Best Worcestershire Sauce Substitute

It tastes like the real thing! These genius hacks make the best Worcestershire sauce substitutes with pantry ingredients you have on hand.

Worcestershire sauce is a common condiment that adds savory and complex flavors to dishes from Caesar dressing to chili to the classic Bloody Mary. Worcestershire sauce was invented in Britain in the mid-1800’s. Its flavor is tangy, salty, sweet, savory, and a little funky all at once! It includes cured anchovies, so Worcestershire sauce is not vegetarian or vegan.

Looking for a Worcestershire sauce substitute in a recipe? Here’s a genius hack that uses ingredients you likely have on hand in your pantry! It tastes very similar to the real thing, and it takes 1 minute to put together. It also works as a vegan Worcestershire sauce! There are also a few more ideas as a Worcestershire sauce alternative.

How to say Worcestershire sauce? Say it like “wusster-shir sauce.”

Best Worcestershire sauce substitutes

1. Soy sauce, ketchup and white wine vinegar

The best Worcestershire sauce substitute? A combination of soy sauce, ketchup, and white wine vinegar! This combination is a mix of pantry ingredients that tastes oddly similar to the real thing. Here’s what you need for a small batch (multiply as needed):

• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• ½ tablespoon soy sauce (or tamari or coconut aminos)
• 1 dash hot sauce (optional)

You’ll find this mix of ingredients brings in just the right elements: tangy, salty, savory, and a little sweet. If you have it, hot sauce adds a bit of the spice that Worcestershire sauce brings from chili extract. You could even add a dash of fish sauce, but it’s not needed. Use tamari (gluten free) or coconut aminos (gluten free and soy free) as soy sauce substitutes.

2. Soy sauce or vinegar

Don’t have all of the ingredients above? The overriding flavors in Worcestershire sauce are salty and tangy. If you don’t want to make the recipe above, you could use soy sauce, vinegar, or a mix of the two. You could also use miso in combination with either of the two. But the recipe above is really the best fit!

• For 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, use ½ teaspoon soy sauce and ½ teaspoon rice vinegar.
• If you have it, stir in ½ teaspoon miso paste until it dissolves.

3. Fish sauce

Fish sauce is a condiment made from fermented fish that’s used often in Southeast Asian cuisine, like the food of Thai, Cambodian, Laotian, Burma, and Vietnam. It’s got a funky, tangy and salty flavor that works as a 1:1 replacement for Worcestershire sauce. However, Worcestershire sauce tastes sweeter and has more notes of onion and garlic, so you could add a hint of sugar and onion or garlic powder if desired.

4. A1 sauce

A1 sauce is a condiment that’s typically used as a steak sauce. It’s a great Worcestershire sauce alterative if you have it on hand since the flavor profiles are very similar, though A1 sauce is thicker in texture. It’s made with tomato puree, raisin paste, vinegar, orange puree, garlic and onions.

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Here are some recipes where you could use this Worcestershire sauce substitute: