HP Sauce is a popular brown sauce produced in Aston, Birmingham, England. It has a malt vinegar base blended with fruit and spices and is usually eaten as an adjunct to hot or cold savoury food, or used as an ingredient in soups or stews. The sauce is particularly enjoyed as an accompaniment to bacon rashers, with TV advertisements re-enforcing this association.

The original recipe for HP Sauce was invented and developed by F.G. Garton, a grocer from Nottingham. F.G. Garton's Sauce Manufacturing began to market HP Sauce in 1903. Garton came to call the sauce HP because he had heard that a restaurant in the Houses of Parliament had begun serving it. Garton sold the recipe and HP brand for the sum of £150 and the settlement of some unpaid bills to Edwin Samson Moore.

HP Sauce became known as "Wilson's Gravy" in the 1960s and '70s after Harold Wilson, the Labour Prime Minister. The name arose after Mary Wilson gave an interview to the Sunday Times in which she claimed "If Harold has a fault, it is that he will drown everything with HP Sauce".

For many years the description on the label was in both English and French . During a 1960s BBC radio broadcast Marty Feldman sang the French version in the style of Jacques Brel. Whether or not the performance has been archived is not known.

The brand is now owned by Danone.

Generic brands of HP are known simply as "brown sauce".

External link

• Official site