Where did HP Sauce get its name

A.� HP Sauce was invented at the end of the 19th century by Mr FG Garton, a Nottingham grocer. He was down on his luck and couldn't pay his bills, so when Edwin Samson Moore, owner of the Midlands Vinegar Company, offered to cancel his debt with the company and pay him �150 for the recipe, plus the use of the name, he jumped at the chance.

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Moore had been looking around for some time for a sauce to manufacture and market. He liked both the taste and the name of Garton's HP Sauce, which had an appropriately patriotic ring to it. The HP stood for Houses of Parliament, as it was rumoured the sauce had been seen gracing a restaurant table there.

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Q.� When was this

A.� The sauce was very successfully launched in 1903. The chutneys and sauces used to enliven the unimaginative diet of the time were traditionally made at home. But these expensive and exotic ingredients - and the lengthy preparation involved - meant they were beyond the reach of most people. The launch of the sauce had to be postponed because of the death of Queen Victoria.

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Q.� Which other bottled sauces have stood the test of time

A.� Bottled sauces came into their own during wartime and other periods of shortage. They were sold to housewives as the answer to making leftovers and inferior cuts of meat more palatable. Like HP and the other great market rival, Heinz Tomato Ketchup, the list of ingredients has always been a closely guarded secret.

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Tabasco, like the other ubiquitous American icon, Coca-Cola, was also born in the last century, and like its British rivals, still uses the small, instantly recognisable bottle.

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It was Edmund McIlhenny, a fifth-generation American of Scots-Irish descent, who literally planted the seeds of the business in the mid-19th century. His chilli plants were grown from seeds given to him by friends returning from Mexico. Later, after a little experimentation, he made a sauce by mashing the chillies with a little salt and then steeping them in vinegar for a few days.

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Today the sauce is virtually unchanged and made from the same three ingredients, although it is matured for longer. The brand name was established in 1868, which was when commercial production began. From an initial stock of only 350 bottles, which were sent to local restaurants, the business now produces over 140 million bottles every year sold worldwide.

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By Katharine MacColl

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