Heresy! Why ruin a good steak with sauce? It's okay if you're eating a cheap steak, I guess, but then the question becomes - why are you eating a cheap steak?
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Re: Steak sauce?
Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 08:31:00 AM EST
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"Heresy! Why ruin a good steak with sauce? It's okay if you're eating a cheap steak, I guess, but then the question becomes - why are you eating a cheap steak?"
A bit of history here. When I was a kid, we weren't exactly rich, and it was a treat for us to eat any steak. It was usually cheap rib steaks. My dad would only have them well-done. Steak sauce was my self-defense mechanism. I got used to it and still like it.
Now that I've got a bit more of a cultured palate, I prefer a thick steak (New York strip or filet mignon) cooked on a screaming-hot grill so the outside is blackened, and the inside still red. Nevertheless, I can't break myself from the steak sauce habit.
there's only one way to find out...
- Ikari sauce (sweet "tonkatsu" sauce, for some)
- Soy sauce
- Guacamole (Skeeter, if you get the Costco ones in a bag, those are instantly bad)
- Plum sauce
- Mayonnaise (especially with sun-dried tomatoes)
- Ketchup
- Hollandaise (the smooth stuff I make half the time, not the clumpy crap I make the other half)
- Pico de gallo
- Worcestershire sauce
- Fish sauce
I like the taste of Miracle Whip over mayonnaise, usually, but I can't find any MW without HFCS. I did find some non-HFCS mayo that tasted better than MW and other mayos. It solidifies into a gel sooner, though.
I haven't tried any chutneys so far. I've only really seen mango chutney, which I avoid because of an allergy to mango sap. The fruit (sans sap) should actually be okay, but that's what phobias are for.
- derumi (del-me)
"Bobby Fischer? Man, that guy is crazy!" - Mike Tyson
I do indeed have lots more. Maple syrup, soy sauce, worchestershire sauce,... Oh, I can't even remember what all.
As far as steak sauce goes, I've always liked the stuff, even on filet mignon. A-1, Heinz, London Pub, you name it.
Mayo? No proper ham & cheese sandwich would work without it. Gotta have it.
And don't get me started on salad dressings. That's food (pun intended) for another topic.
there's only one way to find out...
Chutneys are good on pork or poultry. Lamb or good beef should have nothing more than genuine woodsmoke on them.
Salsa is for chips. Mustard is for cheap burgers. Catsup is for fries, and fries are evil, so you don't need it at all, ever. Relish is only for hot dogs, and hot dogs are to be eaten only at the movies or the ball park...or before you go into Costco, so you don't buy that industrial sized drum of cinnamon twists that seemed like such a good deal until you ate half of it. Guacamole is for chips, avocado is for sandwiches. Mayo is for getting fat in your old age, although Alton says it's to keep your bread from getting soggy.
Satay sauce is for chicken or cheap beef on a stick, or fried tofu cubes. Shoyu (soy sauce) is for marinating any kind of cheap meat before burning it over charcoal.
I recently discovered that guacamole also goes great on quiche.
A friend introduced me to tapenade a few years ago and my life hasn't been the same since.
Slathering Substances:
Gold's Wasabi Sauce - It's awesome, I will use this instead of mustard on a ham/roast beef sandwich or for hot dogs (or just about anything else where mustard can be used). Epicurean purists will no doubt view this as an egregious dumbing-down of an elite, proud substance for consumption by the squeeze-bottle splurting palooka-joes of the world, but I recommend spicy mustard & wasabi lovers out there try it before you knock it.
Also Gold's Hot Horseradish (pickled) - if you want a jolt of tasty flavor, this stuff rocks (kick your shrimp cocktail sauce into high gear).
Louisiana Hot Sauce - it's cheap & been around forever. A just a few drops over a serving of collard greens, or a bowl of red beans & rice (or whatever) - will complete the flavor of your food without making it 'spicy hot' or painful.
For spicy hot I like this Chili Garlic Sauce - it is powerful hot but mouthwatering tasty too.
I don't really dig the masochistic Habanero based makes-your-lips-&-tounge-swell-up-searing-intense-PAIN-marketed-as-a-'flavor' type sauces - If the sauce makes me rock back and forth with my consciousness seeking to escape from the agony via astral projection and seeking to describe what's happening with a phrase like 'snoot-full-O-napalm' and 'ZOMG!! MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOOOOP!!!' - that sort of thing is just a bad move.
"...when theft and high crime becomes obscenely obvious to even the blindest beer sucking idiot, it is always the Republicans who are in office." -- Joe Bageant
Worcestershire sauce on oysters (raw or cooked); HP sauce on sausages; Keen's hot mustard on meat sandwiches, burgers, and hot dogs made with smokies (buy it in powder form as it's then easier to use in recipes); Asian Family black bean sauce on prawns; VH orange and ginger marinade for cooking chicken; Mango chutney with pork or lamb; and always keep a bottle of cooking wine handy, and a bottle or two of tippling wine handier.
Ketchup is a food destroyer, not a food enhancer - unless we're talking fries.
