Monkey gland sauce is a dark, thick, sweet and tangy sauce and is typically served with grilled meat. It was invented in the early part of the 20th century at The Savoy in London by the Italian maître d' for a rather mad Russian-born French scientist, Dr Abrahamovitch Serge Voronoff (1866-1951).

He caused a sensation by grafting monkey testicle tissue onto the testicles of men, believing that this was an effective treatment to induce rejuvenation. What is scary is 3 years after introducing his monkey gland treatment, Voronoff was hailed by 700 of the world's leading surgeons at an International Congress in London, '...for his revolutionary discovery of how to reverse the ageing process!' There is even a mention of it in one of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Fortunately, the treatment is no longer available but Monkey Gland Sauce lives on and is a particular favourite in the Johannesburg area of South Africa where it is served with grilled beefsteak and game.

The sauce goes particularly well with meat from deer, elk, moose and antelope, all animals that rarely develop the intramuscular fat called ‘marbling’ as cows do as their fat is typically around the edges of the muscles, not within. South Africa has an abundance of antelope species so I've served venison with the sauce. I’ve sliced it on a meat slicer and BBQ’d with some corn and served it on a bun slathered with monkey gland sauce and topped with cabbage, tomato, cucumber and red onion. #bbqbites #CA2025