This week we will explore something that you probably use very often and give very little thought to. When you sit down at the table or the restaurant to eat that nice juicy steak and you just have to pour steak sauce over it, did you ever stop and think how the sauce came to be called Worcestershire Sauce?

The sauce was first made at 68 Broad Street, Worcester, England, by two chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins. In 1837 they commercialized the Lea & Perrins brand. It was produced in a Midlands Road factory in Worcester from Oct. 16, 1897, until 1930. In 1930 the business was sold to H.P. Foods and was acquired by Groupe Danone. The company was bought in 2005 by H.J. Heinz Co., which continued to market the original Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce under the name Lea & Perrins Inc.

Louisiana Treasures Museum has over 25 of the first bottles made and they are on display inside the museum. Come by and visit and I will show you and explain the history of each. For more information or museum tours call 225-294-8352.

Wayne Norwood is a lieutenant with the St. John Parish Sheriff’s Department and owner and operator of the Louisiana Treasures Museum located at 10290 Highway 22, West Pontchatoula.