Hot Sauce

In my pantry right now, I have: 1 quart of Louisiana Hot Sauce, a bottle of Sriracha, El Yucateco Red and Green Habanero sauce, Tabasco in its' regular, chipotle and habanero incarnations, Jamaica Country Style Brand Crushed Scotch Bonnet sauce, Eaton's Jamaican Crushed Pepper sauce, Eaton's West Indian Hot Mustard sauce, a bottle that just says; "Pure Habanero Red Savina," Garden Row Foods Habanero sauce, Cora and Ziyad brand crushed red peppers and a homemade sauce of ancho, pasilla and morita peppers soaked in water and run through the blender with white vinegar. What hot sauces can't you live without? Almost all of these are variations on the peppers, vinegar, salt recipe. The Eaton's Mustard sauce is a delicious exception, it includes (suprise) ground mustard seed. I've made a batch of Gary's chili oil which is in heavy roatation now; what styles of hot sauce have I ommitted?

i kinda break hot sauces into 2 main categories -- pure heat sauces and flavor sauces. the pure heat sauces don't lend a lot of flavor to a dish, they just add pure, unadulterated, crazy heat. i like that. in that category, i have dave's insanity sauce. i had a bottle of endorphin rush, which was the first crazy hot sauce that i was introduced to, but i gave it to a neighbor once i got the dave's and realized it'd literally be years before i could finish both bottles. da' bomb final answer was the hottest i've ever had in the pure heat category, too crazy even for me. now i have a gifted da' bomb ground zero which hasn't seen much action yet.

flavor sauces are a lot more nuanced -- sweet hot, salty hot, ... so i don't necessarily have a favorite in that department. right now i have tabasco, which serves its purpose on occasion, especially in gazpacho, and xtreme, a nicely flavored and spicy item. for asian food, i love the standard sambal olek.

unbeknowneth wrote:what styles of hot sauce have I ommitted?

Not so much style as brand. I'm partial to Choula's hot sauce right now, although good ole Louisiana Hot Sauce is a stadby for this style.

I really like Cajun Power Sauce, a garlic hot sauce that is real good with poultry and made in Opelousas, LA.

I brought back about 10 bottles of hot sauce from my trip to Lafayette, LA last summer. Then one of my friends sent me a case of various Tobasco sauce products from the McIllheney plantation on Avery Island.

unbeknowneth wrote:What hot sauces can't you live without?

There are only two.

One.

Two.

Sometime, sometime, I might just tell the board my very personal story about Dave's Insanity Sauce. All that I will say, for now, is that it involves napalm, alligators, fly-fishing, chewing tobacco and pimiento cheese sandwiches.

Regards,
Erik M.

My kids are addicted to Sticky Fiingers' habanero wing sauce -- not too hot, not as fruity as the belizean-style sauces. Tabasco is more of a general seasoning for me: it's needed for recipes because it's a known quantity, but I rarely put it straight on food (kinda violates the "don't cook with what you wouldn't drink rule, but then again, I wouldn't drink the other stuff either).

Cholula has great depth of flavors, sort of the A1 of the basic hot sauces.

One of my current faves is a yellow habanero sauce called Aztexan. Running low, have to see if I can find it somewhere.

Just checked to recall what I bought yesterday. Not yet tried. Tapatio.

These might be of interest.

http://www.fiery-foods.com
http://www.thehotpepper.com

I like heat with flavor, not just for heat's sake.

I tend to agree with the "flavor" and "insane" breakdown. For my insanity fix, I look no further than the aptly-named Dave's TOTAL Insanity Sauce. They claim that that's the one to add directly to food (as opposed to cooking with it) due to it's garlicky flavor. Right. "Flavor".

A local BBQ joint (The BEST one in N.O.) turned me on to the "Mad Dog" hot sauce, and I believe it's heat quotient is over a million Scoville units. I use a toothpick head's amount to put it n anything and it's still freaking mighty!

Teetering on the edge is Sambal Oelek. It rules. I can just about put that in everything, and have my heat AND flavor kick. Bad pizza crusts take on an entirely new life with judicious applications of this.

There's a local Sauce called "Frank's" that's a pleasant flavor combo of wing sauce-meets-casual Louisiana hot sauce. Good stuff. Melinda's has a habanero ("XXXX" being the hottest ) that rocks a bit. I like these milder flavors in my Creole dishes. I despise Tabasco, because it's far too easy to go one drip over the line and make the entire dish taste like Tabasco!! And I find no heat in it, whatsoever.

Certainly today there's a bewildering array of hot sauces on the market, many of them good but some of them just stuff in a bottle with an interesting label.

For the combo of heat AND good flavor one of my standby's is still Blair's Death sauce. They've added on to the line with After Death and others but I don't think they taste as good, they appear to have pepper extract in them. IMO sauces containing extract have an off-tasting bitterness to them that I simply can't stand, sort of the hot sauce equivalent to the artificial sweetener flavor I can't stand in diet sodas. Extract based sauces are OK for "hotting" up a big pot of chili or something but I pass on them otherwise.

I also like the Melinda's XXXX, especially on pizza.

Sal Monilla wrote:There's a local Sauce called "Frank's" that's a pleasant flavor combo of wing sauce-meets-casual Louisiana hot sauce. Good stuff.

They sell Frank's around here, too. I do like it as an ingredient in my BBQ sauce.

I do not really like the condimenty hot sauces like Choula, or in other words, I do not like my hot sauces with much in them besides vinegar, pepper, salt and spices. No fruit, no carrots, etc.

I like the taste of Louisana Hot Sauce hot sauce on fried chicken (ala Harolds) and french fries. Also, southern style veg. and fried catfish too.

I like tabasco in soups, spaghetti sauces, gravy, bloody mary's.

I like Yucateco on ceviche.

But I also very much love, and would use in any of these contexts above, Tapatio. As well documented, a heavy dose of Tapatio hot sauce can help recreate the magic of Arthur Bryant's BBQ.

One more hot sauce I like a lot is Salsa Huichol, discovered at Islas Marias. It is a thicker hot sauce, almost the consistency of BBQ sauce, with a subtle heat and a bit of smoke. Not a lot of places have it.

Rob

Vital Information wrote:I do not really like the condimenty hot sauces like Choula, or in other words, I do not like my hot sauces with much in them besides vinegar, pepper, salt and spices. No fruit, no carrots, etc.

Cholula ingredients:

Vinegar, red peppers, piquin peppers, salt, spices, edible food stabilizer.

Cholula isn't bad. I'd rather have it than tabasco most days, and we don't have many choices in our fridge at the office.

-ed

At the monent, I have these in the pantry:

~Sriracha std
~Sriracha Garlic
~Badia's 'Caribbean Heat' habanero sauce
~Trappey's 'Peppers in Vinegar'..unfortunately, these might be a collectors' item. These are tabasco peppers, very hot and the infused vinegar is a great sauce of its own. I love it on chili.
~Quart jar of Giardiniera from Glorioso's, Milwaukee..hmm, better make that half a jar.
~El Yucateco Green

And since Frank's was mentioned for wing sauce, they also have a "Red Hot Buffalo Wing" flavor that's pretty good if that's your style.

I've been trying to replace my bottle Melindas for a while now, too.

gleam wrote:

Vital Information wrote:I do not really like the condimenty hot sauces like Choula, or in other words, I do not like my hot sauces with much in them besides vinegar, pepper, salt and spices. No fruit, no carrots, etc.

Cholula ingredients:

Vinegar, red peppers, piquin peppers, salt, spices, edible food stabilizer.

Cholula isn't bad. I'd rather have it than tabasco most days, and we don't have many choices in our fridge at the office.

-ed

Is not Choula the one with carrots and stuff? Maybe I'm getting it mixed up with something else.

Whatever.

It's ones with carrots and fruit I do not like.

Rob

Erik M, I would like to hear that story, sounds like a good one. I agree with your #1 selection. My kids put it on everything from pizza to eggs. I love Tabasco, but you have tempted me to try your #2 selection. Looks interesting.

jlawrence01 wrote:I really like Cajun Power Sauce, a garlic hot sauce that is real good with poultry and made in Opelousas, LA.

I'll second that rec. Their Garlic Sauce is not really very hot at all - great flavor though. Their web site is Here.

not even thinking about this thread, I just got back from having an oyster po-boy, and I put that "Texas Pete's" on it. I didn't know that was even an option on these mean streets of suburban New Orleans! Having followed the links in Erik M's post, the serendipity finally dawned on me, and I was glad I had more than Tabasco!!

It was durn GOOD, too!!

ChiNOLA wrote:I'll second that rec. Their Garlic Sauce is not really very hot at all - great flavor though. Their web site is Here.

A six pack of fried spicy chicken wings from Popeye's topped with a half bottle of Power Sauce ...

Followed by a couple of boudin links from the Boudin King in Opelousas ...

It is the kind of thing that dreams are made of ....

Vital Information wrote:Is not Choula the one with carrots and stuff? Maybe I'm getting it mixed up with something else.

I'm not sure. If it's "choula" you're thinking of, I have no experience with it... the cholula brand is the one that shows up in all the area grocery stores, etc. Has a woman on the label. Regardless.

I do agree with you generally on sauces that have carrots and other stuff in them. Too much complexity.

Hmm..while checking out the Texas Pete website, I see they have a similar 'pepper sauce' I was lamenting as discontinued in my previous post. Vinegar isn't mentioned in the list of ingredients, though.

Who sells TP products in the Chicago area?

I've noticed that carrot (completely pureed) seems to be the ingredient used to dial down a standard, "crazy heat" hot sauce, without adding additional "fruity" flavor layers. I like how that works. Sometimes I don't want to reckon with the pure atomic blast of just habanero/vinegar/salt. The brands that do a version with some carrot are just what I need at such times.

BrendanR wrote:Who sells TP products in the Chicago area?

I do not recall seeing it for sale in Chicago. If anyone does know of a source, I'd be grateful.

I bring it back from Down South, or have friends bring some back for me. My current stash came compliments of Cathy2. In addition to bottles of the regular hot sauce, she also gave me a bottle of the "Buffalo Style Chicken Wing" sauce. I'd never tried it before, but I sure do like it.


Keep it Crunk,
Erik M.

Man, I have hot sauce for every occasion. Tabasco for oysters, the Yucatecos and lately Zim's Gallito manzano sauce for grilled meats, Huy Fong sriracha and sambal olek for Viet/Thai stuff, Lee Kum Kee chili garlic for cooking, Buffalo/Hiuchol/Valentina for Mexican seafood cocktails and soups. Certain styles just go perfectly with the foods from the same place. Crystal is like Heinz around the Gulf, and was in my school cafeterias growing up in FL. It's perfect with fried seafood, esp. devil crabs. Cajun Power is good, but what is that critter on the bottle -- maskrat, nutria, Cajun Squirrel dog? Texas Pete and Franks are in the same style, I think.

Most of the Carribean, scotch bonnet sauces are a bit perfumy for my tastes, but some of the mustard based sauces are good.

But the best stuff is always free: the salsas at Oaxaquena, the sauce at the new Cafe Trinidad, the aji at Mi Ciudad, the malagueta sauce that comes with acaraje, pili pili hoho sauce with Swahili fish fritters, my Guatemalan in-laws' salsa cocida with pureed carrots, good olive oil, and tons of piquin chiles on tamales. That reminds me, we're out.

My single favorite bottled sauce is Lizano "Tabasco" brand from Costa Rica/Nicaragua. Probably won't find it here since the La. company has managed over 100 years to trademark that descriptive place/pepper name (see Peppers: a Story of Hot Pursuits, Amal Naj). My prized (empty) bottle is a Tabasco bottle from the La. company with the text in Arabic.

JeffB wrote:Cajun Power is good, but what is that critter on the bottle -- maskrat, nutria, Cajun Squirrel dog?

Chile dog?

The hot sauce that we like a LOT is the mayan style hot sauce from Yucateca. It ismcalled salsa kutbik-ik-dil or something like that. I found it in the delray farms maket close to the argyle neighborhood. It is hot, but it also has a smoky earthy smell and flavor to it.

Like JeffB, I have a plethora of hot sauces which I use for different purposes, although I am not a fan of the "insanity" style sauces, for just adding heat, I 'd rather add a chile or use some of the liquid from malaguetas

The one I buy in quart size bottles is tapatio, which I use to cook pork chops, add to my black beans and doctor bbq sauces with, due it to its similarity in some ways to arthur bryants (search chowhound for more on that)

For most meat base tacos, I like tamazula, similar in taste profile but a little thicker. My wife prefers Rob's salsa huichol, but for the life of me I can't remember which market I picked it up at - if folks know a local source let me know, though salsa zaaschila at food for less (which has a pretty good hot sauce selection, which is the main reason to go there) is a pretty near substitute (by the way Rob - Harolds uses Bulliard's brand lousiana hot sauce)

For veggie/cheese tacos/huaraches I like the salsa manzanita that jeff b mentions

on the asian front, gary's chile oil is indispensable (though I'll often add just a few fermented black beans to the mix), the other store bought chile oil variety i'm partial to is put out by hanguo foodstuffs, Erik M. turned me on to the one with lots of sesame seeds floating on top.

I'm also partial to the "brightness" of sambal oelek, which is pretty easy to make on one's own. If you look around there are a number of very interesting sambal varieties avaialble, including one I got with gandaria, an indonesian caper like berry

I'm not a huge habanero based sauce fan, but when I do use the fairly commonplace salsa yucateco

that's all off the top of my head, but if there not on the top of my head, they probably don't fit into the category of "which do you use most?"

zim wrote:on the asian front, gary's chile oil is indispensable (though I'll often add just a few fermented black beans to the mix), the other store bought chile oil variety i'm partial to is put out by hanguo foodstuffs, Erik M. turned me on to the one with lots of sesame seeds floating on top.

Yes, I had considered putting the Hangou Chile Oil on my list, but I took the OP literally. The question was, "What hot sauces can't you live without?" And, I suppose that I can live without alot. But, I would completely spin-out if I had to go for an extended period of time without Sriracha and Texas Pete.

Erik M.

Greetings all, welcome to my first post.

I found this forum wilst googling to find the address of Mitsuwa. I've been stuck reading for about an hour now... Anyway, I just had to respond to this post.

So, while I do use quite a bit of Dave's Insanity and eat sambal olek almost daily I had to mention one of my favorites that hasn't been shown up here. It's called Pyromania and it's from the local area (Franklin Park). The bottle and name make it apear to be an "insanity" type sauce but I find it quit mild and rather tasty. It's pretty chunky and not at all watery with a great smokey flavor. I love it on eggs and with chicken. Hmm, actually it's really good in pulled pork as well...

See ya' and great forum!

Texas Pete is manufactured in Winston Salem. It is to the Carolinas what Louisiana Brand is the New Orleans. Here's a link to where you can buy it online:

http://www.salsasetc.com/catalog/hot_sauces.html