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

For him, even talking about the show, analyzing its secret sauce, is offered up with a certain gnomic reticence. —Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 14 June 2024

But what really stuck the landing is what’s been the United States’ economic secret sauce for two centuries: immigration. —New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 3 Mar. 2024

Related Thread is Matter’s secret sauce for a better smart home Apple has used Thread for several years to connect devices to its smart home platform. —Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, The Verge, 5 June 2024

Chicken Quesadilla: $9. Tickle Pickle Restaurant: Big Mac Miller (classic cheeseburger slider with secret sauce): $8. —Grace Tucker, The Enquirer, 23 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1906, in the meaning defined at sense 2