Looking Back: 'You don't need 'Fifty Shades of Grey' to be saucy!'

HP Sauce is named after the Houses of Parliament and displays a picture of the London landmark on its label.

I’ve always been an avid reader. However, never at the dining table when I was a child. My father absolutely forbade it. My only reading matter then was the side of the HP Sauce bottle when I became expert at the French language by learning off by heart the information at the time.

‘Cette sauce de haute qualité est un mélange des épices orientaux et de vinaigre de malt pur.’

It was thought by the company that it would add a touch of continental refinement to a product that people just plonked on their bacon and egg but was eventually discontinued.

The sauce has for many years featured a picture of the Houses of Parliament on its label and became known as ‘Wilson’s Gravy’ in the 1960s and 1970s after it was revealed to be a favourite of Harold Wilson, the Labour Prime Minister.

The magazine Private Eye even called its parliamentary news section ‘HP Sauce.

We Brits have always loved our sauces, and despite the introduction of foreign food into our cuisine with curry sauce a favourite on fish and chips, we can still be very traditional.

The most popular sauce of all has long been Heinz Tomato Ketchup which, no matter where you travel in the world, you can usually find a bottle of it.

Many people pack a bottle in their luggage, just in case they can’t!

Visiting the Society Park Restaurant in Castle House in the 1960s, you would find that the clientele would bring their own bottles of HP Sauce and Heinz Tomato Ketchup, especially when it was the weekly ‘pie day’

But for long enough the sauce most held dear in the affections of Sheffield people has been Hendo’s.

Henderson’s Relish is as much part of our city as Sheffield cutlery and much easier to obtain!

With a slogan that says ‘Made in Sheffield for over 100 years’ it has had celebrity endorsements from many of its famous sons like David Blunkett, Sean Bean and Richard Hawley.

It seems that many people love it on their Yorkshire Puddings.

A double whammy there!

And I read once that the late and great Peter Stringfellow liked it on his bacon and eggs.

That may be a bit too much for most people.