Wooster Sauce and so Moo-ch More

Wow, what a year it has been!  I am finally starting to feel like there is some bright light at the end of what seemed a very long dark tunnel.  I am feeling a sense of relief and yet a bit apprehensive about the new “normal”.  I miss traveling and seeing my family but I am starting to make plans again.  One huge benefit from being sheltered in place was the time it gave me to test new recipes. I have been spending so much time in the kitchen and honestly, I have loved every minute. I started testing a new jam recipe.  After several test batches I think I have the next flavor.  However, something happened on the way to the production kitchen.

I have loved Worcestershire Sauce since I was a kid.  I used to have so much fun just trying to pronounce it!  I remember making fried baloney sandwiches and pouring Worcestershire Sauce all over it.  I love it on everything. About 25 years ago when I was traveling all over the United States for my job I bought some spicy Worcestershire Sauce in Texas.  It was so good I ordered a case of it.  I was so depressed when they stopped making it.  My sister and I were sharing some recipes and laughed because we both realized that we add Worcestershire Sauce to almost everything we make.  That night I woke up about 3 a.m. and sat straight up in bed.  Why am I not making spicey Worcestershire Sauce?   I need to make it!  I could hardly wait to get out of bed and as soon as I did I started researching recipes.  For the next month my house smelled like Worcestershire Sauce!  Wooster Sauce was born!

After nailing down the recipe, I sent a bottle to my friend and Chef Merrilee who runs Preserve Farm Kitchen that makes my jam.  She loved it!  We talked about the recipe and getting it produced.  She asked me if I have ever heard of or used Yacon Syrup.  I had never heard of it. She suggested I try it in my recipe as a replacement for the sugar and molasses my recipe called for. Yacon Syrup is from Nepal and is a sweetening agent extracted from the tuberous roots of the yacón plant. It has a taste similar to molasses or caramelized sugar.  I gave it a try and! I loved the flavor it gave to the Sauce.  I was sold! I started to read more about the Yacon Syrup and the I was amazed to find out the health benefits it offers. Yacon root contains fructans, including fructooligosaccharides and inulin, which are prebiotics.  It’s good for you!

Tastes great….great health benefits….wait there is more….moo-ch more!  The company that produces this syrup in Nepal also helps the widowed women in their country by providing jobs and a source of income.  Unfortunately, women who have lost their husbands and abandoned 

mothers face deeply embedded discrimination and are marginalized.  The company that makes the syrup works with a group called the Women for Human Right (WHR) that helps provide services to these women.  Now I am completely sold.  I am so happy to be supporting this group of women just by using this wonderful syrup in my Wooster Sauce!  It is delicious.  It is good for you. It gives out good karma.  You have to try it. I hope you like it as much as I do!  Put it on everything!  I do! 

Moo Hoo!  

Julie Deck