts to chopping up their beloved piano for heat while also learning that his son is in his eyes a “poof”. Billy isn’t however a “poof” as his father fears…that’s the other kid up the street. Billy just likes to dance! This distinction finally hits home once he catches Billy dancing one evening in the boxing gym. From that point on Billy’s father’s attitude is markedly different and he spends his time making every effort to see to his sons future in dance.

Then one day, Billy receives a letter from the Royal Ballet School in response to his application.

Billy Elliot receives a letter from the Royal Ballet School. Tension rises!

It is interesting that the directors chose this moment to show the kitchen table adorned with HP Sauce at its center. This same bottle was spotted ever so briefly earlier in the film, but it is in this scene where its presence is obvious. The impoverished Elliot family has no money and now no piano either. It’s remains nothing but embers at the bottom of the stove yet somehow they manage to keep HP on the table.

Father, Brother & Grandmother wait in anticipation. HP provides quiet comfort.

In the end Billy is accepted to the Royal Ballet School to which he later excels to great heights when he achieves the lead role in Swan Lake. How do I think his family toasted his success? With a bacon sarnie with lashing of sauce of course. Anything else wouldn’t be true to this films roots, even if that particular scene never did make it on film…

I enjoyed this film quite a bit. Sauce or no sauce, it really gives one a taste of what life might have been like for people in similar circumstances in northern England in the mid 1980s and the harsh day to day realities they endured.

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Billy Elliot

Of course we all know a good Brown Sauce knows no boundaries, so lets dive right in and see what awaits us in this ‘ere treasure trove of HP goodness…Arg!!! (I cannot believe I just wrote that!)

Our first submission comes to us via Jeanette Aubry and Russ Archer from Vancouver Island, Canada. *Click on the images for larger versions. Requires Javascript.

Jeanette accounts how these images came to be:

Under limited artistic direction from Moi, Russ was asked to try to get some action shots of the “SAUCE” aboard the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Gordon Reid. I wasn’t sure how far we could go - considering the hyper security these days, so I was totally thrilled to get a photo of HP on a Fast Response Craft (FRC). In an emergency situation at sea these are the boats the crew use to “race” to the rescue while the mother ship follows.

…where rescued individuals are later treated to bacon sarnies doused with lashings of brown sauce along with the customary hot chocolate!

Life Ring
I guess the choice here is do you throw the ring and rope or the HP?

Tough call!

The Helm on the Bridge The Helmsman (Helm is gender neutral) guides the ship using visual references, and good taste.

Indeed!

Top of the Wheelhouse (Coast Guard Crest)
Except for the various radars, depth sounders, rigging etc…this is the Highest Position an HP bottle can obtain.

I wonder, what IS the highest elevation a bottle of HP Sauce has ever obtained? Do they serve HP in the restaurant atop the CN Tower in Toronto? Perhaps someone once fancied a proper English prior to ascending the heights of Everest!? Who knows? I certainly don’t…

Jeanette finishes:

PS. Russ is already planning a new series… Lighthouses, remote coastal and mostly inaccessible sites. (laugh)

To boldly go where no HP Sauce bottle has gone before!

I have to admit, there is something oddly addictive about setting out with the sole intent of photographing a bottle of HP Sauce in socially awkward circumstances. When traveling to Vancouver Island this past summer on board a BC Ferry, I discovered a lone table reserved for the Captain in the ships dining room. On it, a bottle of HP sat unassumingly (as is its nature) amongst the other condiments. While the dining room was full of hungry people who had only just boarded in Vancouver, I couldn’t resist but walk up to the table with my camera and take the time to properly frame the shot. As I did this, I received some curious looks from other passengers, but once finished, I left the dining room with that “I got away with something!” feeling.

I look forward to future photo submissions! Thanks Jeanette and Russ!

Our next submission comes to us from Tom LaPorte who, along with his wife and a bottle of HP Sauce tucked away in the camera bag, embarked recently from New York on a 12 day Caribbean cruise! Tom as you may recall, has previously presented us with a number of gallery photos - my favourite of which being “The Secret Of Stonehenge“.

Although Tom hasn’t yet provided stories to embellish his photos (he typically requires a good wine & dine before opening up), the photos tell us a good deal on their own. I particularly like how they managed to set up the shuffle board scene having clearly enlisted some fellow passengers for the shoot!

Thanks again to Tom LaPorte and his wife for sending along those photos! Submissions like these two exemplify what this site is all about. Don’t take your condiments TOO seriously, just enjoy them. HOW you enjoy them is up to you.

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Visitor Submissions - HP Sauce Goes Nautical

A good Brown Sauce can take an ordinary meal and help turn it into something special. It adds a tangyness, a richness to the food that only a Brown Sauce can. That ’something special’ has a lot to do with what constitutes its makeup, the very essence which make a Brown Sauce a “Brown Sauce”. So is a Brown Sauce a “Brown Sauce” simply because it’s brown? Not at all. Is it a “Brown Sauce” because it’s British? Again, not entirely. It is a combination of things that, when put together make up that rich, tangy malt flavour we know and love. If I were to narrow it down to two ingredients however it would be these: Malt Vinegar (from Barley) and Spirit Vinegar. Those two ingredients are at the core of a good Brown Sauce, but again, on their own they do not a Brown Sauce make!

Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce is a good example. The first two ingredients in this sauce are in fact Malt Vinegar (from Barley) and Spirit Vinegar. Worcestershire sauce is not what I would classify as “Brown Sauce” however. For a start, its taste is absolutely unique, and it’s application quite different as it is typically used in cooking whereas Brown Sauce is used more often as a condiment. The two DO compliment each other brilliantly, but they are not the same. Nor should they be. Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce is in a league all its own and while there are “other” Worcestershire sauces, the ones available on store shelves here in Canada are but poor imitations whom often skimp by with less expensive ingredients. Hardly worth the $1.00 or so savings over the genuine article! The point here is that these sauces don’t try to succeed by doing their own thing. Instead, they imitate, and fail miserably at it.

So where does leave us with todays review du jour? Lets find out as we review Crosse & Blackwell’s Branston Rich & Fruity Sauce. Does Branston’s Rich & Fruity stack up as a proper Brown Sauce? Or is it some thinly disguised imitation of the real thing?

Before I get started, I should give credit to our friend David Bradbury of Devon who first introduced us to his favourite HP Mexican Chilli sauce - a variety which has sadly since been discontinued. So enthusiastic was Mr Bradbury about this HP variety that he sent us a bottle to sample and review and fortunately for us he also included a bottle of Branston Rich & Fruity Sauce, a sauce to which we were previously unacquainted! I became so smitten with the Branston sauce that by the time I reached the bottom of the bottle, I realized I had not yet conducted a proper review! It was then all too late since all that remained of it was an empty bottle discarded at the bottom of our recycling bin! Luckily, I was very fortunate to find another bottle from an alternate supplier so that I can deliver a proper introduction to this tasty sauce.

HP
Mild & Tangy
Brown Sauce

Tasting the Branston Rich & Fruity immediately following a sample of HP Mild & Tangy, it is apparent that it too tastes just as the name suggests, and in the same order. Branston Rich & Fruity has a bolder start than the HP and the texture thicker. Branston also has a less fruity finish than the HP but instead leaves the tongue lingering with a citrus flavour. It is also a bit spicier but not so much as to overpower the flavour. Some people I’ve spoken to have been put off by the citrus finish, a trait which is also present in the Branston Rich & Tangy variety. While I can understand this view at first glance (taste!), I quickly loose this perspective when using it on my favourite Bacon & Tomato sandwiches. Here the citrus flavour compliments the tomato very very well! It’s as though they were designed for each other, and therein lies the real test. If a Brown Sauce is indeed a true “Brown Sauce”, then there can be only one response when used on a bacon sandwich. YUM!! In this area, Branston does not disappoint!

When combined side by side, I have a hard time deciding which one I like more as each has their own distinctive taste. I love the malty finish to the HP, but I also really like the richness of the Branston. The verdict? Tie! Branston does not try to be an imitator. Rather, they have produced a quality Brown Sauce which stands on its own merit. If you haven’t yet tried Branston Rich & Fruity sauce, I highly encourage you to do so. Throw a tomato in your sarnie as well and I hope you’ll find it as tasty as I do.

Lets compare the ingredients listing for both sauces:

HP Mild & Tangy: Fruit 70% (Tomatoes, Dates, Tamarind Extract, Oranges), Spirit Vinegar, Glucose - Fructose Syrup (from wheat), Malt Vinegar (From Barley), Sugar, Salt, Mango Chutney (Sugar, Mango, Vinegar, Salt, Chilli), Modified Maize Starch, Molasses, Rye Flower, Spices, Flavourings, Pectin.

No artificial colours, No artificial preservatives, No artificial flavours, Suitable for Vegetarians

Branston Rich & Fruity Sauce: Tomato Puree, Sugar, Spirit Vinegar, Malt Vinegar, Apples (with Preservative: Sulphur Dioxide), Date Paste (with Rice Flour), Modified Maize Starch, Salt, Molasses, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Spices, Colour: Sulphite Ammonia Caramel, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder.

Suitable for Vegetarians

Summary

While I enjoy the taste of Branston Rich & Fruity Sauce, there are a couple of ingredients listed which are worth noting, namely the Sulphur Dioxide preservative and the added colouring. HP advertises that no preservatives or colouring are used in their sauce. If Branston were to improve on anything here, it should be to live up to a similar standard.

Comparing HP & Branston “fruity” Brown Sauces leaves me with the following impression. HP Mild & Tangy: Slightly milder with a malty, fruity finish. Branston Rich & Fruity: Slightly richer and thicker with a spicier citrus (less malty) finish.

So, for bacon sarnies “straight up” it’s HP (Original or Mild & Tangy if available). For a slightly more zesty taste, throw in some bacon and tomato and call on Branston for a nice finish. The mouth waters!!

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Branston - Rich & Fruity Brown Sauce

May you and your family enjoy a safe and happy holiday season and may your fridge be ever stocked with Brown Sauce in 2008!

Seasons Greetings from www.brownsauce.org

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Seasons Greetings 2007

So what might your plans be for the upcoming weekend? Perhaps you are looking forward to some much needed leisure time. So what will it be? Spending some quality time with the family? Catching up with an old friend over coffee? Clubbing? Or perhaps you’d rather go out and do a little panning for gold with some mates. Say what? If your name is David Bradbury, this may very well be your activity of choice, but more on that in a minute. First, here’s an email I received from Mr. Bradbury of Devon, UK.

Subject: spicy chilli sauce
Message: Sorry I can’t do justice to what I wish to say about chilli sauce, I do have some pix which are so good, the new sauce is so wonderful, even on ginger biscuits. Many thanks for a super sauce.
David Bradbury

I occasionally will receive emails such as this one, loaded with heaps of praise for a sauce which I can take no credit for. If only! I looked over his email and the accompanying picture which contained three bottles of HP Mexican Chilli sauce situated on a rock in the middle of a stream - of which two of the bottles appear somewhat emptied of their contents! Someone really likes his Chilli sauce, but what’s up with the stream? I know I’ve taken pictures of HP bottles in stranger places (ahem), but there had to be a story behind it. I just had to ask…

HP Mexican Chilli Sauce
Submitted by: David Bradbury

Sender: David Bradbury
Message: There I’ve done it, this pix was taken during a gold panning trip on Dartmoor, we, all 3 couldn’t live without our sauce. Keep it going please. Super sauce indeed.

Gold panning?

Hi Brad..well i didnt expect a reply, so good of you to do so. 2morrow i will get some pix to you + my pride in life (next to my wife and two puss cats) is………wait for it…MY SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE…it hides in the shed, if you can get back to myself and tell me what you wish then i will do it…and as an appetizer (chilli sauce type) if you send your address i will post you a bottle. believe me it is soooooo magic chilli sauce..will write 2morrow with pix and stuff.

Wow. Niche little Brown Sauce website, let me introduce you to Mr. Bradbury – a man who pans for gold in southern England, loves HP Chilli sauce and has a scanning electron microscope in his garden shed! Blows the mind. Err..wait, did he just offer to send out a bottle of ‘magic’ chilli?

We exchange a few more emails and I learn a bit more about the kind David Bradbury and his SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) located in his garden shed.

My hobby of geology started as a small child in Swansea South Wales, I can still recall the Germans bombing my small village, didn’t get me. I grew up with a deep interest in metals and minerals and eventually took a degree in chemistry, after some years and problems between I landed with the UK MOD as a lab tech that lasted for 5 years in that time I learned to use a SEM, when that job finished I took another but not in chemistry, missing chemistry I built a small lab near Exeter Devon, then I bought my first electron mike, took me 6 months to make it work then found I could not afford to run it at 15KW power required so I sold it, Last year Sue said “what are you going to do now you are retired” …..I bought another! It has been very diff with the wet clime we have in UK but it gives me the feedback in “my science” that keeps me and my self respect happy, it got in the shed with a load of huffin puffin n shovin, it weighs 2 tons so it wouldn’t go in the attic.

A 2 ton Electron Microscope situated in his garden shed! Whatever happened to simply toodling around the garage doing some simple woodworking - making tables & chairs and other knickknacks to be given away to family at Xmas? Or how about restoring that old car that’s been sitting behind the house for the past 30 years? No, that simply wouldn’t work for Mr. Bradbury. As it turns out, the Scanning Electron Microscope requires the object placed within it to be coated in trace amounts of gold (a small lightbulb appears above my head). This is how and why the bottles ended up on a rock in a stream to be photographed! I’m starting to make a bit of sense of it all.

David Bradbury at his Scanning Electron Microscope
Devon, United Kingdom
^*Click the image above for a biography of Mr Bradbury

So what of the bottle of HP ‘magic’ Chilli sauce on offer? Was it on its way to Canada? It turned out there was some confusion over whether Customs would find it acceptable to have a bottle sent to Canada from the UK (perhaps they’d want to keep it for themselves!), but in the end there wasn’t an issue after all. In fact, Bradbury and his wife even went out of their way to accommodate a request for a bottle of Branston Brown – a commodity which is somewhat hard to find commodity in Devon apparently! In return, all Mr. Bradbury wished for in exchange was a small amount of soil taken from the nearby Red River in Winnipeg to place in his microscope; a request I was all too happy oblige.

With the exchange made, I was all too eager to dive in and try this HP Mexican Chilli sauce variety – a variety not sold here in North America. I was not disappointed and immediately understood Mr. Bradbury’s enthusiasm for this sauce. If you are a chilli (chili in Canada) lover, this sauce is not to be overlooked. It has a very pleasant taste yet chilli hot and not at all watered down or diminished in any way. I would highly recommend this sauce as the perfect accompaniment on barbequed hamburgers (patties made with Worcestershire sauce of course). Another good use would be on nachos and salsa to give it that bit of extra kick. Again, if you like a nice spicy chilli sauce, HP Mexican Chilli comes highly recommended. Ooh, how about a Thai or green curry sauce?

As a side note, although this bottle is not the original variety, it is the first “made in Holland” HP branded sauce I have yet come across. I do have plans on importing a “made in Holland” bottle of the original variety which I will compare with a Birmingham made bottle.

Back to Mr. Bradbury and his Scanning Electron Microscope as I have but one more question to ask: “Btw, what would a dollop of brown sauce look like if inspected with that fancy contraption of yours? Sorry, I couldn’t resist asking! “

Is it possible to combine these two worlds some sort of odd Brown Sauce mineralogical experiment?

TRIED IT..VERY DIFF..COZ IT WOULD BOIL IN THE HIGH VAC …THEN EXPLODE…BUT..Aha ! AZ THERE ALWAYS IZ..THERE IZ A WAY AND HERE IT IZ…NOW ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY ? AND THE SECRET DARK ART OF TAKING STUFF AND BREAKING IT DOWN INTO SIMPLER COMPONENTS, IN BASIS ITS ALL DUE TO FILTRATION AND WASHING VIA GRAVIMETRIC SEPARATION…STILL WITH ME ?…ANYWAY..AFTER 300 YEARS AND 200,000,000 GALLONS OF WORTER !!!!! …ERM…ER…NO FORGET IT …LIFE AINT LONG ENOUGH TO EMBARK UPON A LENGHTY “ALCHEMICAL” TRIEST….THE PAIN…SUFFERING…NO SLEEP…AND WORSER…NO DAMN…SAUCE…

Enough said!

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HP Mexican Chilli Sauce Gets Put Under The Microscope

I checked my email and there he was, Adham standing next Sean Wilson. I tried to picture the scene where moments before, Adham had run across the courtyard to confront…er politely ask Mr Wilson for a photo. The conversation, as incredibly brief as it was, went something like this:

Adham: “I have a friend in Canada who’s like…your biggest fan!”
Sean: No response.

No response!? Nothing at all to say to his ‘biggest fan’? Tsk tsk Mr. Wilson! As it turns out Mr Wilson was just on his way to a wedding, the reason to which Adham attributes him as being ‘all tarted up’. Despite Adham’s persistence, he nevertheless agreed to a photo. What a sport! Thanks Maah’in!!

Adham Fisher & Sean Wilson (aka Martin Platt)
Manchester, England

Adham being Adham needless to say wasn’t content at merely getting a photo (pho’oh when in Manchester) with Mr. Wilson, he just had to give him a copy of his Mothers’ Day CD as well. To think Mr. Wilson may now be riding about in his car listening to “It’s the day after Mothers’ Day…It’s the day after Mothers’ Day” just blows the mind. This is what the Internet age has brought us. What a wonderful world.

Just one more thing before we let Mr. Wilson on his way. Just how does he like his Brown Sauce?? When I asked this of Adham he bashfully admitted that he forgot to ask! ADHAM!! Sigh!

I now put this out as an open question to Sean Wilson. Mr Wilson…..red, or brown?

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Sean Wilson - Red or Brown?

So what is going on with Daddies Brown Sauce? In all honesty, I wish I knew. As this site is not in any way affiliated with Heinz, I’m afraid I have no direct line to those in charge of making such decisions. I have however issued an inquiry on the status of Daddies Brown Sauce to H.J. Heinz (United Kingdom) through their website and I would encourage all who are having difficulty finding Daddies Brown Sauce to do the same. Perhaps if enough people show interest, they may decide to answer or at least confirm if Daddies Brown Sauce is discontinued or not.

Best of luck!

Update October 14^th, 2007: Lucky Day! Diana M has written in to notify us that after an extensive search of various supermarkets she has finally found stock of Daddies Brown Sauce (and plenty of it!) at Morrisons. Is this perhaps some new stock or is Diana simply the lone Daddies aficionado in her area? Only time will tell.. Thanks Diana for following up with us!

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Missing: Daddies Brown Sauce

Today I have a followup to the “Demolition Commences on Historic Birmingham HP Sauce Factory” story which was published on July 7th. Since that time, Brown Sauce news coming out of Birmingham has been pretty quiet. Presumably there is not much more that can be said on the subject. The factory is gone, and with every passing day a little bit more of the old structure falls to the ground as workers continue their demolition work at the site.

There is one individual however who has taken it upon himself to document the demolition of the factory and to my knowledge he is the only person doing so. Francis (gas850 on youtube) was gracious enough to share both his videos with us as well as a few thoughts on why it was important for him to document this event.

I got my camera in June (and how i wished i had it when i went to see Girls Aloud in May) and just before then a friend of mine had joined You Tube. He got me to join and i put some videos on it and I found how easy it was to do. The HP sauce factory is near to where I work and all my life I have gone past it very often. When the Bullring shopping centre was pulled down to make way for the new one, afterwards I wished I wish I had some photos of my own. So when the HP Sauce factory was about to be pulled down I decided to take some photos and do a video of it so I done my first video. I put it on You Tube and then when the building started to come down I felt it would be a good idea to do a video every week so that is how it all started. It is very sad to see another land mark building in Birmingham been knocked down, so many of the places I knew as a child have changed so much in only a few years. - Francis

Francis is updating youtube with new videos every few days so I would encourage all those interested to follow up at his youtube profile page for updates. Please enable javascript in your browser for viewing the demolition videos directly from brownsauce.org.

Thank you Francis for documenting the demolition, your efforts are very much appreciated!

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Documenting the fall of the Birmingham HP Factory