Steak sauce is a condiment with controversy, with steak connoisseurs arguing that great meat shouldn’t be seasoned with an overpowering sauce, while other cooks and consumers still enjoy a bottle of A.1. at the table. Regardless of which side you fall on, you may be surprised to learn that steak sauce wasn’t originally intended for steak.

As the story goes, the original steak sauce was concocted in the 1820s for King George IV of Britain by his personal chef, Henderson William Brand. The King gave it his stamp of approval, declaring it “A1,” and the name stuck; the sauce quickly became a table fixture meant to season fish, soup, game, rabbit, lobster, and mutton chops.

The original A1 sauce was rebranded as A.1. Steak Sauce in the 1960s and marketed exclusively for beef dishes; advertisements said that the sauce’s antioxidants kept beef fresher for longer. As the popularity of both steak and steak sauce declined, A.1. rebranded again 2014, returning to its roots as a sauce “For Almost Everything. Almost.”