Eating Paleo Can Be Tricky

Why in the world does worchesteshire sauce even have sugar? How is it that we even need a paleo worchesteshire sauce? I shouldn’t be surprised. The first thing I learned when I decided to go paleo was that sugar is everywhere! There is sugar in almost every processed food out there. I am still shocked that mayo has added sugar. Just why?

America is Addicted to Sugar

We LOVE sugar. As a matter of fact I was at a conference where a senior executive for IHOP was speaking a few years back and even he said “You can never make something too sweet for our customers.” For real, the home of the Rooty Tooty, Fresh and Fruit… the International House of Pancakes struggles to get things sweet enough for their customers. Americans are addicted.

Cutting Out Sugar is Hard

So cutting out sugar? That’s not as easy as it sounds. You can’t just avoid candy and soft drinks. There is sugar hiding in almost every product you buy. Look at the labels in your own kitchen. Salad dressing: sugar. BBQ sauce: sugar. Mayo: sugar. Spice blends: sugar. Lunch meat: sugar. Frozen dinner: sugar. Spaghetti sauce: sugar. It can be so frustrating! I read every label now, and most things I buy these days don’t have labels at all… which is a good thing. Sometimes though, you just need that certain something that no other ingredient can provide and one of those irreplaceable ingredients is worchesteshire sauce.

For the Love of Worchesteshire Sauce

Looking for the Perfect Substitute

In my pre-paleo life I used this ALL the time. I loved it In rice dishes, on steak, in marinades. You name it, I added it. My go to steak marinade that I learned from my Dad was basically worchesteshire sauce and oregano. It was like cooking with one hand behind my back. worchesteshire sauce is tangy, spicy, slightly sweet and just a great way to pack in a bunch of flavor and umami without much work. Post-paleo, I just stopped using it. There wasn’t a paleo worchesteshire sauce on the market. Instead, I use fish sauce, coconut aminos, tomato pasta, mushrooms and anchovies when I need more umami in a dish.  Now, I add acid to brighten up dishes and I use salt correctly and give it the time it needs to work its magic on meats.

Cooking Without Worchesteshire Sauce

I think my cooking has gotten exponentially better, but sometimes I just need worchesteshire sauce. My steaks have never been the same. They’ve been good, but they haven’t reminded me of summer days in the backyard. Days when my Dad would time his steak with his cigarette (Yes, apparently you get a perfectly cooked steak in the amount of time it takes to finish a cigarette. Don’t use this method. Cigarettes will kill you. Dead.) Summer memories of running around in my bathing suit with my sister being stupid. These substitute steaks don’t taste like my childhood.

So, I had to make create a paleo worchesteshire sauce myself. Well, first I tried someone elses version. It was good… but I think Tim said it best. “What you have there is a good barbecue sauce.” After that I decided, if this job was gonna get done right, I had to create a recipe of my own. Try it and taste for yourself! You might even think its better than the original (I do!) I use it on my Honduran Skirt Steak. What will you use it on? Let me know in the comments!

In This Recipe