18 Ingredients To Upgrade Homemade Steak Sauce

When you think of "steak sauce," what comes to mind? For us, it's not-so-fond memories of the bottle of A1 sauce in the fridge, which we always thought had an undercurrent of rancid flavor masked with savory fish. It's much more unappealing when it slides out of the bottle in a single gloop.

If you're haunted by the idea of A1 sauce, you can try making your own steak sauce at home. This task, which isn't as challenging as it seems, will allow you to control the predominant elements of a good steak sauce: sweet, savory, umami, acidic, and spicy. Once you've checked all of those boxes, you'll be well on your way to a tender cut of meat slathered in a perfect balance of flavors. Here are some of our favorite ingredients to add to homemade steak sauce that fit at least one (or multiple) of these flavor categories.

Not only will you be obsessed with eating steak covered in a roasted garlic steak sauce, but you'll also love the way your kitchen smells after roasting it. After you've prepared your cloves, you can purée them in your blender or food processor and pulse until smooth before adding them to the sauce. Roasted garlic tends to be soft to the touch, so it should be easy to blend down into a paste.

To make a simple oven-roasted garlic batch for your steak sauce, you'll only need four ingredients: a head of garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Slice off the top ¼ of the bulb with a sharp kitchen knife and remove the outer peel of the allium. Then, place the head, cut-side up, in a foil wrap. Drizzle with olive oil and season your clove before baking it for about 45 minutes. You can also roast the garlic a few days ahead of time and store it in your refrigerator when needed.

Capers are a delectable salty berry that almost everyone has a half-jar of in their refrigerator. It's often that you add them to your chicken piccata before forgetting about them. But we've found a new (and better) way to use this briny ingredient: steak sauce.

These berries are the perfect ingredient to finish your steak with because they have a bright, lemony tartness and the floral flavor of an olive. Following with the same spirit of piccata, we recommend pairing capers with lemons and acidic ingredients. We recommend first draining and rinsing the capers of their salty brine, as too much may upset any seasoning you add to your meat. Mix the whole berries with good olive oil, freshly minced garlic, and lemon juice for the perfect bright accompaniment to your steak dinner.

We recommend sticking with a tender cut of meat, like a flank steak, for this caper sauce. It's a bit more Mediterranean in nature and will leave you feeling light and refreshed.

Man, are people just adding mayonnaise to everything nowadays? The answer is yes.

Mayonnaise is just a combination of eggs, oil, and acid. Vinegar, an acid, and oil are common ingredients in steak sauce already, so adding a bit of emulsified punch to your steak sauce recipe can really help it out. The mayonnaise is a blank canvas to create a creamy sauce. From there, you can add herby, spicy, umami, or salty flavors and make your sauce unique. There are no real rules for what you must add to this sauce to make it, which is perfect for cooks who like to experiment in the kitchen. Cuts of steak that lend well to this simple ingredient addition include filet mignon (no one will ever know it's cheap mayo) or a succulent tenderloin. This sauce also has a place with other kitchen favorites. Besides steak, you can also use a mayo-based sauce on salmon or with grilled vegetables.

A key element in a good steak sauce is spicy. But let's face it, not every set of tastebuds is cut out for spicy. Instead of sprinkling in a burning hot sauce or spicy pepper, take a step back and utilize peppercorns for your steak sauce. You can make a brandy peppercorn steak sauce that will elevate the flavor of your meat while not overshadowing the taste and texture of the flesh.

Adding peppercorns alone would result in a steak that is difficult to eat. But this creamy sauce tames the flavors of the peppercorns and rounds it out a bit more. You'll want to use whole peppercorns for this sauce, not the kind that you'd find pre-ground at the grocery store. Crush the peppercorns in a bag with a rolling pin and pour it into the sauce once you've appropriately thickened it. You don't want to burn this ingredient, and it's important to keep stirring so the flecks are well-distributed throughout the sauce.

Dijon mustard is the Swiss Army knife of steak sauce ingredients. Not only does it have a thick, viscous consistency that will create a sauce that stays perfectly portioned on your piece of steak, but it will also add a back-of-mouth heat that your sauce craves. Dijon mustard is different than other varieties of this condiment because it has a sharper taste, thanks to the addition of black mustard seeds and wine. Therefore, swapping it out with a simple yellow mustard isn't recommended.

Another thing that we love about Dijon mustard is that it plays well with others. You can make it into a sauce by adding fresh rosemary, garlic, thyme, and a splash of cream. If you love a salty flavor, consider adding cooked bacon or pancetta to your sauce, too. And if you're a stickler for tradition, you'll find the Dijon mustard also pairs well with classic ingredients in a steak sauce like Worcestershire sauce and brandy.

Have you ever cooked with crème frâiche? This French ingredient is perfect for a steak sauce because it is decadently fatty and creamy and will thicken a sauce easily. We recommend using it in a classic steak au poivre, which is a French, peppercorn-crusted steak covered in a pan sauce because the crème frâiche will mellow out the flavors of the harsh peppercorns. You can use this cooking and seasoning method for many different cuts of steak, including filet mignon, tenderloins, boneless rib, and strip steak.

To make this sauce for your steak, you're going to want to combine your leftover peppercorns with shallots and deglaze with an alcohol of choice. Then, add your stock, stir until thickened, and add your crème frâiche. Some folks will make this recipe with a heavy cream. While this ingredient will also do the job, it lacks the distinct tangy flavor of the crème frâiche.

A good steak sauce has a little bit of sweetness to it. It's important that we emphasize "little" here, as adding too much sweetener can quickly move your steak sauce from savory to sweet territory. We're after balance rather than confection, after all.

Our sweetener of choice for steak sauce is maple syrup. The flavor is moderately oaky, which can complement an alcoholic ingredient, as well as an umami-rich one like mushrooms or Worcestershire. Another key aspect of this sweetener is that it is thick, which means that it can be used to make your steak sauce more viscous without the addition of flour.

Our favorite ingredients to mix with maple syrup are bourbon, soy sauce, and lime juice. It's an excellent ingredient to add to taste or cook down with your other sauce ingredients. Just be sure to always taste the sauce as you go since combining the maple syrup with another sweet ingredient like ketchup can send things overboard.

Fish sauce isn't that strange of an ingredient in a steak sauce, considering that Worcestershire sauce contains some sort of fermented fish like anchovies. This sauce also tends to be thinner than Worcestershire, which means you have more room to play with it when you're trying to make a sauce with the perfect consistency.

One of our favorite ways to add fish sauce to a recipe is by combining it with coconut milk and curry powder. This Indo-Asian rendition of steak provides a warm heat from the spice blend with the fattiness of the curry. The fish sauce steps in and provides an umami richness and unprecedented savoriness. After trying it, you may not go back to a boring mushroom or mustard sauce again. Other flavors that mesh well with fish sauce include lime juice, soy sauce, mirin, rice wine vinegar, and fresh herbs like cilantro, which you can play with to craft your perfect Asian-inspired recipe.

Looking for a double-hitter in the thickening and tangy department? We're recommending you draft sour cream onto your roster. Sour cream doesn't have nearly the same richness as a crème frâiche, but it has the tangy profile you need to make a successful sauce — and you may not even need to add any additional vinegar.

You can whip up a quick steak sauce with sour cream, Dijon mustard, chives, and seasoning. You won't even need to cook this sauce on the stove, which makes it perfect for grilled steaks in the summertime. You can also add a scoop of sour cream to your more conventional steak sauce, along with Worcestershire sauce and beef broth. Combined with the pan drippings, this sauce makes a robust complement for any cut of meat and food outside the steak realm, including grilled chicken or pork. It's tangy, bright, and perfectly creamy.