4. Worcestershire Sauce

4.辣酱油

While relatively unknown to most of the world, this foodstuff gets a spot on this list because it was made entirely by accident.

尽管辣酱油在世界上很多地方都鲜有人知，但我们还是将这种食物纳入这篇文章中，因为它的制作完全是个意外。

It began its life as an Indian sauce. The recipe made its way over to Worcester, England (see where this is going?), where two chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Perrins, got their hands on it. They marketed this new exotic sauce, claiming all sorts of healing properties to cure common problems. When they actually made the stuff, however, it tasted awful. The pair stuffed the rest in a barrel and left it in a cellar, presumably to use again some day. That day didn’t come until two years later.

它最初是一种印度酱油。这个食谱传到了英国伍斯特，被两位化学家John Wheeley Lea 和William Perrins所得。他们售卖这种新的异国酱油，宣称它能治愈一般的疾病。然而，当他们实际制成了这种东西的时候，它的味道非常糟糕。这两个人将剩下的酱油倒进一个桶里，存放在地窖中，准备过几天再用。而这一天直到两年后才到来。

The pair, rediscovering their old invention, decided to give it a second shot. What should have probably murdered them (the sauce did have fish in it, after all), actually tasted very good. The pair decided to sell the sauce under the name ‘Lea and Perrins,’ a brand name that is strong to this day. Who knows how many other food inventions we’ve missed, due to people not willing to eat vastly out-of–date food?

这两个人重新发现了他们过去的发明，决定再试试。差点让他们笑死的是，这东西尝起来非常美味。两人决定售卖这种酱油，给它取名“Lea&Perrins”，这个商标直到今天依然赫赫有名。因为人们不愿意吃那些过期的食物，谁知道我们因此错过了多少美食的发明？