secret sauce

noun

1

: a sauce that adds an important element to a dish and that has ingredients which are typically kept secret

A frank of beef, pork, and veal … is split lengthwise, coated with secret sauce, and cooked on a grill.

—Jane and Michael Stern

called also special sauce

2

: an element, quality, ability, or practice that makes something or someone successful or distinctive

If leadership has a secret sauce, it may well be humility. A humble boss understands that there are things he doesn't know.

—The Economist

called also special sauce

Examples of secret sauce in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The recommendation engine is TikTok’s secret sauce and what powers its popularity; without it, the app loses its most distinctive feature. —Brian Fung, CNN, 16 Sep. 2024

Timing Is Everything: Apply When The Timing Is Right Timing can be the secret sauce to achieving faster approvals. —Chris Scharman, Forbes, 12 Sep. 2024

The goal is to change the mindset from, in order to succeed, others must fail, into the, does this help me, does this not give away my competitive advantage, my secret sauce? —Harvard Business Review, 17 July 2024

Two smash burgers were topped with strips of Wagyu steak, black truffle puree, secret sauce, crispy halal beef bacon, caramelized onions and portobello mushrooms. —Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press, 1 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1906, in the meaning defined at sense 2