Worcestershire sauce, sometimes called Worcester sauce, is a fermented liquid condiment invented in the city of Worcester in Worcestershire, England, during the first half of the 19th century. The inventors were the pharmacists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, who went on to form the company Lea & Perrins. Worcestershire sauce has been a generic term since 1876, when the English High Court of Justice ruled that Lea & Perrins did not own a trademark for the name Worcestershire.
Worcestershire sauce is frequently used to augment recipes such as Welsh rarebit, Caesar Salad, Oysters Kirkpatrick, and deviled eggs. As both a background flavour and a source of umami (savoury), it is now also added to dishes that historically did not contain it, such as chili con carne and beef stew. It is also used directly as a condiment on steaks, hamburgers, and other finished dishes, and to flavour cocktails such as the Bloody Mary and Caesar.