As I mention in my post, Help! My kid has gone vegan!, I love making big family meals even when dealing with complicated food preferences. (Maybe even more, since I also enjoy a challenge.) I have two recipes in mind to make for my son and his wife when they visit, my grandmother's Three-Bean Salad (recipe to come soon) and Ree Drummond's Burgundy Mushrooms. Both call for Worcestershire Sauce, which surprisingly is not vegan, since most contain anchovies.
I took a look at Trader Joe's, and was surprised not to find it there. My Facebook friends had helpful suggestions for stores that might carry it, as well as mail-order Worcestershire labeled as vegan. Since Whole Foods and PCC have yet to open in my middle-class suburb, I hadn't made the trek yet to the wealthier neighborhoods. But the mail-order bottles were way north of $5, with none of them on Amazon Prime.
So I started checking our local stores, including Fred Meyer, a chain of grocery/department stores in the Pacific Northwest. I scoured the organic/vegan/specialty aisle and found a few vegan items, some by the manufacturers recommended to me, but no Worcestershire sauce. So I went to the Worcesterhire Sauce aisle. Nothing was labeled "vegan." However, I read the ingredients on the labels. Two did not contain anything I recognized as animal products.
The Kroger (store brand) bottle was $1.59 for 10 ounces. Another was labeled "Louisiana Worcestershire Sauce," but it was actually manufactured in Washington State by Cornet Bay. The cost was $2.29 for 6 ounces. I confirmed on a vegan Q&A board that the Kroger is vegan; the Cornet Bay has the same ingredients, but I have sent a message to the manufacturer to confirm.
The moral of the story: Don't pay for something labeled "vegan." Just read the label. You might save some money.
(Reviews and recipes for the "vegan" Worcestershire sauces to come.)
