The idea of using steak sauce to accompany meat is often scorned by purists. For them, a steak is meant to be enjoyed as is—unfettered and swimming in its own juices. Others take a different approach, finding a sauce for every steak — or a steak for every sauce, including the often frowned-upon ketchup that is slathered on just about anything.

To bridge these two extremes, Daily Meal ranked store-bought steak sauces . Our Daily Meal tester, Michael Palan, evaluated each steak sauce's flavor, texture, aroma, appeal, and, most importantly, its ability to pair with a good steak. The higher-ranking steak sauces are worth a trip to the grocery store.

These sauces are rich in savoriness, superior in texture, and have a distinctive tang, such as Peter Luger Steak House Old Fashioned Sauce and Heinz 57 Sauce. While your steak doesn't necessarily need them, their ability to enhance without overshadowing meat may compel you to keep a bottle in your pantry or fridge. On the contrary, the lower-ranking sauces aren't worth buying, one in particular being the Primal Kitchen Organic Steak Sauce.

This sauce ranked last and may well be the reason steak purists prefer their steak plain. Despite being a diet-conscious product that's both paleo and keto-friendly, Primal Kitchen's steak sauce performed poorly from the moment it was opened and our testers got a whiff of it. The off-putting aroma and taste of Primal Kitchen's steak sauce ruins it This sauce features a blend of conflicting aroma.