Reading Sauce was the brainchild of fishmonger James Cock, who began trading from a shop on Butcher’s Row in Reading in 1789. Bottled and sold to his customers, the condiment was intended as an accompaniment to preserved fish and had a deep, tangy, relishy flavour equivalent to something like Worcestershire sauce. The original family recipe called for 110 gallons of walnut ketchup, 25 gallons of mushroom ketchup, 12 gallons of Indian soy, 2½ gallons of chillies, 1 gallon of salt and a gallon of garlic. Remember this was pre-refrigeration, so one assumes the sauce was either very popular, or used often and very liberally, or both! The 1861 Book of Household Management includes a Reading sauce recipe that also calls for a fair volume of walnut pickle, shallots, Indian soy, ginger, mustard seed, cayenne — and one solitary anchovy.
