Steak sauce

File:Steak Sauce.jpg

A1 and Heinz steak sauce

File:Branston Brown Sauce.jpg

Branston brown sauce

Steak sauce (in North America)—brown sauce (in the British Isles)—is a generic term for a dark brown sauce commonly served as a condiment for meat.

The two terms are similar but not identical. In the United States, as its name implies, steak sauce is predominantly associated with beef, while elsewhere brown sauce is often used on a variety of foods.

United States and Canada

These sauces are normally brown or orange in color and often made from tomatoes, spices, vinegar, and raisins and sometimes anchovies. The taste is either tart or sweet with a peppery taste similar to Worcestershire sauce. A1 is a tart variant, while some other brands, like the regionally notable Cackalacky Classic Condiment Spice Sauce, offer a sweeter and spicier flavor. Along with A1 and Lea & Perrins, several smaller companies and specialty producers manufacture steak sauce, and most major grocery store chains offer private-label brands. These sauces typically mimic the slightly sweet flavor of A-1 or Lea & Perrins.

Heinz 57 is a steak sauce produced by Heinz. Unlike other steak sauces, it has a distinctive dark orange-yellow color and tastes more like ketchup spiced with mustard seed (Heinz advertises the product as "ketchup with a kick", although it had a more robust taste, before the flavor changed in 1985). A few grocery store chains offer this type of sauce as a private label item, mimicking its yellowish color and labeled with similar names such as "7 sauce" or "59 sauce".

In Canada, HP Sauce is also well known and popular.

United Kingdom and Ireland

Brown sauce is a condiment popular in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. There exist a number of different brands and generic versions, of which HP Sauce is the most popular: sales of HP Brown Sauce and HP Fruity Sauce account for around 75% of value sales in the UK (source IRI, June 2006). In some regions of the UK, Daddies is also a very popular sauce, especially in the Midlands and West Country (source, IRI, Mar 07). Both brands have existed since the start of the twentieth century: HP Sauce was launched in 1903, and Daddies, also known as Daddies Favourite, was launched in 1904. In Ireland Chef Brown Sauce is the most popular version.

The recipe for HP Sauce includes a combination of malt vinegar, tomatoes, molasses, dates, tamarind and spices. Other brown sauce brands available in the UK use similar recipes.

Brown sauce is traditionally eaten with meals and dishes such as full breakfasts, bacon sandwiches or chips and baked beans. Around Edinburgh a combination of spirit vinegar and brown sauce, known simply as "sauce" or "chippie sauce", is popular on fish and chips.

In March 2008, HP announced the launch of HP Steak Sauce. This product featured a different recipe from the Original HP Brown Sauce, using a mix of spirit vinegar, tomatoes, black pepper, onion and cayenne pepper. The product includes serving suggestions including home-cooked steaks, home made burgers and premium sausages.

Japan

Tonkatsu, a popular pork cutlet in Japanese cuisine, is normally eaten dipped in brown sauce. Tonkatsu sauce's main ingredients are similar to those in American steak sauce and English brown sauce, i.e. vinegar, tomatoes, spices and molasses or caramel. Apple purée is often added. Other varieties of brown sauce are also eaten with okonomiyaki (savory pancake), takoyaki (octopus ball) and sometimes karēraisu (curry rice).

Brands and recipes

• A1 Steak Sauce
• Heinz 57 Steak Sauce
• HP Steak Sauce
• Lea & Perrins Steak Sauce
• Branston Brown Sauce
• Daddies Brown Sauce
• OK Sauce
• Salsa Lizano

Most supermarkets in the UK and Ireland sell generic store-brand Brown sauce.

As with other condiments like ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard, Brown sauce is widely available in catering sachets and dispenser bottles in restaurants.

External links

• brownsauce.org - Website focused on HP brown sauce
• Jacob Fruitfield Home Page - Manufacturer of Chef brand sauces.
• BBC - Food - Recipes: Bacon Butty & Brown Sauce
• What is Brown Sauce - jamieoliver.com/forums