Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Nothing tells the story of human life and culture quite
Speaker 1: like food. What we eat is central to ritual, politics,
Speaker 1: and society in general, no matter how ordinary it may
Speaker 1: seem in the moment, which means that throughout the scope
Speaker 1: of history, food itself has become the source of intense controversy.
Speaker 1: The Christian season of Lent, for instance, is supposed to
Speaker 1: be a time of fasting and self denial. Today you
Speaker 1: might see someone give up drinking or eating sugar for
Speaker 1: forty days, but the older tradition is to give up meat.
Speaker 1: In medieval Christian communities, only fish could be served at
Speaker 1: meals during Lent, that is, until March ninth of fifteen
Speaker 1: twenty two. On that night, in the Swiss city of Zurich,
Speaker 1: a printer named Christoph Froschauer gathered his employees and some
Speaker 1: local officials into his parlor for a lent and feast. However,
Speaker 1: instead of the customary fish, they served sausages. One of
Speaker 1: the men in attendance was Pastor Haldrich Zwingli, who blessed
Speaker 1: the meal. Now, at that time it was forbidden by
Speaker 1: the church to eat meat during Lent, so word about
Speaker 1: the anti Christian meal spread. Fast Froscher and most of
Speaker 1: the others who had attended were jailed for breaking canon law. Swingley,
Speaker 1: the priest wasn't arrested and might have gotten away free
Speaker 1: and clear, but he didn't intend to keep his head
Speaker 1: down for long. Even though he hadn't eaten any of
Speaker 1: the sausage himself at the meal, he felt the principle
Speaker 1: of a gathering needed to be discussed. Following Sunday, he
Speaker 1: delivered a sermon called regarding the Choice and Freedom of Foods.
Speaker 1: His message went on to outline his perspective on fasting
Speaker 1: and its place in church doctrine, and how the specifics
Speaker 1: of it should not be prescribed law. And then Christoph Froscher,
Speaker 1: the printer whose meal sparked the controversy in the first place,
Speaker 1: helped print and distribute this sermon upon his release from jail.
Speaker 1: As a result, Zwingle's sermon reached the local bishop, who
Speaker 1: was outraged, but there was only so little he could
Speaker 1: do to stem the tide of support. Zwingley was a
Speaker 1: popular local figure. Three years earlier, he had contracted the
Speaker 1: plague during an outbreak in Zurich, and rather than flee
Speaker 1: the city, he stayed to take care of the sick
Speaker 1: and somehow miraculously recovered from his illness, which doesn't sound
Speaker 1: like the sort of guy that you can intimidate into silence.
Speaker 1: The Protestant Reformation, which had begun in fifteen seventeen, fully
Speaker 1: kicked off in Zurich thanks to Zwingley and his heretical meal.
Speaker 1: Zwingley petitioned the local bishop to fully do away with
Speaker 1: the record vironment to fast during Lent, and Zurich's city
Speaker 1: council debated the matter extensively. In the end, the Swiss
Speaker 1: States were divided, some choosing to remain Catholic, others turning
Speaker 1: away from the strict rules of Catholicism. The movement was historic,
Speaker 1: but it didn't end well for everyone. In October of
Speaker 1: fifteen thirty one, the Catholic States declared war on the
Speaker 1: city of Zurich. Zwingli took to the field in defense
Speaker 1: of his city and his faith as a soldier. On
Speaker 1: the eleventh of October, thirty five hundred volunteers went to
Speaker 1: battle against a force more than twice their size. After
Speaker 1: an hour of fighting, five hundred had been killed, including
Speaker 1: Poldrix Swingley. But if we know anything about religious movements,
Speaker 1: it's that they certainly love a martyr, even when that
Speaker 1: martyr's story needs a bit of editing to get started.
Speaker 1: You see, historians now believe that something less organic took
Speaker 1: place at that heretical dinner, now known as the Affair
Speaker 1: of the Sausages. It seems that Zwingli may have actually
Speaker 1: staged the whole thing as a demonstration to push his
Speaker 1: radical ideas forward, which means it was a move that
Speaker 1: was just as political as it was spiritual. In principle,
Speaker 1: he just needed the proper controversy to make his opinions known,
Speaker 1: and by blessing a sausage, he changed his country forever.
Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty five, a nobleman visited a pharmacy in
Speaker 1: an English cathedral city on the River Severn. The shop
Speaker 1: was owned by two local chemists, John Lee and William Parns,
Speaker 1: who were known for manufacturing their own medicines, but in
Speaker 1: this case the nobleman hoped that they could help him
Speaker 1: mix up something a little tastier. The nobleman had just
Speaker 1: come home from India, which was a British colony at
Speaker 1: the time. He'd been serving as a governor there for
Speaker 1: many years, and he'd grown to love a certain sauce
Speaker 1: that was served with Indian cuisine. But as hard as
Speaker 1: he tried, he couldn't find a similar one anywhere in England.
Speaker 1: So he described the sauce to the chemists as best
Speaker 1: he could. He didn't know the exact recipe, but it
Speaker 1: was strongly spiced, it had hints of onion and fish,
Speaker 1: and the chemists copied down his instructions and told him
Speaker 1: that they weren't really sure if they could get their
Speaker 1: hands on all the ingredients, but if they could, they
Speaker 1: would try their best to replicate the recipe. It took
Speaker 1: some work, but Lee and Parens acquired all the ingredients
Speaker 1: they needed and they mixed it all up in a barrel,
Speaker 1: making the sauce in the back room of their shop.
Speaker 1: They were hoping that if it turned out well, they
Speaker 1: could bottle up the extra and sell it in the pharmacy,
Speaker 1: But when they tried the taste of this finished product,
Speaker 1: it was completely inedible. In fact, it smelt so awful
Speaker 1: the chemists didn't even know if they could dump it
Speaker 1: out without getting complaints from the whole neighborhood, so they
Speaker 1: just put the barrel in the cellar and then tried
Speaker 1: to forget the whole disaster had ever happened, which, amazingly
Speaker 1: is what they did. That barrel collected dust for the
Speaker 1: next two years, out of sight and out of mind.
Speaker 1: But in eighteen thirty seven, Lee and parents needed to
Speaker 1: free up some storage space, and so they decided it
Speaker 1: was time for some long overdue cleaning, and while they
Speaker 1: were going through their cellar, they found the abandoned barrel
Speaker 1: of sauce. It had been so long that they'd forgotten
Speaker 1: what it actually tasted like, so they decided to pry
Speaker 1: open the barrel for one last sample before throwing it out,
Speaker 1: and to their surprise, after being left to ferment for
Speaker 1: two whole years, the sauce's flavors had mellowed out and
Speaker 1: come together. The chemists agreed that it actually tasted pretty good,
Speaker 1: so they packaged it up in spare medicine bottles and
Speaker 1: began selling it to their customers. They sent out free
Speaker 1: samples to drum up demand, and even paid some British
Speaker 1: passenger ships to put the sauce in their dining rooms
Speaker 1: so that curious travelers might try it, and sure enough,
Speaker 1: everyone who tasted it was instantly hooked. It was such
Speaker 1: a hit that Lee and parents soon outgrew their little
Speaker 1: shop and had to open a new warehouse in London.
Speaker 1: Before long, their new sauce became a staple of British
Speaker 1: dining that inspired dozens of imitators. Although their own original
Speaker 1: recipe remained a closely guarded secret that once forgotten, Beryl
Speaker 1: is no longer out of mind. Today Lee and Paren's
Speaker 1: creation is so popular that you can buy it in
Speaker 1: practically any grocery store in the English speaking world, and
Speaker 1: it still carries a name inspired by the city and
Speaker 1: county where it was first created, a little condiment called
Speaker 1: Worcestershire Sauce. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works, I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at Theworldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Speaker 1: H