Sauce or No Sauce

RickyBobby

I'm a big believer in which if a steak is fixed properly that it shouldn't need to be dipped in any type of steak sauce. What is your opinion?

RLeeper

No sauce for me

Focker

Sauce, no.  APL's board dressing, yes.

Skiddymarker

What @Focker says - Board dressing is excellent with highly charred steaks - adding the flavour after the sear is just a smart move. Everything but salt can burn and may hinder the desired result, so if you do it after, it will never be burned. 

On a reverse sear, cook at 225-250º and then dry the surface before the sear. Somehow the low part of the cook seems to let the smoke and rub work its magic without burning, IMHO. 

KenfromMI

I eat what I like and I like steak sauce. My friends get mad at me over it but they aren't the ones eating it I am LOL. I sauce or season everything else I eat I'm not sure why so many people consider it taboo. My favorite is Delmonico from the original recipe from the old Western Delmonico steak house. They sell it at a specialty store by my house. I don't use a lot but I like it. Sometimes just a little pat of garlic butter works too.

Ladeback69

No sauce for me or my wife, but my 5 year old son will dip it in BBQ sauce or ketchup. I have a friend that has to have her steak well done and some kind of sauce. I season my steaks a little then cook to medium rare to medium.

NPHuskerFL

+1 on @Focker‌ s suggestion. And I like that board. Is that an individual serving platter? I wouldn't mind a set of those (very nice). I do the APL method also but on my large wooden cutting board then I plate it.

Focker

@NPHuskerFl, thanks.

Yea, they are plates.  Acacia wood I think?  From amazon, 5 stars

http://www.amazon.com/Fox-Run-Steak-Barbecue-Acacia/dp/B003Y2TMRS/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1400723760&sr=8-17&keywords=acacia+wood+plates

NPHuskerFL

@Focker‌ thanks! Added to Amazon "wish" list ;-)

Monty77

No sauce here either, I like my steak with its natural flavours and juices.  

minniemoh

No sauce here. Definitely have to try the APL board dressing soon. Just have to remember to get all the ingredients before I start the cook. 

KenfromMI

Monty, I know most people feel the same way as you with steaks. It has always just struck me as odd that with every other cut of meat people rub, inject, sauce etc etc including Brisket and beef ribs but they like their steaks naked. I'm not a big steak guy anyway and only eat a few a year on the grill but I'm still sticking with my sauce and being a Rebel LOL

Griffin

I'm not usually a big sauce fan on steaks, especially if its a good one and cooked properly, but there is somethign to say about some sauces. Steak au poivre, a nice burgundy mushroom sauce or a whiskey mushroom sauce are ok in my book, if done right. Its ok to appreciate the extra flavors a sauce can bring to enhance the steak

That being said, I was looking for something in the fridge the other night and I bent down to get a better view of the bottom door shelf. "Honey...why is there a bottle of A1 in my fridge?"

"Oh, so and so (name withheld to protect the idiot) brought it over last time you cooked steaks cause he knew you wouldn't have any."

Damn right I don't!! That stuff is just plain nasty. And had the bourbon not kicked in that night and I had observed him pouring A1 on his steak I would have kicked him out then and there and never invited him back for steak again. Good money wasted on a good steak ruined by crappy sauce. 5 seconds later the bottle hit the trash can. Not in MY fridge. No siree.

)

Hotch

Ataboy @griffin good call.

bigdaddydivo

Griffin said:

I'm not usually a big sauce fan on steaks, especially if its a good one and cooked properly, but there is somethign to say about some sauces. Steak au poivre, a nice burgundy mushroom sauce or a whiskey mushroom sauce are ok in my book, if done right. Its ok to appreciate the extra flavors a sauce can bring to enhance the steak

That being said, I was looking for something in the fridge the other night and I bent down to get a better view of the bottom door shelf. "Honey...why is there a bottle of A1 in my fridge?"

"Oh, so and so (name withheld to protect the idiot) brought it over last time you cooked steaks cause he knew you wouldn't have any."

Damn right I don't!! That stuff is just plain nasty. And had the bourbon not kicked in that night and I had observed him pouring A1 on his steak I would have kicked him out then and there and never invited him back for steak again. Good money wasted on a good steak ruined by crappy sauce. 5 seconds later the bottle hit the trash can. Not in MY fridge. No siree.

)

 

I totally agree with you, but there are times when I make a family style sirloin on a week night and put out a sauce of some sort to use for dipping but not to pour over the steak. But on a good weekend cook with tenderloin filets or ribeyes or chops, NO SAUCE!!AND DITTO FOR KETCHUP EVER!!!!

Just sayin...;-)))

NervousDad

Ketchup. Nothing sets off a steak like ketchup.

KenfromMI

Yeah, why would you want a guest to enjoy their dinner at your house the way they like it LOL

KenfromMI

Sounds like the Scotch argument lol......I like single malts and blends. I was at a party and some Attorney acted like I didn't deserve to be a Scotch drinker because I drink both. I explained to him I drink what I like and wasn't trying to impress him or any of the other guests. I also am o.k. with young Scotch. I like the bold flavors of a 10 year Ardbeg better than some I've had that were $200 bottles. Some of the flavors I like are aged out of a Scotch over time. I like dry high tanic red wines, strong black coffee with mud in the bottom of the cup, and black licorice too which many don't. But I do like my new BGE so we all have that in common LOL

LBC Dawg

+1 on the Au Poivre. That's some good stuff

jrf316

No Sauce for me

tksmoke

Don't get me started!!!  Nothing worse than going all out on a nice filet, and having a guest say "well done please".  Of course the proper reply is "Ketchup or A1 on it, or on the side?"  Probably should have some cheap supermarket cuts at the ready for those occasions. 

Griffin

NervousDad said:

Ketchup. Nothing sets off a steak like ketchup.

Especially if you order that steak at Shenaniganz!! Great movie.

KiterTodd

Usually I'm fine with just S&P when I'm really enjoying a good steak.
However, if I'm eating out and they serve it with a good chimichurri sauce...that's killer!  Specially on a really charred, marbled piece of meat.  Wow is that good.
I'm also a big fan of those cream peppercorn sauces...oh, I'm sorry, that's "au Poivre"

To me, something like A1 or ketchup just destroys and overpowers a good cut of meat, as opposed to helping to bring out the flavor.  I'd look at that as something to cover up the taste of a bad steak.  BUT, I know people love it so to each his own.  When I eat sushi I drench it in soy sauce and wasabi...

I can't stand the snobby attitude in restaurants that don't even put S&P on the table.  There is this assumption that everything that comes out of the kitchen is perfectly seasoned for everyone, and to think otherwise is to not appreciate the food.  <insert head slap here>

tksmoke

@kitertodd - I agree, up to a point.  When I serve any meal that I've seasoned to perfection, and someone pours on the salt and pepper without tasting it first, I'm all "would you like ketchup or A1 on it, or on the side?" 

SenecaTheYounger

Some sauces have their place, and in moderate amounts.  Slathering a steak in A-1?  Well, if it's a dry aged steak, I think it's a waste.  The whole point of aging is to change the flavor of the steak, so anything that overpowers it and masks it is kind of counter to that.

A tenderloin filet?  Not much flavor to begin with (unless aged perhaps).  They are all about being tender.  As griffin mentions, steak au poivre, pans sauces, and can be wonderful when well done.

To me, it comes down to the questions of "are you using a sauce to hide the steak, or accentuate its flavor?" and "Is the steak itself flavorful enough that a sauce takes away from it?"

Some people use the steak as a mere conveyance for the sauce.

I don't see any absolutes there.  But I do think that habitually drenching every steak in the same sauce over and over is a little simplistic. Some people like what they like, and don't care to try other things or vary. Doesn't make them wrong. They're free to do it.

But others are free to be snobby, too. Both are just extremes of the same thing: an opinion.

Somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot, I often find.

fishlessman

mostly i just use salt but i do like bernaise with tenderloin, crying tiger steaks are killer, peter lugers steak sauce goes on the tomatoes not the steak



how about a rolled up flank steak braised in sauce





the crying tiger

Jellyworm

I am definately a rare to med rare steak eater with no sauce most of the time.  Garlic butter is good some of the time, made Ruth Chris famous.

nolaegghead

If I'm eating at your house and I put steak sauce on the steak you cooked, that's my polite way of saying "this steak sucks". 

That said, I'm not offended when people put steak sauce on my steaks.  I know how good or bad they are.  And if you like your steak over-cooked, then the sauce is probably a necessity.  You really don't like steak if you like it overcooked.

JRWhitee

I dip my steak in the juice that just came out of it.

msloan

90% of the time I am no sauce if the steak is cooked correctly......however, I have no problem at times doing a bit of sauce and I for sure have no issue with anyone else that prefers saucing.

KenfromMI

I'm ok with sauce, not o.k. if it's cooked more than medium rare LOL