El Yucateco collection

By luck and happenstance (and feverish searching and hoarding techinques), the following collection is made possible:

The back row is just duplicates.

My strong favorite is the Caribbean. The heat is quite intense and the flavor just about zings out loud. This one can be hard to find. I got this particular bottle at Carniceria Jimenez in Bensenville.

Second and third place go to the red and green habanero sauces. These are the easiest to find and apparently enjoy the widest audience. I crave this sauce for eggs & chorizo and on ramen.

The 'XXXTRA HOT SAUCE Salsa Kutbil-ik de Salsa Habanero - Original Maya Recipe' is certainly hot but disappontingly tastes of little else. Ingredients list vinegar and spices. I sometimes enjoy this in my cervesas celadas*. Something here reminds me of cracked black pepper.

The jalapeno and chipotle sauces are, in my opinion, just ok. The chipotle sauce is a touch sweet for my taste but it is nice and smokey. I think it might be a nice component to a pork marinade I haven't come up with yet. The jalapeno sauce has kind of a chemically or plastic taste going on that is sort of distracting. It does taste 'green' which I enjoy quite a lot with eggs and parsley. I've only found the jalapeno sauce at three places: Lincolnwood Produce, Produce Center (Yelp) and Woodmans.

The achiotes are more marinades or rubs and are ok on their own.

*Cervezas Cheladas: One can of Miller Lite, 3 1oz ice cubes, juice of one lime**, couple dashes of Goya Sazon with Pepper and as much hot sauce of your choice as you can handle in a pint glass.

**I use a lever hand-driven squeezer. Link here. Makes very short and easy work of basically all small citrus fruits.

I am glad to see that someone other than myself has found all the El Yucateco sauces etc available. I also prefer the Carribean and when I find it purchase at least 6 bottles as it is hit or miss when stores have it. For a milder but very tasty hot sauce that we use a lot, we purchase the Cholula but in a case of 4 1/2 gal containers because by the bottle it is very expensive. http://cholulastore.com/detail.aspx?ID=5
BTW Cholula used to be Viuda de Sánchez but they sold the formula and name to Hublien for the Sangrita!-Dick

My favorite of the bunch is actually the Kutbil-ik de Salsa Habanero. This is basically El Yucateco's version of the extra hot sauce that is served at Xni-Pec with the cochinita pibil. I like it not just for the heat, but because of the pure, fruity habanero flavor that comes through, lightly accented with the acidity of vinegar. It's simply one of my favorite hot sauces, period.

I agree that the Caribbean is very good, too. Out here the Pete's Markets and the Cermak Produce consistently carry it. I also prefer the milder Red Habanero to the more fiery Green Habanero.

Apparently, looking at El Yucateco's website, they also have a product called "Mayakut," which looks like fresh toasted and mashed habanero peppers and comes in a jar instead of a bottle. Anybody ever see this around here?

I've got em all, too

best:
green habanero
liquid achiote
kutbil-ik
carribean

---the chipotle's a bit sweet for my taste as well, I prefer the Tabasco version

I also like the Yucateco brand of sauces, I like & have at home the Carribean, and the green and red chile habanero sauces.

My one issue with their sauces is the ingredients list. I am not a fan of food coloring, or sodium benzoate(sp) as ingredients in my hot sauces.

I prefer a simple recipe of peppers, vinegar, salt, and maybe some carrots in the hot sauces/habanero sauces I like. With that said I do like Yucateco, and overlook my aversion to these chemicals.

", looking at El Yucateco's website, they also have a product called "Mayakut," which looks like fresh toasted and mashed habanero peppers and comes in a jar instead of a bottle. Anybody ever see this around here?"

No , must be a new product, note that it is a salsa instead of a hot sauce. I will be on the lookout for it!-Dick

Yes, I noticed. Actually, I think that stuff might be closer to the habanero sauce which is served at Xni-Pec (the hotter stuff that is mostly habaneros, not the eponymous table salsa). I thought Antonio called it kub, but it looks like I misheard him and it's actually kut, which looks the root of the name "Mayakut" (as well as "kutbil-ik.") If you find it, let me know.

BrendanR wrote:By luck and happenstance (and feverish searching and hoarding techinques), the following collection is made possible:

Very cool! El Yucateco are among my favorites along with Texas Pete, Tapatio, Melindas, Marie Sharps and Bufalo Chipotle. Though, who am I kidding, I like most any type of hot sauce.

Enjoy,
Gary

i can't do it anymore. i love el yucateco green and was a fan of kutbilik for awhile. these sauces have a nice kick. the frontend is great, however, lately the backend has been too much for me. i can't keep wasting my time on throne for long periods of time and its getting worse so i have to retire my el yucateco collection. its come to a point where even sirracha gives me a problem. again, the frontend of these sauces is great but the backend, oi, i'm hanging up the jersey

budrichard wrote:", looking at El Yucateco's website, they also have a product called "Mayakut," which looks like fresh toasted and mashed habanero peppers and comes in a jar instead of a bottle. Anybody ever see this around here?"

No , must be a new product, note that it is a salsa instead of a hot sauce. I will be on the lookout for it!-Dick

I have a jar of this. It is more of a liquidy paste that packs quite some heat. When I open the jar, it only takes the quick initial whiff to instantly make my mouth water. I usually dip a fork into the jar and the amount adhering to the fork is more than enough for a taco. I picked it up last January at a local supermarket on Isla Mujeres, Yucutan Peninsula, Mexico for about 1.75 USD. I have used about a fifth of the jar despite using it consistently. I have not seen this anywhere in Chicago.
Attempting to translate using my broken spanish from jar:
Ingredients- Habanero Chilis, Vinegar, tomato, iodized salt, spices, and .1% sodium benzoate
Manufactured in Merida, Yucatan, Tel: (99)401180
Attention Center: 01-800-472-2427
Email: salsa@sureste.com

Here's another rare one I completely forgot I had at work.

This one is more like Cholula with that earthy peppery taste. It's not my favorite but the bottle on the communal condiment shelf at work is nearly empty.

I'd love to find a jar of that Mayakut.

I just picked up some El Yucateco Pasta de Achiote Condimento Rub from the Grand Central Market in Los Angeles. It looks very similiar to Brendan R's Achiote except for the fact that it is 425g and the brick of rub is covered in plastic and is mostly in Spanish. I'd be interested to find out if it's the same product as the english boxed counterpart. Ingredient list(in English): "Annatto Seed, Vinegar, Garlic, Iodated Salt, Spices, and Sodium Bensoate as a preservative."
"Para Preparar Exquisitos Platillos de Carnes Adobadas Y Asadas, Pollos Rostizados Y Conchita Pibil"
English on Package: "For the preparation of exquisite meat dishes: Lamb, Beef, Veal, Chicken, Pork, Ground Beef."

As I type this post, I can smell the spicy goodness still resonating on my fingers from picking up the sealed package to read the ingredients. Note to self: do not rub eyes before washing hands based on prior experience.

Can't wait to put this use...

BrendanR wrote:Here's another rare one I completely forgot I had at work.

This one is more like Cholula with that earthy peppery taste. It's not my favorite but the bottle on the communal condiment shelf at work is nearly empty.

I'd love to find a jar of that Mayakut.

I've got a couple of bottles of this and agree its more like Cholula but peppery.

We like Cholula so much, I mail order a case of 4 1/2gal dispensor containers.
BTW Cholula has new flavors of which I have only found the garlic.-Dick

I've still never found the Mayakut sauce locally here in Chicagoland, has anyone seen it?

Happily, the Caribbean sauce is pretty easily found nowadays. It is still my favorite El Yuc sauce.

I was looking at the website tonight and found this product I've not come across before:
El Yucateco Chimole
The descirption:

For hundreds of years Mayan people have used Chilmole, Mayan word for “spicy sauce”, to prepare delicious traditional dishes.

This condiment is made from burnt habanero peppers. Now you have the exotic taste of traditional Mayan cuisine right on your table.

Use it to marinate chicken or turkey.

Anything other than the Red, Green, or xxx is hard to find. I get the others at El Rey on 16 th St in MilwUkee. I don't remember seeing the pastes. When I see the Carribean, I get 6 bottles.
Currentl am working through 2 #'s of Passilla de Oaxaca for my pastes and moles, so the El Yuceteco pastes will have to wait. If I do see them at El Rey, I will Post.-Dick

Big thank you to everyone who raved about the Caribbean! I just bought a bottle at HarvesTime and I really like it! Kind of reminds me of a spicy hot A-1 sauce, fruity and tangy (I love A-1).

HarvesTime was fully stocked with the Caribbean, if anyone's looking to stock up. They carry a pretty wide variety of Yucateco, though I don't know if they have all of the ones mentioned here.

Harvestime Foods
2632 West Lawrence Avenue, Chicago, IL
(773) 989-4400 ‎ · harvestimefoods.com

Another one!
El Yucateco Black Label Reserve!
Front label
Ingredients
I must say I don't much care for this sauce. It is very thin and one dimensionally smokey in flavor.
It reminds me a lot of the XXX Kut-Bilik which I'm also lukewarm on.
They certainly do bring the heat, though.

I've seen this at Fresh Farms in Niles and Walmart, of all places.

Yeah, I've seen the black one in stores for a couple of months now. I picked one up in maybe May. I'm still not entirely sure what to make of it. It's grown on me a bit, judging by the fact there's only a third of the bottle left, but it's definitely a bit of an acquired taste. The smokey flavor is a little odd, too. There's a char-ness to it. There's no liquid smoke or smoke flavoring listed on the ingredients, so I guess it's actually smoked or charred habaneros? I dunno. Anyhow, I think this one, on its own, is probably my least favorite of the El Yucatecos, but it's worth trying if only for its unique taste. It also seems a good bit less spicy than the other El Yucatecos to me. I also think it works well as an ingredient if you want to add some smokey habanero-ness to a sauce or whatnot.

We have been using the Black for a few months now after I found it at El Ray in Milwaukee.
Initially the price was at a premium over other El Yucateco but after price resistance, came down.
We like the smokiness which is different than the traditional chipotle.
It's more akin to Passilla de Oaxaca, which we use a lot of.-Richard