Our Favorite Steak Sauce Is One We'd Choose Over Heinz 57 Any Day

If you have read Daily Meal's ultimate ranking of store-bought steak sauces then you know that despite how versatile Heinz 57 steak sauce is, sometimes you need a sauce that goes above and beyond when paired with a nice cut of steak. Peter Luger's Old Fashioned Steak Sauce is that sauce. This sauce steps away from the fluctuating, fruit-based flavors of Heinz 57 and towards a consistently tangy flavor perfectly suited for steak, burgers, and, surprisingly, even cocktails.

Peter Luger's steak sauce is thin as it flows out of the bottle and is composed of tomatoes, vinegars, grated horseradish roots, molasses, onion, garlic, eschalots, anchovies, and tamarind, as well as sugar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, and other spices that further complexify the flavor of the sauce. It is the inclusion of these flavorful ingredients, and their interactions with each other, that make Peter Luger's Old Fashioned Steak Sauce stand out in the field of saucy competitors.

It is the unique ingredients of Peter Luger's Old Fashioned Steak Sauce that make it a top choice when it comes to steak sauce. When you read "anchovies" on its ingredients list you might feel an initial burst of shock, but there is no need to worry about these little fish turning your steak into a surf and turf special. Anchovies, regarded as the bacon of the sea, are frequently used to create order out of flavor chaos and are especially good at turning tomato-based sauces into a balanced condiment. In Peter Luger's Old Fashioned Steak Sauce, anchovies bring down the sweetness and acidity of other ingredients, like tomatoes.

Horseradish has already established itself as the perfect ingredient for adding an extra zing to your pot roast, but its pungent, spicy flavor, which kicks in after being grated, adds another layer of flavor to this complex steak sauce. When vinegar is added, the chemical reactions that give horseradish its signature flavors are halted, keeping the spiciness and pungent flavor at the desired levels. This relationship between horseradish and vinegar allows for Peter Luger's steak sauce to maintain its truly unique flavor profile. If you don't think these ingredients meet your flavor and texture needs, consider using a jar of sweet jam to take your steak sauce to the next level.