Steak sauce

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Steak sauce is a generic term used in the United States for various premade meat sauces. Most commonly, it refers to sauces served with beef and of western origin. The term "steak sauce" is derived from these sauces often being served with steak in restaurants.

The most prominent brand of steak sauce in the US is A1 Steak Sauce. In the United Kingdom and Canada, HP Sauce is more widely sold. In the UK, "brown sauce" is the generic term for HP-type sauces.

These sauces are normally brown or orange in color and often made from tomatoes, spices, vinegar, and raisins. Some contain anchovies. The taste is either tart or sweet with a peppery taste similar to Worcestershire sauce, made by Lea & Perrins. A1 is a tart variant, while some other brands, like the regionally notable Cackalacky Classic Condiment Company's Spice Sauce, offer a sweeter and spicier flavor. Along with A1 and Lea & Perrins, several smaller companies and specialty producers manufacture steak sauce. Most major grocery store chains also offer an "in house" brand of this type of sauce as "steak sauce".

Often, Worcestershire sauce is referred to as a steak sauce, but it is not thick like other varieties.

Heinz 57 is a steak sauce produced by Heinz. Unlike other steak sauces, it has a distinctive red color and tastes more like ketchup (Heinz advertises the product as "ketchup with a kick"). A few grocery store chains offer this type of sauce in-house under similar names such as "7 sauce".

Many steak lovers refuse to use steak sauce as they claim it ruins the flavor of the meat. Often, adding steak sauce is seen as a way to mask the flavor of inferior steak. Likewise, asking for A1 or other commercial steak sauces at high-end restaurants is seen as crass and an indication of lack of sophistication.