A.1. Steakhouse Butter - Review

While there are many worthy steak sauces on the market, the most ubiquitous and vastly popular one remains A.1. The sauce dates back to 1824, and has long been associated with being slathered on cuts of steak. However in 2014, with the sauce's use moving beyond beef, the word "steak" was actually excised from the product's name. Now, a decade later, the Kraft Heinz Company wants to remind carnivores of the magic that the sauce works with red meat, but now in the form of a spreadable butter. Welcome to our world A.1. Steakhouse Butter! Holland Robinson, brand manager of A.1., said in a press release, "By blending time-honored tradition with modern culinary trends, the new Steakhouse Butter is the perfect partner to the grill, delivering a bold, buttery and savory complement to any meal."

So, should we start spreading the news about how great A.1. Steakhouse Butter is, or is this new butter a one to take a soft pass on? I popped off the lid of the tub, with a knife in hand, to see how it played nice with meat and other foods. This chew and review is based on flavor, A.1.-ness, and overall lovability.

Some recommendations are based on first-hand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

The A.1. Steakhouse Butter is currently available for sale online at epicureanbutter.com. It will be coming soon to retailers nationwide. The suggested retail price is $4.99. This is not a limited time offer, and will remain on shelves for the foreseeable future, while supplies last.

This refrigerated butter is only available in a 3.5-ounce (99 grams) tub — 3.5 ounces of butter is no large number, and the black plastic tub that contains that amount of A.1. Steakhouse Butter looks like a serving that could be used up in one sitting. But it turned out to be a sneaky big amount of butter in that tiny little tub.

A.1. Steakhouse Butter base is grade AA butter, which is made of pasteurized cream and lactic acid. Mixed in, naturally, is A.1. Steak Sauce, which is composed of tomato puree, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, spices, dried garlic, caramel color, dried onion, and xanthan gum. Also found within is raisin paste and crushed orange puree, which are the fruits that give A.1. Sauce that extra punch of flavor. Added in for good measure is garlic, chives, parsley, roasted garlic, sea salt, basil, oregano, and more xanthan gum. This butter contains the allergen milk.

The tub of A.1. Steakhouse Butter contains about 7 tablespoon servings. A single tablespoon contains 90 calories, 10 grams of total fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 25 milligrams of cholesterol, and 70 milligrams of sodium. It contains no trans fat, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, sugars, nor protein.

Underneath the lid of the A.1. Steakhouse Butter tub lies a rounded mound of light orange butter, with a small peaked top. It almost resembles a frozen-in-place scoop of Wendy's Pumpkin Spice Frosty, sprinkled with black and green flecks of garnish. Straight from the fridge, the butter was almost rock hard, and my knife was only able to break off small pieces at a time.

I leaned in for a smell test, and the aroma didn't exactly scream "A.1. Sauce." While there were some familiar scents from the bottled sauce, namely vinegar, the butter generally gave off an essence of being a garlic-heavy ranch butter. Whatever it was, it was a welcoming smell.

The goal of this butter is to enhance the flavor of food, but for my first set of tastings, I wanted to try it by its lonesome. While it was not all that creamy, it did have a nice slickness to its texture. As the butter melted in my mouth, bits of parsley and chives got left behind on my tongue. The butter had an A.1. bent to its flavoring, but it was way less snappy than the sauce is. It added up to a butter that was mildly pungent, with not as much zing to it, as I thought it might contain. It's a subtle butter that is certainly a step up from a standard pat of regular butter.

The real test of flavor strength for A.1. Steakhouse Butter is when it's applied to food. It would have been blasphemous if I didn't test it in the searing of a steak, and then topping the steak before eating it — and so I did exactly that. The flavoring of the butter didn't seem to make much noise in the taste of the steak. If it did, it was working quiet magic in the background. I mean, the steak did taste good, but it mainly just tasted like salted steak. When I slathered the butter onto corn, it provided a nice sheen to the corn, and the parsley and chives dressed up its appearance, but it didn't exactly move the needle of its flavoring.

My final taste test involved an English muffin. After it finished toasting, I spread a generous amount of the A.1. Steakhouse Butter across it. It immediately melted and merged with the muffin, turning its pale white skin a peachy-salmon color. Turns out, an English muffin was the perfect match for this butter. It brought a meaty steak flavor to the breakfast table, without having any actual steak in the morning. Not sure that's what Kraft Heinz had in mind when it crafted this branded butter, but it proves that A.1. Steakhouse Butter may deserve a place in your house. You just have to find the right place to spread it all over.