What Goes On, With, and Around Meat
Spices season the meat before or during cooking: harissa, paprika, cumin, peppercorns. Finishing salts go on at the end, after the meat has cooked and rested, for crunch and a final hit of flavor. Condiments and sauces sit next to the meat at the table, or get brushed on during the last few minutes — chimichurri, mustard, chutney, jam, hot sauce.
The harissa we carry is made by Mina or DEA in France, not a mass-market brand. Our salts come from Maldon in England or Le Guérandais in Brittany, not iodized table salt. Hot sauces, mustards, and jams come from small specialty producers we work with directly. None of this changes the meat itself, but all of it changes what the meat tastes like.
Cooking Spices: Harissa, Paprika, and the Meat Rack
Start with harissa. A North African chile-and-spice paste, smoky and warm without being aggressive, it is what gives merguez its red color and gentle heat, and what to brush on lamb or chicken before they hit the grill. Mina makes a Moroccan version that leans bright and citrusy. DEA, a French producer working in the Tunisian tradition, makes one that leans deeper and earthier, with coriander and caraway in the background. Both work as marinades, stirred into stews, or thinned with olive oil and lemon as a sauce for grilled meat. A spoonful does more than a whole rack of dried herbs.
Paprika is the spice that defines Spanish chorizo, Hungarian goulash, and almost any rub that needs color and warmth. Smoked paprika — pimentón, from oak-smoked peppers in the La Vera region of Spain — is the smoky version, the one that gives chorizo and Spanish stews their depth. Hungarian sweet paprika is the gentler counterpart, fruity rather than smoky, the base of paprikash and a good all-around rub spice. A teaspoon of either lifts a rub from generic to specific.
Cumin is the backbone of Middle Eastern and Mexican meat seasoning, earthy and warm, and one of the few spices that improves dramatically with a thirty-second toast in a dry pan before grinding. The flavor in pre-ground cumin starts fading within weeks. Whole cumin seeds, toasted and crushed when you need them, taste almost like a different spice — and they keep for a year. The same applies to coriander, which pairs with cumin in nearly every cuisine that uses both.
Peppercorns deserve more thought than the pre-ground supermarket jar suggests. Whole black peppercorns crushed fresh under a heavy pan give a coarse, aromatic crust on a steak that fine pepper cannot match. Green peppercorns, picked underripe and brined or dried, are the soul of a French peppercorn cream sauce. Pink peppercorns are not really peppercorns at all — they come from a different plant — but their mild, floral bite and red-pink color make them a finishing touch on pâté, smoked salmon, or a delicate sauce. A grinder that produces a real coarse crack matters as much as which peppercorn you buy.
For broader spice blends across all cooking, not just meat, our rubs, spices and seasonings collection has the wider range, including the blends made for vegetables, fish, and baking.
Finishing Salts: Maldon, Fleur de Sel, and Smoked Sea Salts
A finishing salt goes on at the end, after the meat is cooked and rested. The point is crunch and a clean burst of saltiness that table salt cannot give you.
Maldon Sea Salt comes from the Maldon Salt Company in England, where they have been making salt the same way since 1882. The crystals form pyramid-shaped flakes that crush easily between two fingers. Maldon is the salt most chefs reach for as a finishing touch on a seared steak or a roasted vegetable. The texture is what makes it work — the flakes shatter as you bite them, releasing salinity in pulses rather than all at once.
Le Guérandais Fleur de Sel de Guérande is the French equivalent, hand-harvested from salt marshes in Brittany. The crystals are smaller and slightly moist, with a delicate mineral note from the clay beds where the salt is collected. Use it on grilled meat, but also on chocolate, caramel, or sliced tomatoes. It is the salt to finish with when you want subtlety rather than a sharp crunch.
Smoked sea salts and other specialty salts round out the salt selection. The basic rule with finishing salts: do not cook with them. Their texture is the point, and it dissolves into nothing if you boil them in water or bake them into bread.
Condiments and Sauces: What to Put on What
A rough guide by protein:
- Steak — chimichurri (Argentine herb-and-garlic sauce), green or black peppercorn sauce, a sharp mustard, or just a finishing salt. The richer the steak, the brighter the sauce should be.
- Pork — apple chutney, fig or onion jam, grain mustard, or a fruit-forward barbecue sauce. Pork takes sweetness well, especially the heritage breeds with more fat.
- Lamb — harissa, mint sauce, a yogurt-based condiment, or a chutney with cumin. Lamb wants something with acid or heat to cut its richness.
- Burgers and hot dogs — Dijon mustard, caramelized onion jam, fig balsamic, or a hot sauce like Torchbearer. The bun gives you room to layer flavors a steak would not need.
- Roast chicken or turkey — cranberry, fig, or onion jam, plus a hot mustard or chimichurri if you want heat. Mild meats want bigger flavors next to them.
If you're cooking on the grill, our BBQ grilling meats collection covers the steaks, chops, and sausages built for direct-fire cooking, and these condiments are what to put on them.
Also Worth Exploring
For mustards specifically, our honey and mustards collection covers Dijon, grain, and specialty mustards that work as well with meat as they do with cheese. For jams that pair with meat, especially the fruit-and-onion jams that go with pork and burgers, our jams and spreads collection has the full range. And for the meat itself, our pork collection carries Iberico, Berkshire, and the heritage cuts these condiments are designed to flatter.
Spices, Sauces & Condiments for Meat: Frequently Asked Questions
Gourmet condiments are the small-batch, specialty-producer versions of the sauces, mustards, jams, chutneys, and pastes most home cooks otherwise buy in supermarket form. The difference shows in the ingredients and the maker. A specialty Dijon mustard uses real white wine instead of synthetic acid. The fig jam contains actual figs in identifiable pieces rather than a fruit-flavored gel. Harissa from Mina or DEA is made the traditional North African way with whole chiles, not a powder reconstituted into a paste. Most of what we carry comes from European producers, French and English mostly, with a few American makers and one or two Middle Eastern brands. The cost per jar is higher than at a supermarket, but a small amount goes a long way, and the difference is obvious next to a steak or a slice of cheese.
Both are finishing salts, but they come from different places and have different textures. Fleur de Sel, French for "flower of salt," is hand-harvested from the surface of salt marshes in Brittany, especially around Guérande. The crystals are small, slightly moist, and faintly mineral, with a delicate texture rather than crunch. Maldon comes from the English town of Maldon, where the Maldon Salt Company has been making salt since 1882. The crystals form as flat pyramid-shaped flakes that crush between your fingers, giving sharp crunch and an audible snap when you bite them. Use Fleur de Sel when you want subtlety, on chocolate, caramel, or a delicate piece of fish. Use Maldon when you want crunch and presence, on a seared steak, a roasted vegetable, or a salad. Neither belongs in cooking water or in baked goods, where the texture disappears.
Steak rewards condiments that cut its richness rather than match it. Chimichurri, the Argentine herb-and-garlic sauce, is the classic — bright with parsley, oregano, garlic, vinegar, and olive oil, sometimes with a touch of chile. A green or black peppercorn cream sauce is the French steakhouse choice, especially for filet mignon. A sharp grain mustard works for a strip steak or a ribeye, and a flake of Maldon salt or Fleur de Sel is sometimes all a great cut needs at the end. Avoid anything sweet on a steak — fruit jams or sweet barbecue sauces compete with the meat rather than support it. Save those for pork or burgers. A simple rule: the richer and more marbled the steak, the brighter and sharper the condiment should be.
The three overlap, but each one does a different job. A spice is a dry, aromatic ingredient used during cooking — paprika, cumin, peppercorns, ground chiles. Spices flavor the meat as it cooks. A sauce is a liquid preparation, sometimes cooked along with the meat (a pan sauce, a braise) and sometimes added at the end (chimichurri, peppercorn sauce). A condiment is what sits at the table or gets added to the plate just before serving — mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, chutney, jam, hot sauce. Condiments are usually pre-made and shelf-stable; sauces are often made fresh and used right away. Salt blurs the line: a finishing salt acts like a condiment, added at the table, while cooking salt acts like a spice, added during cooking. Mustard blurs it too: in cooking it acts like a spice, on a sandwich it acts like a condiment.