Steak Sauce

[Chris Cunningham]

Greetings all. It's late and I just got home from work, so it's dinner time. As I am grilling outside at midnight I was looking through my steak sauce options and was wondering who likes what on their steaks. My order of preference is Smith & Wolenskys steak sauce, followed by Heinz 57, then A1, then Maille Dijon mustard from France. I have just demolished a strip with a bit of each of these sauces and decided to share my favorites. Notwithstanding RTS's toppings which I love, I am just fishing to see other Rockwellians favorites.

[ol_ironstomach]

Favorite? Nothing, or perhaps a drizzle of olive oil. Make mine au poivre, please

[Mark Slater]

Plain grilled steak: Heinz 57 please.

[JeffC]

I like mine with mushrooms, sauteed in butter and Worchestershire sauce (Lea and Perrins).

[porcupine]

Just crushed black pepper and salt. Lots and lots and lots o' pepper.

[Heather]

A1, then Smith & Wollensky's.

[bioesq]

Chimichurri.

[wineitup]

Just crushed black pepper and salt. Lots and lots ands lots o' pepper.

Amen!

[ScotteeM]

I enjoy lots of different things on steaks, including chimichurri, blue cheese, and Smith & Wollensky. But if there isn't any A1 in the house on steak night, it becomes an issue of national security for Mr. S, so I always keep an extra bottle in the pantry.

[Escoffier]

Just crushed black pepper and salt.  Lots and lots ands lots o' pepper.

I quite agree. If you have to tart it up to eat it, why are you eating it? Should stand alone...a bit of salt, pepper and enjoy.

[mdt]

If you have to tart it up to eat it, why are you eating it?  Should stand alone...a bit of salt, pepper and enjoy.

I would not consider pepper tarting it up at all. A1 and such, that is a different story.

[bilrus]

1) Plain but well seasoned with salt, pepper and a rub of garlic

2) Chimichurri

3) Bernaise (plus you can dip your fries in it)

Although in college, my #1, post *ahem* "party" snack was microwaved hot dogs dipped in 57 Sauce. Tube steaks, not steak.

[LizH]

HP sauce from England is pretty good, but If it is a higher quality steak l prefer a with bit of sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

[zoramargolis]

I often use a rub that I make with Spanish smoked paprika, salt, garlic powder, ground oregano, black pepper, and ancho chile powder.

If the meat still needs a flavor boost, only one bottled sauce will do: Pickapeppa. Period, end of story.

[porcupine]

If you have to tart it up to eat it, why are you eating it?  Should stand alone...a bit of salt, pepper and enjoy.

Because I like it that way.

[shogun]

  Because I like it that way.

Unacceptable!!

One of my personal favorites is my highly tarted-up red wine pan sauce with shallots, herbs, and a square of dark chocolate. Like a bird on Carnaby Street, inntit!

[bioesq]

I often use a rub that I make with Spanish smoked paprika, salt, garlic powder, ground oregano, black pepper, and ancho chile powder.

That would make just about anything taste good. What ratios do you use?

[Joe H]

The best steak I have ever had was a bisteca fiorentina at the now closed Di Vinus in Florence. Vescovino in Panzano was almost as good, if not as good. Both of these (and Sostanza in Florence) use beef from the white Chianinna (sp?) which is difficult to find even there. Di Vinus essentilly cut a Porterhouse steak two and one half to three inches thick and coated it in good olive oil then seared it on a very hot grill. After several minutes on each side it was then finished in an oven. Arugola was spread a half inch deep over a large wooden platter and the steak, brushed with more olive oil, laid on top of this. It was then cut three times diagonally to the bone and served with juice and olive oil oozing onto the arugula.

Here I use Montreal steak seasoning and coat it with good olive oil for sixty minutes, then cook it over charcoal. With prime dry aged beef (Wegmans, Wagshal's, etc.) I believe I cook a steak as flavorful as anyone excepting Italy because I cannot get the beef. I've also used a white hot black cast iron skillet with Kosher salt but the smoke and my lack of an adequate exhaust essentially defeats this.

Having said all this some friends insist that Argentina is better than Italy or Luger's.

[zoramargolis]

I often use a rub that I make with Spanish smoked paprika, salt, garlic powder, ground oregano, black pepper, and ancho chile powder.

That would make just about anything taste good.

What ratios do you use?

The spice rub is also really good on steamed new potatoes that have been sliced in half, drizzled with olive oil and then crisped in the oven or in a hot pan.

As far as ratios go I don't really measure--mostly smoked paprika, then enough other ingredients added until it smells/tastes right to me. I mix enough to fit in a small spice jar, which will last a month or so, then I make more.

[Escoffier]

I would not consider pepper tarting it up at all.  A1 and such, that is a different story.

actually, I quite agree with Porcupine. We use the same embellishments and avoid the others. A bit o'salt, a lot of pepper...no tarting it up for people who like the taste of a well cooked steak.

[Escoffier]

HP sauce from England is pretty good, but If it is a higher quality steak l prefer a with bit of sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

exactly...a bit of salt, freshly ground pepper...and nothing is finer. Even makes ground beef taste good.

[brendanc]

Not in any particular order

25 yr balsamic, like 10mL

Perigordine

This really over the top duck fat "bearnaise" in ATL

Ugo Bing Olive Oil

[Heather]

actually, I quite agree with Porcupine.  We use the same embellishments and avoid the others.  A bit o'salt, a lot of pepper...no tarting it up for people who like the taste of a well cooked steak. 

So do you consider all condiments and sauces "tarting it up" or do you reserve that judgement only for steak?

[Escoffier]

So do you consider all condiments and sauces "tarting it up" or do you reserve that judgement only for steak?

Hmmm!!! good question. I tend not to use anything on steak other than a bit of salt and pepper...(mentally pondering the list of foods eaten in his lifetime).....think I'm going to have to get back to you on this one. That's a big list of foods...

I prefer my steaks uncondimented (sic?). There are too many other foods to catalog as to tarted or untarted up...

[DanCole42]

Top Notch Steak

-Montreal seasoning & char

Supermarket Steak

-Sweet, thick, chewy red wine sauce

-Blue cheese

-Bearnaise sauce

-Au poivre

Ordered in no particular preference, although if it's a weeknight it's a good bet that I'm going with just the blue cheese. "Hmm, let's see, do I want to whisk an egg yolk in a double boiler until my arm falls off, spend the GDP of Botswana on ingredients for what ends up being a tablespoon of sauce, OR do I just want to sprinkle a few crumbles of roquefort on my steak? Hmm, indeed."

[xcanuck]

Top Notch Steak

- salt and pepper, with charcoal smoke

Supermarket Steak

- port wine reduction

- cognac and pepper sauce

- crumbled blue cheese

Completely Inedible Crap

- HP Sauce. This stuff makes s**t on a stick taste pretty damn fine.

[Banco]

I agree with the salt & pepper crowd, but sometimes I like to tart things up a bit as well. On those occasions I make a marinade of Lea and Perrins, sherry vinegar, chopped garlic, a bit of ginger powder, dried orange peel, anchovy paste, and pepper (salt is added during cooking). I reserve some of the marinade for brushing on the meat while it grills. The result always draws raves.

[Waitman]

I quite agree. If you have to tart it up to eat it, why are you eating it? Should stand alone...a bit of salt, pepper and enjoy.

oh, the (belatedly noted) irony -- someone with the handle "Escoffier" denounces efforts to tart things up.

At any rate foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds and I'd look suspiciously at anyone who ate a lifetime's worth of steaks without mixing it up (quite) a bit. Same goes for the oyster fundamentalists, too.

ETA: A shoutout for sauce marchand du vin, which uses chicken stock, mustard, shallots red wine. Also the Sauce Chez Busboy which involves beef stock, red wine, capers, and anchovies reduced to a thick, pungent, goo. And roast garlic-anchovy butter.

[Pat]

ETA: A shoutout for sauce marchand du vin, which uses chicken stock, mustard, shallots red wine.

That's one of my favorite ways to make steak, though I think the recipe I use calls for beef stock . I sometimes will do a mushroom sauce. It depends on what I feel like and what else I'm making for the meal.

[Heather]

oh, the (belatedly noted) irony -- someone with the handle "Escoffier" denounces efforts to tart things up.

What are you talking about? Escoffier was renowned for the simplicity of his cuisine.

ETA: A shoutout for sauce marchand du vin, which uses chicken stock, mustard, shallots red wine.

Beef or brown veal stock. Unless you're mixing it up a little.

[Al Dente]

A healthy hunk of compound butter while the steak is still hot. Often I'll just chop up whatever leftover herbage I have and mix it with the butter, roll it in parchment, and smoke... I mean throw it in the fridge to firm up.

[Banco]

A healthy hunk of compound butter while the steak is still hot. Often I'll just chop up whatever leftover herbage I have and mix it with the butter, roll it in parchment, and smoke... I mean throw it in the fridge to firm up.

That is a nice method; I had almost forgotten about it. Most steaks you order in simple restaurants in Germany are served that way, with Kräuterbutter (café de paris butter), but you hardly ever see it here.

[The Hersch]

At any rate foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds and I'd look suspiciously at anyone who ate a lifetime's worth of steaks without mixing it up (quite) a bit. Same goes for the oyster fundamentalists, too.

I agree that there are many sauces/butters/dressings that can pair well with even a superb steak (béarnaise, bordelaise, plain butter, compound butter, olive oil and lemon juice, many others). However, I do not believe that there is anything you can buy in a bottle or jar at the supermarket that doesn't detract from a good steak. As to oysters, both the ketchup-and-horseradish "cocktail sauce" and sauce mignonette ruin them for me. A bit of lemon juice is nice.

[Banco]

I agree that there are many sauces/butters/dressings that can pair well with even a superb steak (béarnaise, bordelaise, plain butter, compound butter, olive oil and lemon juice, many others). However, I do not believe that there is anything you can buy in a bottle or jar at the supermarket that doesn't detract from a good steak. As to oysters, both the ketchup-and-horseradish "cocktail sauce" and sauce mignonette ruin them for me. A bit of lemon juice is nice.

I agree (though A1 I think is a respectable condiment). A good steak can take a good deal thrown at it, but good oysters are really best enjoyed in the nude.

[zoramargolis]

As far as commercial steak sauce is concerned, there is only one in my refrigerator or pantry--Pik-a-peppa: thick, complex, a little bit spicy. Anytime I serve a piece of beef that needs a kick in the butt, flavor-wise, Pik-a-peppa comes to the rescue.

What I am more likely to use on steak is my own, home-made spice rub which is a mixture of Spanish smoked paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, ground oregano and ancho chile powder. Decent quality steak plus spice rub plus a little olive oil plus a hot charcoal fire=good crust, good steak, good eats.

[Barbara]

A healthy hunk of compound butter while the steak is still hot. Often I'll just chop up whatever leftover herbage I have and mix it with the butter, roll it in parchment, and smoke... I mean throw it in the fridge to firm up.

I found a recipe on Epicurious for a steak topping made of butter, shallots, blue cheese (Gorgonzola?), S&P. It made so much that I took to portioning it out and rolling it in plastic wrap and then freezing the packets in another container. It was simple to just pull out a packet and bring it to room temp whenever one of us brought home some steak for dinner. Gotta do this again and soon. It beats the Hell out of any bottled steak sauce.

[shogun]

Sauce composed of tomato, anchovy, peperoncino, black olives, and capers. That's how you tart up a steak.

[Pat]

As far as commercial steak sauce is concerned, there is only one in my refrigerator or pantry--Pik-a-peppa: thick, complex, a little bit spicy. Anytime I serve a piece of beef that needs a kick in the butt, flavor-wise, Pik-a-peppa comes to the rescue.

I love that stuff. I always have a bottle on hand.

[Heather]

The universal scorn for A-1 sauce led me to look it the ingredients and history. It includes tomato puree, distilled vinegar, corn syrup, salt, raisin paste, crushed orange puree, spices and herbs, dried garlic, and onion. It was first bottled in England in the late 19th century, and seems to have been part of a wave of condiments that echoed flavors (spicy, sweet, sour) found elsewhere in the British colonies. Worcestershire sauce came to be at around the same time.

Most of the bottles steak sauces have very similar ingredients. Pickapeppa's got tomatoes, onions, sugar, cane vinegar, mangoes, raisins, tamarinds, peppers and spices. HP's recipe is a secret but I'd bet someone $5 that it has the same combo of vinegar, tomato, fruit, and salt.

[xcanuck]

Most of the bottles steak sauces have very similar ingredients. Pickapeppa's got tomatoes, onions, sugar, cane vinegar, mangoes, raisins, tamarinds, peppers and spices. HP's recipe is a secret but I'd bet someone $5 that it has the same combo of vinegar, tomato, fruit, and salt.

Malt vinegar, tomatoes, molasses, spirit vinegar, glucose-fructose, sugar, dates, salt, rye, tamarind extract, soy sauce, spices, and onion extract.

I love HP Sauce. I won't use it with a good piece of steak, but when I was a student and could only afford the lousy select grade stuff, HP was a great way to compensate for the lack of flavour. My favorite way to use HP Sauce is for dipping grilled cheese sandwiches and steak cut fries into.

A-1 reminds me of diarrhea.