I’m not brand loyal about many things but orange squash has to be Robinsons (full sugar, none of that sugar-free or high juice nonsense), baked beans have to be Heinz and brown sauce has to be HP, or at the very least Daddies.

Every now and then, I try other things because I hate habits, particularly habits that benefit huge corporations and sometimes this works out but other times it leaves me with an almost entire bottle of brown sauce on our condiments shelf and a nasty taste in my mouth. It is not going back in my mouth again – at least not as brown sauce.

I would be tempted to try it in cooking where I need something to add to the flavour but don’t need it to taste exactly like brown sauce but I’m wondering what else it could be used for too.

Now, I know that brown sauce, which Wikipedia informs me is similar to steak sauce in the US, has at least one other use: I used to use it to make coins shiny when I was a kid and evidently had too much time on my hands — so that makes me think it could be used for other cleaning purposes. I suspect it’s mostly the vinegar, combined with a slight abrasiveness from the solid particles in the sauce, that does the cleaning – but the brownness might get in the way of that.

So any suggestions?