#wow-wow sauce

[petermorwood]

Wow-Wow Sauce

For @redwineand12gaugeshells... :->

In fact that bottled sauce (and nervousnigels) no longer exists, and in any case its principal ingredients of (squints) horseradish and mustard are way off base.

Wow Wow sauce was meant to go with boiled beef, and since a major ingredient was the meat's broth *, it was more like a pan gravy made at the end of cooking, than something intended to go into / come out of a jar in the preserves cupboard.

* 1817 was well before stock / bouillon cubes, however "portable soup" was a Known Thing and could be a possible alternative. The recipe is specific about using fresh broth, but here's how to make portable soup, because You Never Know.

Real Wow Wow sauce had no hyphen, no sulphur, no saltpetre and definitely no grated wahoonie, though some "real" ingredients of the Discworld version - mangoes, figs, asafoetida, anchovy - suggest Terry was taking inspiration from labels in his own kitchen, such as those on HP Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce and Yorkshire Relish.

*****

Dr Kitchiner's "The Cook's Oracle" is available online from Gutenberg (the 1833 American adaptation) as well as a PDF of the 1822 UK Third edition from Internet Archive.

Here's his recipe - whose title, for extra interest, includes the original name for what became "Bully Beef":

The good doctor's "pickled cucumbers" would have been vinegared like cornichons or gherkins, not brined like dill pickles. In addition, pickled walnuts are easier to find than they used to be; even the Tesco supermarket chain carries them...

...as well as mushroom ketchup.

You'd probably still need to make the other herb vinegars and the shallot wine (based on dry sherry), but those are easy, just a matter of steeping the herbs in the liquid for a week or so then straining off and bottling the flavoured fluid.

Another useful ingredient for period cooking is anchovy sauce, which is less, er, emphatic than full-on anchovy essence. You could always scale up if you like the taste.

This also has the advantage of being a pleasant - if you like fishiness - sauce in its own right; try a teaspoonful in a tablespoonful of EV olive oil then tossed with hot pasta. Yum...!

This one's from the same company as the mushroom ketchup and the packing clearly emphasises their "period-ness" (is that a word?) The anchovy sauce is a bit harder to find, but well worth tracking down.

*****

Finally, here's a Youtube short of Wow Wow sauce being made and sampled. It looks entirely acceptable, like a cross between a thin chutney and a thick sauce, and would be, to use Dr Kitchiner's own word, "piquante".

As a side-note, that by-play with tinned corned beef was a bit pointless, since its texture and flavour are both utterly unlike beef that's been slowly, gently boiled (simmered, TBH) with halved onions, carrots, root veggies etc.

Use shin or silverside; the magic tenderiser for those cheap cuts is Time (or a pressure cooker) - though you can also add a sprig or two of Thyme if you want...

[petermorwood]

Three essential oils, three perfumes or three favourite spices or seasonings.

*****

Which is just a start, because when @dduane tagged this with "Cabinet of Taste": she was referring to Dr William Kitchiner, epicure, cook and (slight) eccentric.

(I'm guessing the tiger is stuffed, but who knows? Eccentric is as eccentric does.)

This Regency gentleman travelled everywhere with a small mahogany box, his Portable Cabinet (or Magazine, as in gunpowder) of Taste, containing ingredients with which he might improve the inadequacies of dishes prepared by other than himself.

His 1817 book, "The Cook's Oracle", is available on Gutenberg, and includes a full description - and layout diagram - of his Cabinet / Magazine (No. 462)...

...as well what may be the first appearance of potato crisps / USA chips (No. 104).

For a final Pratchett touch, there's a recipe for Wow-Wow sauce (No. 328) which was, despite my earlier gunpowder comment, probably non-explosive and certainly a bit shy of grated wahoonie... :->

According to the Wikipedia article, Kitchiner did his own cooking AND the washing-up afterwards (eccentric, as I said). He died unexpectedly the day before he planned to write a new will disinheriting his son.

As DD put it, "I call shenanigans..."

Despite the recipe for Lord Downey's Mint Humbugs in "Nanny Ogg's Cookbook", his Lordship's role as Head of the Assassin's Guild suggests that "add arsenic to taste" is not recommended as a cooking instruction, or indeed as a component of any Cabinet of Taste.

The appearance of arsenic in these places is almost certainly coincidental, by accident...

And nothing at all to do with its nickname of "Inheritance Powder".

[krowscrawl]

they both know it's bullshit

black background version

[possamble]

What I love about Dungeon Meshi is that it says “eat, or be eaten,” but not as in “survival of the fittest.” “Eat, or be eaten,” because there is no third choice—every day of your life, one or the other will happen. If you choose not to eat, you will be eaten. Eating is a mandatory part of being alive. The failure to acknowledge this makes you weak, guarantees that you will fail—as seen with Shuro, as seen with Thistle.

“Eat, or be eaten,” because “living things take other lives as sustenance, and no one is exempt.” If you eat—if you are a living thing—you will be eaten one day. Whether it's to literally be killed and eaten for your flesh, or decomposed down to the bone—violently or painlessly, quickly or slowly, you will be eaten and turned into sustenance for other living things. A dead body is always consumed as food, and there is no meaningful distinction between the two. The only way to avoid it is to have never been born at all.

“Eat, or be eaten,” because “eating is a privilege of the living.” And isn’t that incredible? To be a living thing is to have the privilege of eating. To have the ability to eat is a boon, an honour, a birthright. It is the unique, universe-given gift and right of all living things. It is synonymous with being alive—to live is to eat. To eat is to be eaten. We are eaten because we eat, we die because we were born, and the privilege of eating is earned through the inevitability of our deaths. The two cannot be separated. 

“Eat, or be eaten,” because “eating is a privilege of the living” and the reason why a mortal man could topple the personification of infinity—it cannot die, therefore it is not alive, yet it chose to eat. But to eat at all is to become a thing that can be eaten—choosing to take means you will have things taken from you in the same manner. The moment that Laios accepted this—after killing his sister with his own hands—was the moment the Winged Lion had already lost.

Dungeon Meshi is far from the first story to say, “memento mori.” But it takes the inevitability of death—a concept too distant and philosophical to grip the average person—and reframes it within the act of eating. Makes it visceral by using a universal part of daily life, a routine that every living thing is intimately familiar with. 

“Remember that you will die,” it says, but furthermore, “remember that your future death is a prerequisite for the food you are able to eat now—remember that other things die so that you can eat, remember that you will die to feed something else, and that there is no other alternative. There is no way to stop this. To take is to have things taken from you. To eat is to be eaten one day. There is nothing kind or cruel about this—it just is, and you must be the one to understand it and bring meaning to your own existence.

In light of all this, why wouldn't you choose to live as deliciously as possible?”

[hai-nae]

com for @sp00keh0urs details/visual story tellin undercut for those that care

watch, boot print scuff, 'i punched a wall and tried to hide it with a poster' cover up, and fidgeting hair twirlies

[anbaisai]

so the conversation had inspired me…

now not only is there the walrus-brand young oyster sauce in the kitchen, we also have the mayu (麻油) special sesame oil!

oh my god it's mayu branded 麻油... AU where she starts some kind of successful food business in Twisted Wonderland 😭💰 (Azul wants to strike an exclusive business deal)

Jamil looks so cute in your style though, I love the look of concentration on his squishy face 🥺 wonder what he's making with that oil? (does he also keep the bottle once it's empty because of the label)

[vinesaucejoelfacts]

FACT: Joel reportedly feeds upon the flesh of the innocent. And hot sauce.

Mostly hot sauce.

[sallymew4]

ok

teru ? honey ?

do you see how EVERYONE is looking at the camera ?

BUT YOU ?

you are ruining this family photo. what are you even looking at ?

oh right . A BOY !!!!!!!!!

unbelievable. unbelievable behavior right now

look even Dimple notices .and hes judging

cannot believe this !

[lycorisamaryllis]

[ICONOCLASM]

[eatsbooks]

What does autumn think of cousin marriages among royals?

anything to keep the bloodline powerful and maximize potential for the heir to stay within it baby!!! especially because not maintaining power is a huge, destabilizing risk when the cauldron does not care about lineage — only about power. a risk i think the vanserras especially would be unwilling to court.

so i think eris should consider himself lucky his uncles never had the opportunity to procreate. i think autumn does not even draw the line at cousins, and eris should consider himself even luckier he never had a sister. i think it’s honestly strange that beron and LoA are not related in some way — that there still were two powerful bloodlines in autumn and that marrying them together could create a stronger heir than one could produce on its own. it would truly not at all surprise me if beron’s parents were related, but i doubt sjm would be so bold.

[prettyboykatsuki-moved]

this is my formal apology and peace declaration to sesame oil

[good--merits-accumulated]

some people are born fic writers, some people are made fic writers, and some people watch Ethan Hawke play a socially anxious gay as hell teenager at the tender age of twelve and decide that they absolutely MUST put that man through the torment nexus, eternally

[funky-vg-beats]

reclaiming entropy rain world ost

[thatsbelievable]

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

are you making PICREWS with that mystery man….you’re lost in the sauce, drowning even

LEAVE ME ALONEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[itisyourbedtime]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DWEEB!

wanted to make a bday gift 4 one of my moots since i think their sona is so cuuuteeeeee, just wanna take a big ol bite out of this fucker! pls go follow @teddie-bear420 and say happy bday or ill kill u with my laser beamss