Give Your Steak An Umami Twist With The Help Of One Flavor-Packed Ingredient

When done right, cooking a steak at home brings the opulence of a Michelin-star restaurant to the comforts of your dining room. Light the taper candles, uncork the red wine, and don't forget the anchovy paste. Although this fishy condiment isn't the first ingredient that comes to mind for steak night, anchovy paste is a secret weapon for better-tasting filet mignon, sirloin, ribeye, or your favorite cut of beef.

Anchovy paste is exactly what it sounds like — anchovies ground to a creamy puree, combined with oil and salt, and packed into a tomato paste-style tube. While you might worry that anchovy paste will dominate the delicate, tender, and meaty machismo of a well-cooked steak, the opposite is true. Despite its central ingredient being fish, anchovy paste has a delicate, umami-shaded flavor that presents itself on a steak less as a surf-and-turf pairing and more as a rich, savory accent. Anchovy paste highlights the best characteristics of your steak by bringing out its hearty depth of flavor with a light, fresh, slightly salty bravado, tricking your tastebuds into thinking your spread of fish puree–enhanced beef came straight from a steakhouse.

Perfecting a steak is no easy feat. It requires practice, patience, and precision. Luckily, introducing anchovy paste to a steak doesn't have to complicate the process or make it any more challenging.

Before searing your steak, rub anchovy paste and olive oil on its surface to create a flavorful base that intensifies during cooking and deepens the steak's umami depth. Instead of lingering like a thick spread of paint, anchovy paste will work into the final product, convincing your anchovy-skeptic dinner guests that you got your hands on a magical cut of beef. Anchovy paste also works well in beef marinades alongside fresh lemon juice, olive oil, and woody herbs, such as rosemary and thyme.

Don't hesitate to get creative, either. Use anchovy pate to fashion a savory compound butter for melting over your steak like a decadent crown of fatty flavor. Spread anchovy paste on the underbelly of gently toasted ciabatta bread to build a steak sandwich you won't soon forget. Need a simple steak sauce? Ditch the store-bought A1 and combine anchovy paste with Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and a splash of balsamic vinegar for a steak dipping sauce with a tangy, toothsome kick.

Next time you're bored of the humdrum steak routine, grab a bottle of anchovy paste. Use any leftovers in the tube to make Caesar salads, marinated olives, or frites sauce, all of which make perfect sides for an anchovy paste–kissed steak.