Brown sauce can refer to one of two different things: in the United Kingdom it generally refers to a vinegar, fruit and spice-based condiment, whereas in French cuisine it means a meat stock-based gravy-like sauce.

Brown sauce in French cuisine

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In classical French cuisine a brown sauce generally refers to a sauce with a meat stock base, thickened by reduction and sometimes the addition of a browned roux, similar in some ways to but more involved than a gravy. The classic mother sauce examples are espagnole sauce and demi-glace, though other derivatives of those two exist.

Brown sauce in UK cuisine

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Brown sauce is a condiment popular in the United Kingdom. There exist a number of different brands and generic versions, of which HP Sauce is the best known. All feature a malt vinegar base blended with fruit and spices, tamarind being an indispensible ingredient as with worcestershire sauce, which is similar but contains fish.

A relatively recent addition to the British brown sauce line-up is Branston Brown Sauce. Following controversial plans to move production of Heinz' HP Sauce to Holland in 2006, many patriotic sauce aficionados, including UK Member of Parliament David Ruffley, moved allegiance from HP to Branston, which is produced in Bury St. Edmunds, UK. ^*

Brown sauce is usually eaten as an adjunct to hot or cold savoury food, or used as an ingredient in soups or stews. Around Edinburgh a combination of spirit vinegar and brown sauce, known simply as "sauce" or "chippie sauce", is popular on fish and chips.

Brands of brown sauce

• Chop sauce
• Daddies
• Henderson's Relish
• HP Sauce
• Branston Brown Sauce

Most UK supermarkets also sell generic own-label brown sauces.

British cuisine | Brown sauces | Condiments | French cuisine