Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.
- William Cowper, 1731 - 1800
This is the original quote for "Variety is the spice of life."
So today as people keep trying to invent new and better things most of which become and are accidents.
Even in the 19th century people were inventing things and what they came up with was different than what they intended the outcome. The following is such a story.
It was on this day in 1837 that John Lea and William Perrins, successful chemists (pharmacists) at Worcester, England, began commercial manufacture of Worcestershire sauce. Early in the decade they had attempted to make a curry sauce for some noblewomen who missed the flavors they had come to know while in India, but the results were inedible. Somehow a barrel of the nasty, fishy sauce ended up in storage, and after quietly fermenting in the back of the warehouse, it turned out to be a winner. Lea and Perrins' fermented anchovy elixir became Worcestershire sauce. No where near the taste of the curry sauce they were trying to develope.