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A bottle of brown sauce, as defined by British cuisine

Brown sauce can refer to one of two different sauces:

• In French cuisine and other cuisines based on it, it generally refers to a meat stock-based gravy-like sauce.
• In British and Irish cuisines it generally refers to a vinegar, fruit and spice-based condiment, which is commonly found in the United Kingdom under a brand name e.g. HP Sauce.
• In the United States A1 Steak Sauce is a variant on the theme, it is eaten primarily with steaks, while in the UK and Ireland it is traditionally eaten with bacon and/or sausages especially at breakfast.

In classical French cuisine, a brown sauce generally refers to a sauce with a meat stock base, thickened by reduction and sometimes the addition of a browned roux, similar in some ways to but more involved than a gravy. The classic mother sauce examples are espagnole sauce and demi-glace, though other derivatives of those two exist.

Brown sauce is a condiment popular in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. There exist a number of different brands and generic versions, of which HP Sauce is the most popular - sales of HP Brown Sauce and HP Fruity Sauce account for around 75% of value sales in the UK (source IRI, June 2006). In some regions of the UK, the Daddies Favourite brand is also popular, in particular in the Midlands and West Country (source, IRI, Mar 07). HP Sauce was launched in 1903, and Daddies Sauce (also known as Daddies Favourite) was launched in 1904. Both brands have existed since the start of the twentieth century. Chef Brown Sauce is the most popular version produced in Ireland.

A relatively recent addition to the British brown sauce line-up is Branston Brown Sauce. Following controversial plans to move production of Heinz' HP Sauce to Holland in 2006, many patriotic sauce aficionados, including UK Member of Parliament David Ruffley, moved allegiance from HP to Branston, which is produced in Bury St. Edmunds, UK. [1]. To date, Branston brown sauce has struggled to gain popularity amongst consumers, accounting for less than 3% of market sales (source, IRI, Feb 2007). In January 2007, Asda stopped stocking the product due to poor sales.

The recipe for HP Sauce includes a combination of malt vinegar, tomatoes, molasses, dates, tamarind and spices. Other brown sauce brands available in the UK use similar recipes.

Brown sauce is traditionally eaten with meals and dishes such as Full English breakfasts, bacon sandwiches, chips and baked beans. Around Edinburgh a combination of spirit vinegar and brown sauce, known simply as "sauce" or "chippie sauce", is popular on fish and chips.

American versions of brown sauce

Whilst not as popular in America as in Europe, brown sauce can be found in most restaurants and diners under the name of steak sauce. As the name suggests it is used mainly as a condiment with steak. Traditional flavour brown sauce is still the favourite but popularity is growing for the variants such as anchovy and Teriyaki. The main brands seen are Heinz and A1 but many diners now have their own label brown sauce.

In Danish cuisine brown sauce (brun sovs) is a very common sauce, and refers to a sauce with a meat stock base (in modern times, often replaced by broth made from bouillon cubes), thickened by a thickening starch agent, such as flour or cornstarch, and colored a rich, deep brown with a product known as brun kulør (literally, "brown colouring") or mad kulør (literally, "food colouring"). It is similar to what is known in the U.S.A. as a brown gravy. Variations include mushroom sauce, onion sauce and herbed brown sauce. It is served with just about anything and everything.

• Chef Brown Sauce features prominently in the 2003 Irish film Intermission starring Cillian Murphy and Colin Farrell.

• Branston Brown Sauce
• Chef Brown Sauce
• Daddies
• Hammonds Chop Sauce
• HP Sauce
• Yorkshire Relish

Most UK supermarkets also sell generic own-label brown sauces.

• brownsauce.org - Website focused on HP brown sauce