Homemade Steak Sauce ~ a creative way to make your own custom steak sauce at home, in your own kitchen! This diy steak sauce makes the perfect holiday gift.
I’m a label reader from way back, and I’ve always been particularly fascinated by steak sauce labels. They have the craziest laundry lists of ingredients ranging from molasses and pureed whole orange, to tamarind, clove, and dates. I’ve wanted to try to make my own version of A1 sauce for a while now,
I found glass sauce bottles online to bottle my homemade sauce, and I know the meat lovers on my list will appreciate this so much more than a plate of cookies.
Steak sauce is one of the most powerfully flavored sauces you’ll ever taste. That’s why I love it. It has complex, almost Byzantine layers of flavor. To formulate this recipe I just dove in head first, after carefully studying the labels of a couple of my favorite sauces, of course, and gathered up a bunch of likely ingredients. I added a few of my own ideas for good measure, like pomegranate juice and pomegranate molasses. My method was pretty casual, I just started adding and tasting until I got it exactly right. I wasn’t sure it was going to work at first, but the more I pressed on, the closer I got. I actually prefer my version to A1, which is pretty amazing. I know some people think it a sacrilege to use steak sauce on a good steak, and to those I would say… then use it on a good hamburger…but don’t pass this up.
The process is surprisingly simple — cook the ingredients for a short bit to combine them well, puree, and then strain. I started with a whole orange that is boiled to remove any excess bitterness in the peel, and then pureed. The result is an unusual flavor component. You can adjust the amount of any of the ingredients to your taste, but I encourage you to taste it as is first. I know it seems like an unlikely grouping, but the flavors combine to form a unique sweet, sour, tangy, umami experience. I had almost all of the ingredients already in the house, I had to buy the dates and the pomegranate juice, that’s all. (You can substitute raisins or prunes for the dates.)
This is a really fun project, and if you like steak sauce, I think you’ll love it.
I think this is such a great idea for those of you who want to go beyond the plate of cookies this year.
Homemade Steak Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 organic orange, for 2 heaping Tbsp puree, instructions below
- 6 oz can of tomato paste
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup pomegranate juice
- 6 dates, pitted and chopped
- 1 Tbsp pomegranate molasses
- 3 Tbsp malt vinegar
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 Tbsp tamarind paste
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp hot chili sauce, I used Sriracha
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp celery seed
Instructions
- To make the orange puree, wash the orange well, and then put it in a pot and cover it with water. Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Remove the orange and cut in quarters, Remove any seeds, and then put the rest, peel and all, into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse and then puree until the orange is smooth. One large orange will make enough puree for approximately 6 bottles of sauce. Set aside 2 heaping tablespoons of the puree for this recipe.
- Put everything else into am enameled or non-reactive pot, along with the 2 tablespoons of orange puree, and bring to a simmer. Simmer the sauce, stirring often, for about 5-7 minutes. Taste the sauce to determine if and how you want to adjust the seasonings. This sauce has more body and is less tart than A1. You can add more water to thin, and more vinegar for more tang, if you like.
- Cool the sauce and pour into a bottle. Refrigerate and use within 3 months.
- This recipe can be multiplied for larger amounts.
Hi Sue,
This looks good and I’m planning to make it. But I have these questions – I can see a pretty easy substitution of prunes for dates, but what is your best estimate of the amount of raisins required for a substitute? Did you ever weigh the dates?
The raisins, I would think, offer some fine tuning possibilities: I think the dark raisins have a bit more sourness in their profile, while lighter raisins I find are sweeter – probably closer to the dates.
Your thoughts on quantities and flavor profile are welcome.
I also have pomegranate molasses, what about using that, diluted, in place of the pomegranate juice?
Whoops, now I fear I’m sounding like one of those awful folks who change everything and then have the gall to critique your original recipe – and let me assure that isn’t the case here. I think your comment about having almost everything in your cupboard got me started. I have light raisins from chutney making with pineapple guavas. And I have pomegranate molasses from another recipe experiment. Please forgive.
Please answer anyway. I’m a fan of yours and this is my first chance to say so.
Thanks,
Bill
Haha, don’t worry, I welcome everybody’s individual ‘takes’ on my recipes! I wouldn’t stress too much about the amounts in this sauce, it’s such a hodge podge that I think you can play with it quite a bit. I think you can eyeball the amount of raisins, maybe 1/3 cup? And I think pomegranate molasses would be ideal, don’t dilute it, the sauce will cook down anyway. Good luck and let me know how it goes.
btw ~ do you can it, to last all year?
can what? Is this for me? If so, I’m lost about canning and something lasting all year . . .
This would be a great gift to give to my dad, the steak sauce lover. Looks delicious!
I like to make home-made gifts to give all these bottles would work wonders all year long
Mouth watering, Sue! If I can’t find pomegranate molasses, what do you think might be a good substitute? We don’t have the most “forward” grocery stores here in our little town.
Cheers!
I always love the swing top bottles. they would make great containers for sauces or syrups.
Love this!!
oh yes this is my sort of steak sauce (also good on eggs). What great bottles and jars.
I would use the clear oil and vinegar bottles. I want to make some garlic and rosemary olive oil for Christmas gifts!