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When I'm grocery shopping and hot sauce is on the list I almost always try something new. Like BBQ sauce the varieties are endless so you'll never run out. My favorite though, and the only one I have unopened bottles in the cupboard, is this: Scotch bonnet peppers and habaneros are just the right level of heat for me, and they can be surprisingly fruity or even floral. The ingredients for this stuff is "Scotch Bonnet Peppers (Capsicum), Cane Vinegar, Cane Sugar, Water, Salt, Modified Starch, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid." On paper that looks no different than Lousiana hot sauce or Texas Pete. On tasting you'd swear there's something more in there - citrus zest, onions... The acidity does not overpower the heat or the flavor of the pepper itself, which can be a huge dealbreaker for me. I hate hot sauces that are too vinegar-y. Anyone have recommendations in the same range of heat? I'm really interested in trying other brands based on the same style of sauce. It's Caribbean in origin, but doesn't have any defining ingredients other than the type of pepper used. Also want to mention the only thing I ever actually refer to as my "secret ingredient."  Make a standard-rear end macaroni salad with hard boiled egg chunks + canned tuna + diced celery. When adding mayo and mixing, drop some sambal oelek in there to taste. Just enough heat to complement everything else. You still want it to be a refreshing cold mac salad. If you do it right, no one at the picnic will be able to identify chili/garlic as the secret ingredient. It's just really good mac salad. Gotta try this with lump crab meat instead of eggs/tuna sometime. WITCHCRAFT fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Jun 5, 2017 |
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Jun 5, 2017 07:14
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:59 |
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Just gotta say I love all the super hot naga/scorpion/reaper etc. peppers that are all shriveled up. They look just as evil as they taste. Those fuckers are mean as poo poo and they let you know it before you even touch them. Lookin' straight up like the sun dried heart of a sinner. If they had fists, those fists would be clenched. Got a couple Matouk's sauces on my list thanks to the thread. Someone posted Dinosaur Barbecue's habanero sauce earlier:  I really like their Wango Tango sauce. It's their regular BBQ sauce with more heat. It's fantastic as a glaze and as a dipping sauce. Most BBQ sauce you can find at a store in the northeast US is sugar based, but this has crushed tomatoes and vinegar as the first two ingredients. It can be a little runny compared to sugar based BBQ sauces, but tastes so much better with chicken and pork. I'm not a big fan of BBQ sauce that slowly sharts out of the jar and holds its form like some kind of savory pudding.  It's not a hot sauce, but it's plenty hot and a lot closer to a hot sauce than most BBQ sauces are. So loving good on wings or thighs that you've charred on the grill. Dinosaur is local to me, and I have fond memories of trying Wango Tango as my first "actually spicy" food as a kid. Later my parents would get angry at how fast we went through bottles of the stuff. edit: sometimes I even like to dip my steak in it 
WITCHCRAFT fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Jul 19, 2017 |
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Jul 19, 2017 07:26
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I got some lao gan ma finally. 1/2 teaspoon in garbage bin ramen makes it taste like the "fancy" ramen that is more than $1 a pop and has like 4 spice packets. Can't wait to throw it in a stir fry or soup with noodles. I licked the spoon that I used to get it out of the jar, then dipped it again just to lick more. It has a surprising depth of flavor considering it's just chilis, garlic, sichuan peppercorn, MSG in oil. Not that hot but the flavor more than makes up for it. The sichuan pepper is just right, I've had stuff in the past that numbed your tongue and made everything taste like faintly sour pennies. Other sauces have so little you don't even know it's there. This poo poo is just right 
WITCHCRAFT fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 13, 2018 23:52
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I've posted in this thread before, I like habanero and scotch bonnet sauces that are mostly just the pepper. Small amount of onions or carrots for sweetness. Habs and bonnets have a really clean/fresh flavor besides the heat that I love. I don't care for vinegar-heavy hot sauces. I'll try anything once though, unless it's pepper spray levels of heat. I have been working in a warehouse, and one of our clients sells hot sauces. Out of a pallet with hundreds of bottles, there's almost always a few where the cap or plastic seal are messed up. Those can't be sold, and a lot of the time the sauce is just fine. So we get to sample most of the stuff. Some of my favorites that I haven't seen before in this thread:  Mellow Habanero does habaneros just the way I like them. They have a few varieties, a smoky one, one that has hops in it (my favorite), and a milder version for those that prefer a little less heat. One of my favorite sauces ever.  Char Man roasts peppers for their sauces. Their verde is my favorite I've ever tried. Just look at it in the bottle! You can see the flavor.  Sam and Olliver Blackheart Cherry Reaper is sweet and hot and a bit tart. It looks like runny dark cherry jam. It's not INSANE XXX ATOMIC DEATH BOMB heat level even though it has reapers in it. It is about as hot as I can handle though. Amazing on pork, and for dipping egg rolls.  High River Cheeba Gold is really good if you like Caribbean stlye sauces. It's got peaches, mustard, a hint of cumin and curry powder. It's sooo good on fish and shrimp.  Heartbreaking Dawns 1542 Southwest Habanero is "really loving good taco sauce." Has a nice deep earthy roastyness to it, and lots of garlic. I've also gotten to try some of the sauces that come up in this thread. Dirty Dick's is excellent, Secret Aadvark was so good I went out and bought a bottle after trying it. I wish my town had a HOT SAUS EMPORIUM that did tastings/free samples or something, but getting to try all of these for free at work is almost as good. Now I have a backlog of sauces to buy, and easy reasonable Christmas wish list. 100 degrees Calcium posted:Do any of you folks use hot sauce as part of a burger/sandwich spread, and if so which hot sauces do you favor for the task? A restaurant in town used to make burger with what the chef called a "spicy cajun spread" and it was amazing. Genuinely spicy and flavorful. Sadly, the restaurant closed down about a year ago and I've wanted to recreate the burger myself. I bought some cajun mayonnaise on a lark and dear god was that awful. I figure I should do some experimenting on my own but I'm not a hot sauce expert by any means and uncertain where to start. All I can really figure is maybe I should grab something ostensibly out of Louisana and mix it with some mayonnaise. It sounds like you got a close approximation already, but I'd start with mayo, mix in hot sauce of choice and "cajun spice" mix. Puree roasted red peppers (out of a can or jar is fine) about 1/4 the volume of your bowl of mayo, then stir in the puree. Tweak it to taste afterwards with salt, black pepper, paprika, garlic powder, maybe a small dab of mustard. If it had chunks, finely diced onion, garlic, maybe pickles?
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Oct 15, 2018 01:17
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Unless it's not your thing, diced/grated* ginger would go well with everything else you've already thrown in there. Really complements cardamom, licorice/anise, and cinnamon without adding any sweetness. Unless you HATE ginger, I'd try at least one final bottle with it to test. Black pepper would mingle well too. You can also steep some of your ingredients in cheap vodka (fancy option: Everclear or similar) and add the infused liquor instead of solid ingredients if it's starting to get too thick or gritty. *Freeze your ginger, it will last forever and also you can shave off microplane sized pieces if you just scrape frozen ginger with a steak knife. It's comically easy and less cleanup than using an actual grater/microplane. Grated/pureed/superfine diced carrots are great to add at bottling time if your sauce came out a bit too hot and needs dilution. Adds just a pinch of sweetness. Onions are a runner-up for this method.
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Oct 16, 2018 07:01
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Christ, it looks like a library of sauces.
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Nov 3, 2018 01:49
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In March/April I noticed that the hot sauce section of my local grocer were getting very empty. Assumed that supply chain disruption meant that I might not get to try those sauces at a reasonable price anytime soon. So I loaded up on the hot sauces that could be got for $3 or less per bottle. I will absolutely pay more for something I know is good, but it's hard for me to justify $8 or more for a tiny bottle of something that might be underwhelming. Tabasco Chipotle: picked this up because people said it is a good mass market chipotle sauce, and far better than other Tabasco sauces. This is true. Lightly spicy, and just the right amount of smoke/sour to put on anything. Scrambled eggs, canned sardines, pizza, egg rolls, turkey subs, etc. Cholula Sweet Habanero: I love the flavor of habs and they are just the right level of heat for me. Sweet fruits like pineapple and mango go great with it. It is sweet and fruity. I did not like it, read the ingredients and found out that it doesn't just have pineapple in it, it has "natural pineapple flavor." Years ago I had a surgical thing where I had to drink a gallon of REMOVE ALL POOPS liquid before going to the doctor. It was pineapple flavored. It did not upset my stomach or make me puke. I did poop forever after drinking it though, and now any "pineapple flavor" foods taste unpleasant to me. This sauce is sweet and hot with a lingering flavor of "pineapple flavoring" and not just actual pineapple. Probably fine for anyone else, but I do not want it at all. Pickapeppa: it's spicy jerk chicken sauce. Goes good anywhere you might use A1 or Worcestershire sauce. It's great, but a complex flavor that you don't really want to mix with anything else. I loved it on turkey burgers w/ swiss cheese and carmelized onions and mushrooms. Tropical Pepper Co. Ghost Pepper: the first ingredient, even before water and vinegar, is ghost peppers. It has an unpleasant metallic smell. I like 2-3 drops in a bowl of soup or chili, mixed in real good. Straight out the bottle it is unpleasant both in level of heat and flavor. This is the spiciest sauce I have used and actually enjoyed. My last unopened sauce from that panic purchase is Tobasco spicy honey. I've had more expensive froofy niche hot honeys before, and this is actually honey + hot peppers so I would be surprised if it's bad. Anyone tried it before?
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Oct 22, 2020 07:57
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scuz posted:So now I have this: Usually, when you juice/filter/strain something, the pulp is... not great. And you have to strain (hah) yourself to find some use so it doesn't go into the trash. With peppers/hot sauce, the pulp is full of the same flavors and heat. I find they work really well in big batch dishes. A potent teaspoon that is enough to season a big ol' pot of whatever.
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Nov 20, 2020 08:36
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:59 |
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Horseshoe has a cayenne pepper one that they’d probably dig. I just grabbed the Horseshoe serrano peach a month ago with no other reason than "spicy sweet is good let's try it" It is rated 2/6 heat level on their label, but it is hotter than I expected. With a 1-3 rating of spicy on most bottles, 1 is like "mild buffalo wings" 2 is like "hot brand name salsa" and 3 is "habanero or scotch bonnet based sauce" and then superhots show the little thermometer popping and spicy hot levels going off the chart. So I figured it would be maybe a little hotter than generic mild buffalo wings. It is decently hot, much more so than the label lead me to believe. It matches closely to the actual scoville rating of serranos. But at the same time it has a nice sweet peachy fruit flavor. Fuckin' amazing on pizza slices. I also recently got but haven't tried yet: Big Lots store brand (Fresh Finds) hot sauces, they had a bhut jolokia and carolina reaper version, and both list straight up pepper mash as one of the top ingredients with no capsaicin extracts so I am expecting something I can barely handle but also doesn't taste like chemicals. Will let the thread know when I crack them open. Habanero is usually as hot as I will go, but I've been working through a "ghost pepper mash" hot sauce for like half a year and it's almost empty now. Really good to put just a drop into something like a bowl of chili or chicken soup.
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Jan 31, 2021 08:22
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