Steak Diane Vs Steak Au Poivre: What's The Difference?

Step back in time to a steakhouse in the 1960s and two dishes would have been all the rage: steak Diane and steak au poivre. Though these have fallen out of favor with diners and might be considered vintage steak dishes today, they have a comforting heartiness that warrants a revival. So what separates the two, and which is best for your next retro dinner?

As they're generally served today, both of these classic dishes consist of a pan-fried steak with a creamy pan sauce. The key difference is that the sauce from a steak Diane often includes mushrooms, while the steak au poivre, as the name suggests, makes use of a peppercorn sauce. But depending on who you ask, and even in which decade the question was posed, these two steak dishes might have more to separate them, including the cut of steak used and how the dish is prepared. They differ in origin too — steak au poivre is considered a classic of French cuisine, while the details behind the creation of steak Diane are up for debate.

Like so many classic dishes, the precise origins of steak Diane are unclear at best. Sauce a la Diane (named for the Roman goddess of the hunt) was popular in the 19th century and made to accompany game, rather than beef, and consisted of cream, pepper, and truffles. Mentions of steak Diane didn't come until much later, with its origins disputed to be in either 1930s Belgium, or 1940s Manhattan.

The key to the dish was a rich pan sauce, not necessarily a creamy one, and some early recipes differed somewhat from today, consisting simply of butter, chopped chives, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. By the late 1950s it had become a popular restaurant dish, ordered in part for the spectacle. Steak Diane was often prepared tableside, with chefs flambéing the dish thanks to an additional ingredient — cognac. Chefs often used steak that had been pounded thin, allowing for quick cooking at the table.

Steak Diane might have fallen out of favor on restaurant menus, but the recipe has become a classic. Although there are still plenty of variations, steak Diane sauce generally includes shallots, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, cognac, cream, and often mushrooms. A tender cut of steak is essential, flambéing is less so, but it is fun.

Steak au poivre translates to pepper steak, and there's no doubting the accuracy of the name when you're served a steak covered in crushed pepper accompanied by a peppercorn sauce. The technique of coating steak in peppercorns is believed to have emerged in the bistros of Normandy, France, in the late 19th century, when pepper was considered a powerful aphrodisiac. The sauce part of the equation came later, in the early 20th century, with some food historians believing that it developed from sauce a la Diane.

Just as with the steak Diane, the steak au poivre has plenty of variations, with the only consistent component being the crushed peppercorn coating. Generally speaking, the sauce includes cognac, beef or veal stock, and cream, though Julia Child's recipe notably swaps the cream for butter. Surprisingly, not all steak au poivre recipes include pepper in the sauce, like this one from Steve Corry, instead relying on the pepper coating to add the namesake flavor.