Bathe Steak In This Classic Seasoning For 10x The Flavor

Salt and pepper have been the go-to seasoning for millions of steak lovers for centuries, but curious foodies have looked further afield for more taste options, buying soy sauce or a bottle of ponzu from Trader Joe's to enhance the flavor of their steak. But there's another seasoning, beloved around the world, that has flown under the radar in the United States for a long time. Say hello to Maggi (pronounced with a hard "g" in America but a soft one in other countries like Australia), a dark brown, liquid seasoning that, when used as a marinade for steak, will make it taste frickin' delicious.

Slosh a little Maggi onto your steaks, along with some black pepper or your favorite herbs, then leave the lot to marinate for a few hours. As well as tenderizing the meat, it will have absorbed the complex, savory flavors of the Maggi, giving the beef a uniquely amazing taste. Maggi sauce represents different things to different foodies, particularly flavor-wise, which makes it almost impossible to pin down an exact description.

There's not much to distinguish between soy sauce and tamari, but we can say Maggi shares both sauce's saltiness and richness while also packing an umami punch akin to Worcestershire sauce, though with less of the former's vinegar harshness. You could also think of it as a fish sauce without the fish, but ultimately we agree with one Redditor, who described it as "slightly sweet, slightly salty, slightly vinegar-y liquid MSG."

It's tempting to pigeon-hole Maggi seasoning as soy sauce — both are brown and salty, after all — but that would be a mistake. While soy is made from fermented soy beans, the key ingredient in Maggi is hydrolyzed vegetable protein. Developed in the 19th century by Swiss miller Julius Maggi, the sauce gave working families a cheaper way to make food taste meatier, thanks to the high levels of glutamic acid from the aforementioned vegetable protein. Interestingly, lovage (an herb you can plant once and enjoy forever) is known as the Maggi plant in the Netherlands because it smells like the sauce – even though there's not a scrap of lovage in it.

Today, bottles of Maggi seasoning are sold all over the world, including in American grocery stores, alongside the Nestle-owned brand's bouillon cubes and other products. It is used to bring depth of flavor to a vast range of dishes far beyond a juicy hunk of steak, and because it's a blend of so many different flavors, you can use it on pretty much everything, including chicken, fish, and veggies. 

We love throwing a packet of onion soup mix into our scrambled eggs, but if you're out, a splash of Maggi can be a great sub. It's also good for boosting the flavor of soups, meatloaf, banh mi, or spaghetti, while some people add it to salads, and the Mexican version, known as Jugo, will transform even the most chaotic chili into something completely delicious.