The Mississippi-Born Sauce That Might Replace Your Favorite Steak Marinade

Steak is serious business. Every cook worth their cast iron has a method that they stick to by habit, or maybe out of faith. For many, changing a recipe, even by one ingredient, is reason to doubt. Then again, one should always be on the lookout for the next best thing for a better steak. One particularly contentious area of steak cookery is the marinade, and yes, there are a few essential components that make up any great steak marinade. For many, a marinade recipe is a closely guarded recipe, fine tuned to bring out the meaty, juicy, flavor of steak. But what if there was already a sauce out there that can do everything your marinade does and then some? Well, that's precisely what Hoover sauce can do. If you've never heard of Hoover sauce, you're not alone, as it might just be the Magnolia State's best kept secret.

The sauce is simple, consisting of soy sauce, sugar, ketchup, and dehydrated garlic powder, but it packs a wallop of flavor. In the Mississippi Delta, the sauce is used for almost anything. (Hoover sauce isn't the state's only signature sauce, the creamy comeback sauce is another tasty condiment hailing from Mississippi.) It can be served as a sauce to serve alongside wild caught game (think deer), or with steak, pork, or barbecue dishes. Originally, the sauce was designed to resemble Cantonese duck, a dish known for its savory, succulent taste. However, its blend of ingredients make it incredibly versatile, and the inclusion of umami-rich ingredients such as soy sauce and garlic, along with the acidity of ketchup, makes it ideal as a steak marinade, both tenderizing and bringing out the meat's rich, complex taste.

Now, you may be wondering what this Asian-inspired sauce has to do with Southern cooking, but Hoover sauce is actually a wonderful representation of the complex history and culture of the state. The sauce is named for its inventor, Hoover Lee, who is the child of Chinese immigrants who ran a grocery store in Mississippi. Lee's family was one of many Chinese families to open up grocery stores in the state, a practice that has greatly influenced the Delta region.  The sauce came together as Hoover Lee's attempt to recreate a Chinese dish using ingredients available in the Southern state, and the resulting sauce is a delicious blend of the two cultural influences. The sauce has become so beloved by Mississippians that when the sauce was briefly discontinued 10 years ago, there was enough pushback to inspire Hoover Lee's daughter Shari to get to work re-releasing the sauce.

It's easy to see why the sauce is beloved in the region. Its simple lineup of ingredients blends together the intense savoriness of soy sauce with the bright acidity of ketchup, the satisfying sweetness of sugar, and the aromatic intensity of garlic to create a flavor profile that is both unique and incredibly dynamic. The sauce can complement almost any dish or protein, from grilled chicken, to burgers, steak, and, of course, duck. Unlike days of yore, when you'd have to be a Mississippian in the know to get your hands on a bottle, you can now order Hoover sauce online. Just be warned, you'll want to use Hoover sauce on more than just steak, so you might want to buy a few bottles.