The Best Sauces for Steak (with Recipes)

The best steak sauce depends on the cut: pepper or Diane sauce for marbled scotch fillet, béarnaise or red wine jus for lean eye fillet, and sharp chimichurri for rump and rump cap.

Most homemade sauces take 5 to 25 minutes, and many start in the steak pan while the meat rests, which gives them a depth no bottle can match.

Below are ten steak sauces grouped by style, a cut-by-cut pairing guide and a comparison table, each sauce with its own full recipe.

Creamy Classics

Pepper Sauce

Crushed peppercorns toasted in the steak pan, deglazed with brandy, then simmered with stock and cream, steak au poivre style. It suits marbled scotch fillet and porterhouse, since the pepper heat cuts through the fat. It takes about 10 minutes while the steak rests.

Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Sliced mushrooms browned with garlic and thyme, then simmered with stock and cream until thick and glossy. It suits lean eye fillet and rump, adding the richness those cuts lack, and a no-cream version uses stock and a knob of butter.

Steak Diane Sauce

The Aussie pub classic: garlic, Worcestershire, Dijon, a splash of brandy and cream, built in the pan after the steak comes out. It suits eye fillet and scotch fillet, and the tangy, savoury sauce is ready in under 10 minutes.

Butter and Egg Sauces

Béarnaise Sauce

Egg yolks whisked over gentle heat with warm butter, then flavoured with a reduction of tarragon, eschalot and vinegar. Béarnaise is the classic partner for eye fillet, because its buttery richness rounds out the lean cut. The full recipe covers how to rescue a split sauce.

Garlic Butter

Butter, crushed garlic and thyme spooned over the steak in the pan as it finishes, so it bastes in nutty, garlicky flavour. It suits porterhouse and scotch fillet and needs no extra pan, because the sauce forms around the steak.

Wine and Pan Sauces

Red Wine Jus

Red wine, beef stock and eschalots reduced until glossy, then finished with cold butter, exactly as for beef eye fillet with red wine jus. It suits eye fillet and roast beef, and it keeps for two to three days in the fridge, so make it ahead.

Warm Anchovy Dressing

Anchovies and garlic melted into butter and olive oil, then sharpened with lemon and parsley. Made to dress a beef rump roast, it suits rump and rostbiff, lifting lean beef with salty, savoury depth without masking it.

Fresh and Punchy

Chimichurri

A sharp Argentinian sauce of chopped parsley, oregano, garlic, red wine vinegar, chilli and olive oil. It is the classic partner for rump cap, because its acidity cuts through the rendered fat, and it suits any of the best steaks for a BBQ.

Horseradish Cream

Grated horseradish folded through sour cream with a little Dijon and lemon, the sauce that finishes a roast sirloin with horseradish cream. It suits roast striploin and cold sliced porterhouse, and its clean heat lifts lean beef with no cooking at all.

Chilli Garlic Sauce

Garlic pounded with salt, chilli and oil into a rough, fiery paste, the base of an Argentinian chilli garlic steak. It suits bone-in ribeye and other marbled cuts, because the heat balances the richness. Spoon it over sliced steak or rub it on before grilling.

Which Sauce for Which Cut

Match rich, marbled cuts with sharp or peppery sauces, and lean cuts with creamy or buttery ones.

• Scotch fillet: pepper sauce, Diane or chimichurri, since the marbling needs heat or acidity.
• Eye fillet: béarnaise, red wine jus or mushroom sauce, which add richness to the leanest steak.
• Porterhouse: pepper sauce, garlic butter or horseradish cream, which suit its firm bite and strip of fat.
• Rump and rostbiff: mushroom sauce, anchovy dressing or chimichurri, bold flavours for a lean, beefy cut.
• Rump cap: chimichurri, which cuts through the rendered fat cap.

Quick Comparison Table

Conclusion

If you only learn one steak sauce, make it pepper sauce for scotch fillet or porterhouse, then add béarnaise for eye fillet and chimichurri for the BBQ. Most come together in minutes while the steak rests.

Choose your cut from the grass-fed beef range, then match the sauce using the guide above.