From pairing with fried fish, to being the reviver of a leftover Sunday roast, brown sauce doesn’t just have to be in a bun I like my bacon sandwich with brown sauce, but that means keeping a bottle for a long time. What else can I do with it? Will, via email In the early 1980s, Tom Harris, co-owner and chef at the Marksman in east London, made a beer mat from penny coins for his dad (and in the quest to secure a Blue Peter badge): “The instructions said to put the dirty coins in brown sauce overnight,” he recalls. “The next morning, they were all shiny and looked brand new, so there’s another use for it right there!” Brown sauce is “an absolute marvel”, agrees Sabrina Ghayour, author of the recently published Persiana Easy, and not just for its cleaning prowess: “If you break it down, the sauce is packed with some pretty interesting ingredients, including my beloved tamarind.” It’s worth exploring your bottle options beyond HP, too, not least because there was much controversy back in 2011 when the brand gave its recipe, which had remained unchanged for more than a century, a tweak. “They reduced the salt [from 2.1g per 100g to 1.3g] and it completely upset the balance,” Harris says, “and that’s a great sadness.” That’s why Ghayour’s go-to these days is Tiptree: “It has a slightly less vinegary punch and a more rounded sweetness,” which comes with the added bonus of making it “even more versatile”. Got a culinary dilemma? Email [email protected] Continue reading...