Piquant spicy fruit sauces rendered sharply sour with verjuice or vinegar featured prominently in medieval cuisine.

[6] Elizabeth David found a recipe from 1853 by Alexis Soyer for what she says "is without doubt Cumberland sauce":[1] Cut the rind, free from pith, of two Seville oranges into very thin strips half an inch (1cm) in length, which blanch in boiling water, drain them upon a sieve and put them into a basin, with a spoonful of mixed English mustard, four of currant jelly, a little pepper, salt (mix well together) and half a pint (300ml) of good port wine.

[8] After commenting that the supposed Hanoverian origin was "as good as any and better than some", David added that it was odd that Cumberland sauce is not mentioned in any 19th-century cookery book, including those by Eliza Acton, Mrs Beeton and Charles Elmé Francatelli.

[9] In David's view it is "the best of all sauces for cold meat – ham, pressed beef, tongue, venison, boar's head or pork brawn".

[12] Recipes for more or less the generic version on Soyer's lines appear in cookery books from, among other countries, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and the US.