The Secret Ingredient You Should Be Using In Your Guacamole

What are your favorite Mexican foods? If you named guacamole as one of your top five, you're not alone. It's probably the world's most popular green goo, despite being a dead ringer for Oobleck. While guac might be a pricey upgrade if you order it in a restaurant, it's super-easy to whip up a fresh batch at home ("fresh" being a key word here, since guacamole doesn't always store well). Most people make guacamole with some pretty similar ingredients — avocados (of course), lemon or lime juice (or both), cilantro, jalapenos, maybe some tomatoes, perhaps a little garlic. All pretty standard stuff in Mexican cuisine — at least as we know and love it on this side of the Rio Grande.

Did you know, however, that there's a secret ingredient that will make your guacamole even better — and it's as British as can be? No, it's not tea and/or crumpets, nor is it a wee splash of stout (although feel free to try the last one, since beer and guacamole are already a heaven-made match outside the mixing bowl). No, the secret ingredient you've got to try the next time you make guacamole is that most mispronounced of condiments, Worcestershire sauce.

Zestful Kitchen recommends adding a small splash of Worcestershire for an "incredible savory element" that nonetheless retains that essential secret ingredient property of not announcing its individual flavor too strongly. (A negative example of secret ingredient is blueberries in pancakes, since the blueberries aren't hidden in the least.) Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse also includes Worcestershire sauce in his Food Network guacamole recipe, and Worcestershire sauce-spiked guacamole isn't unknown south of the border.

The Walking on Travels blog mentioned a visit to the Hacienda Petac in Merida, Mexico where not one, but two secret ingredients made the guacamole they were served something truly amazing: Worcestershire Sauce and chicken bouillon powder. They promptly asked for the recipe, and started making their own guac Hacienda Petac-style from then on, since, as they said, the addition of bouillon and Worcestershire together "rose the humble guacamole recipe we had all used at home to a new level."

Oh, and there's one more benefit of adding Worcestershire sauce to your guac — it will finally allow you to get that bottle out of the back of the kitchen cabinet where it's likely been languishing since you last made Bloody Marys. Worcestershire's no longer a one-hit-wonder, but has at last been elevated to the status of a dual-use condiment! If you want to go for the triple crown, though, you can always use it to make Micheladas — and now you've got a fiesta going on!