Wednesday 25 May 2011

HP Sauce with Guinness review


A couple of months ago, just in time for St Patrick's Day, HP launched a new variety of their iconic sauce with a surprising ingredient - Guinness ! - and sent me a bottle to try out. I was intrigued to see what the combination of flavours would taste like. Both HP and Guinness are great by themselves, but would they work together ?

I first tried it out on the side of the plate when I ate sausages and mash and I have to admit, I wasn't entirely convinced. You can really taste the Guinness and my brain couldn't work out why I was tasting that when eating bangers and mash. I got the impression I was eating a pub lunch and someone had spilt their beer in my food ! Hmmm.



I did think to myself that it would great as an ingredient in beefy casseroles or pies though or possibly as an ingredient in a marinade for the barbecue and a quick look at the bottle showed that it does indeed say "Delicious with beef and pork, also a tasty cooking ingredient". The next time I knocked up some beef carbonnade (basically a boozy beef casserole - you can see my £4 Slow Cooker Challenge version here), I squeezed in a good dollop and it gave the sauce a lovely deep, rich flavour and extra thickness.


The website offers a whole host of other recipe ideas to try out that sound as simple as they are delicious : Potato topped Irish stew, sticky spicy ribs, tacos, fajitas, Beef & HP Guinness Pie, even HP Guinness cheese and ham toasties. It actually seems to be a really versatile ingredient for adding a bit of oomph to meaty dishes (and more - I wouldn't have thought of trying it with cheese toasties but I guess that would be a bit similar to Welsh rarebit).

 I have to admit, I'm not keen on it as a side-of-plate sauce as I feel it overpowers the food, but it is great for adding extra flavour to gravies and casseroles, so it's worth experimenting with.

star rating : 4/5

RRP : £1.99 for 475g


Other reviews you may be interested in :



7 comments:

  1. I love Guinness! But I am not sure about this sauce...

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  2. Where can I buy this to try it?

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  4. I reckon it's bloody beautiful. It is an absolute cracker on pork sausages. So like with most things it's down to individual tastes, and a winner in my opinion.

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  5. My wife and I spotted some at a local market and tried it. We both liked it a lot and served it to some friends at our July 4th NNQ and they loved it. Now the bottle is empty and we can't seem to find it anywhere...not even on the internet.

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  6. Long gone, but found one bottle on eBay! None available anywhere else!

    http://www.ebay.ie/itm/271436839325

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