248 replies to this topic

[joiei]

I brought back two jars of Marie Sharp's when I came home from Belize for myself.

I work with two black maids. I have turned them into a pair of siracha lovin' mama's .. If we run low, they are on me until I go to the asian market and get at least 2 of the big jars. They put it on everything. I don't remember seeing them go near the Tabasco in over 2 years.

[michaeldauphinais]

OK, I tried the Marie Sharp's today during the Jets-Steelers game. I really liked it - and kept liking it, over and over.....

Hopefully, I won't pay too dearly tomorrow

[pkenna]

mmmmm.... hot sauce.....

I have to agree with the typical staples: Cholula, frank's, texas pete, molinda, tapatio, tabasco...

My girlfriends father turned me onto a new line about a year ago....

from

http://www.halfmoonbaytrading.com/

The Iguana XXX Habanero Pepper Sauce is delicious....





-pk

[irodguy]

Sirachi
Cajun Power
Tabasco Garlic Hot Sauce (Cajun power is better, but sometimes have to mix it up)
Dave's
Honorable Mention to just plain old Japanese Chili Oil

[chefzadi]

Wow, this whole thread and no one has mentioned my fave:

Mustafa's Harissa - hotter than hell but fabulous, FABULOUS flavor. I hoard jars of the stuff, because there's only a few places I can find it in town.

Old El Paso Chile Company's Hell Fire and Damnation Sauce - Also great flavor profile, don't need much.

For salsa, nothing beats Herdez Salsa Casera. Well, homemade could...

Where do you purchase Mustafa's Harissa?

Which brings me to my answer:

Harissa only with North African food
Sriracha only combined with mayonaisse.

[Viola da gamba]

I love hot/spicy food but this has been a problem - I'm allergic to tabasco (it seems to be the fermented-ness of the peppers that is the problem) - so have to read ingredients VERY carefully - commercial curry powder is also difficult. My SO, however, can eat everything - his current favourite is "Lawyer's Breath" - given as a joke gift by my mum, but now a staple in the house.

[malarkey]

Where do you purchase Mustafa's Harissa?

Well, locally in Seattle I can only find it at Big John's PFI and Delaurenti's in the Pike Place Market. However, a quick search reveals you can order some here.

[sladeums]

For salsa, nothing beats Herdez Salsa Casera. Well, homemade could...

Herdez...I have to second that. Good, good stuff.

yum

I like the Herdez Salsa Casera as well and seem to prefer the canned to the bottled.
But don't tell the testers at Cook's Illustrated.

Was watching an episode of America's Test Kitchen today and they had the results of their store-bought salsa tasting.

Contenders: Old El Paso, Taco Bell Thick and Chunky, Santa Barbara and Herdez Salsa Casera.

Results:
1. Santa Barbara (this is a regional refrigerated brand). The freshest tasting.
2. Old El Paso. Fairly high scoring.
3. Taco Bell. Too sweet. Not what most would call salsa.
4. Herdez. Too watery, little flavor.

[Hobbes]

My favorites are Sriracha, Marie Sharp's, Bufalo chipotle & jalapeno, Cholula, & my current favorite-Aji Amazona, a Colombian sauce.  I also like the Chile Man's hot sauces, but my favorites are his ginger & jerk marinades.  I love Pickapepper, too, but I wouldn't call it a hot sauce.

I have to second you on your favs as my fav hot sauces as well. I had Marie Sharps Fiery Hot for the first time way back in '94 and have been addicted to it ever since. Its heat is punchy but also has flavor by the way of the carrot juice base. Got ta' luv it! Bufalo Chipotle is awesome with its intense somkey and vinegar tang. Have to add another sauce to the list, Pain 100%. Yes it has a stupid name, like a lot of hot sauces out there but Pain 100% has heat and flavor and is great on chicken and steak or other grilled items.

-Hobbes-

Edited by Hobbes, 07 February 2005 - 04:17 PM.

[DTBarton]

i need a good recipe for hot sauce, any ideas? i have a batch of superhot spanish pilpil peppers that i just picked in the garden. i normally make these into Libyan/Moroccan Harissa, but id like to try something different. all suggestions welcome

I will second the opinions above on a couple of things. I like Texas Pete for everyday mild cayenne sauce, great on things like barbecue and I jazz up my barbecue sauces with it for use at the end of cooking.

From Half moon Bay trading company, I love the golden habanero pepper sauce.

But. making your own is easy and fun. I do it in late summer/early fall with peppers from the garden. Here's a great source for chile pepper plants of MANY varieties, I've had great luck with their plants the last 3 years. http://www.chileplants.com/default.asp

I use this basic recipe for hot sauce I want to keep. If you're going to eat it right away, it doesnt need as much vinegar, salt or cooking time. Quantities are fluid according to your taste, heat resistance, and pepper availability. Basically, you can't make it wrong.

Clean your peppers. I've been using a variety of fresh peppers including pablano, cayenne, jalapeno, and even a shot of sweet peppers. I don't use a lot of the really hot ones, because most of my friends and family don't want it killer hot. The more thoroughly you remove the seeds and membranes, the milder your sauce will be. I like to get the seeds out as they can be bitter, but leave most of the membrane in for heat. Use disposable rubber gloves when you do this or you'll be sorry when you scratch your eye or take a pee! Put some vegetable oil in a pan and saute garlic and onions. Add the peppers and anything else you like. I always add some diced carrot, sometimes some tomato. Many people like various kinds of fruit or cucumber, have fun. Saute all this stuff until tender. Add a mixture of 2/3 white vinegar and 1/3 water until veggies are not quite covered. Give it a good shot of salt. Cover and simmer for an hour or so. After 45 minutes, add a big shot of chopped cilantro (I love this). Take off heat and let cool. Put it in a blender or food processor and puree to desired consistency. If it's too thick, add some more of the vinegar/water mixture. Adjust for salt and cilantro. You want it to be thin enough to pour/shake out of the bottle.
I have bought bottles at kitchen supply store and I save empty hot sauce bottles that I've bought with sauce in them. Wash the botles and lids well and then boil the bottles for ten minutes or so to sanitize. Funnel the sauce in to the bottles and cap. I'm still enjoying the stuff i made in September/October now in February and I don't refrigerate it. Refrigerating would probably be safer!

So, my own are my favorites. I pick the peppers right when I'm ready to make the sauce and it maintains that great fruity/hot flavor that you only get from peppers right off the vine. Looking forward to trying some new twists with this year's pepper crop.

And finally, I don't care for Dave's insanity. They distill the pepper mixture to intensify the heat so it's not a heat that occurs naturally in any single pepper. And you can ruin a whole pot of good food with just a little of that distilled fire.

[menton1]

Just returned from the Caribbean (St Martin) and while eating at a local barbecue stand they had on the tables some of this hot sauce. It's absolutely some of the best stuff I've ever tasted!! Called Matouks, it was very, very hot, but also had a terrific flavor, was highly addicting. I've even order a couple of bottles of this stuff online, I can't get enough of it!!

Anybody else ever tasteed Matouk's? I think it's made in Trinidad. I think the key ingredient is Papayas.

Edited by Bux, 29 March 2005 - 10:48 AM.

[Toliver]

I'm a chilehead and can handle it pretty hot.
That being said, as Jason suggested, there is a point of heat beyond which only the stupid (or those without tastebuds) roam. That's a territory I don't wish to visit.
I was given a bottle of Dave's Insanity Sauce and thought, "Yeah, sure, like it's going to be that hot." I put what I considered to be a normal dash of the sauce on a taco and promptly got the hiccups for the next half hour.
For the non-chileheads out there, when eating spicy food, hiccups are your body's way of saying "What the F$@# are you trying to do to me?!?!"
Needless to say, I "cut" the Insanity sauce now and haven't had a repeat episode since.
6 million Scoville units? Does the military know about this stuff?

[pete ganz]

Another link to Caldera

This site sells it for 250 bucks.  I saw a buy it now on ebay for $295

Ben

When you click on this link above, the hot sauce is now selling for $5,500. I think these guys are smoking Caldera laced crack rock.

[wesza]

I have prepared and made a unusual hot sauce for over 15 years that we called "Insidious" but our staff called "Sudden Death" decorating each bottle with a "Skull & Cross Bones" as warning. It took us several years to perfect that recipe and we used this as a base in our "Honolulu Restaurant" named "Lisboa" where we featured foods from Spain, Portugal, Africa, Asia, India, Goa, South America and Mexico serving some of the woulds spiciest and hottest dishes. This came about because of the Portuguese Black Ships that introduced the Chili Pepper to Africa [Piri-Piri], Asia, India and most of Europe while trying to control the Spice Markets.

We served this adapted to star ratings as one star. three stars [Tabasco hot], five stars, eight stars and ten stars. We had a Professor friend do a Scoville Testing of the ten star sauce our hottest after it was shaken and mixed and it varied from 160,000 to 215,000 depending on the amount of oil when tested.

We never served anyone a ten star sauce nor served any of the others as a condiment as it was always Incorporated into a finished dish to enhance the flavor and heat according to what our customers had previously proved that they were able to eat and enjoy. The first time any patron requested something hotter then three stars we would not serve then until they at least consumed a appetizer or entry at the three star level unless they were from some background that we were comfortable it was customary to enjoy fiery hot foods.

The sauces were really insidious as it took sometime after eating before the heat level insidiously sneak up to your taste buds, generally casing a running nose, tearing and sometimes swelling of your lips but generally it seemed to be effective enough that we had many repeat customers from all over the world.

During the week before final exams at the University of Hawaii we would get orders for several dozen of our prize winning "Under the Skin" Chicken Five Stars from Asian and Indian Students who would steam the Chicken over Rice in Rice Cookers where it would be kept warm as a get up and keep going meal while studying overnight.

Other well known travelers who owned Islands in Tahiti, Fiji and other areas would bring three star and five star dishes for the balance of their journey from Honolulu to their Island homes to become accumulated to the spicy foods.

I most recently made a base now being used in Israel for a Slow Smoked Beef Brisket that has become very popular. About only one out of twenty customers who thought that they enjoyed fiery hot foods requested hotter then three stars.

It is easy to just make something hot, but much more fun to prepare something that while being hot enhances and increases your enjoyment of whatever your eating. Still I always wonder about the consumers feelings the following day.

Irwin

Edited by wesza, 15 March 2005 - 07:53 PM.

[andiesenji]

Most of the chilehead fanatic I know consider them to be pretty much just a diversion.  Entertainment if you will.  The main problem is that if one subtracts the not insubstantial heat, one is left with a flavor that has been likened to singed cat hair.  About the only versions I've had that had decent flavor were made by Jim Campell at Mild to Wild chile pepper company.  He grows his own chiles and mixes his own sauces.  My favorite condiment of his is the powdered apple smoked red savina habanero.

Jim's products are awesome. The flavor is exceptional and I agree about the habanero powder.

I have my "I survived "The Bread" pin here on my desk from a hotluck in which we had a loaf to sample.
Incredible.

I like some heat but not the extremes. I like flavor as well as heat. The manzano or rocoto peppers are my favorites for using fresh because of their fruity flavor. I save the seeds, dry and grind them to add to some rubs as they have a different but interesting flavor and being black, are easy to keep track of. They also grow very nicely here in the desert.

[chromedome]

There used to be a store in Halifax that specialized in chili-derived condiments, sauces, and rubs of all kinds. They did carry one brand of the mega-hots (the mfr insisted that a waiver be signed by any purchaser). It was not intended to be consumed *on* food, in fact it would cause a rather nasty chemical burn if you got it on you. It was intended to be measured, with an eyedropper, into rather large quantities of food. The idea, as I understood it, was to allow the heat level to be "customized" with minimal impact on the flavour profile.

It seems a valid notion to me.

Menton, there are a few different Matouk's being sold here in Canada. I've had that green one you illustrate, and it is a doozy! I haven't had it for a few years, and I was less attuned to hot foods at the time, but I vividly remember that combination of heat and intense fruitiness. I ate it on just about everything for a month or so until the bottle was gone. Fine stuff.

[menton1]

Just returned from the Caribbean (St Martin) and while eating at a local barbecue stand they had on the tables some of this hot sauce. It's absolutely some of the best stuff I've ever tasted!! Called Matouks, it was very, very hot, but also had a terrific flavor, was highly addicting. I've even order a couple of bottles of this stuff online, I can't get enough of it!!

Anybody else ever tasteed Matouk's? I think it's made in Trinidad. I think the key ingredient is papaya fruit.

[chuck]

No one has mentioned the Rhino hot sauces. Maybe a little more expensive, but the flavor is so good. They offer a couple of different heat levels but I think that I've only had the hottest one, labeled 'Extra hot'. African peppers and plenty of garlic are what make it great.

Scorned Woman and Inner Beauty are favorites as well. I like a sauce that is very hot while also offering a strong flavor profile. Mix a little into soup for heat or pour a lot over rice and beans for seasoning.

Tabasco is a good standby. It's a consistent flavor. Someone else said that it's tasted the same for 40 years. You can't beat a drop or two on a freshly shucked oyster.

Dave's is for frat boys.

[menton1]

Just returned from the Caribbean (St Martin) and while eating at a local barbecue stand they had on the tables some of this hot sauce. It's absolutely some of the best stuff I've ever tasted!! Called Matouks, it was very, very hot, but also had a terrific flavor, was highly addicting. I've even ordered a couple of bottles of this stuff online, I can't get enough of this stuff!!

Anybody else ever tasteed Matouk's? I think it's made in Trinidad. I think the key ingredient is Papaya fruit.

[phaelon56]

I think Matouk's may also have mango in it. I love the stuff and was introduced to it in a local Jamaican restaurant. Most stores that sell Jamaican or West Indian groceries will stock it. I think there may be two varieties - my favorite is the one that's thicker and sort of green in color with flecks of red and orange. Looks almost like a chutney but it's fiery. Very good on egg dishes and also in rice 'n peas but one has to mix it in thoroughly to avoid getting blasted by the heat.

[Sam Salmon]

Matouk's is a standard sauce-they have a few variations on the theme-I can think of Calypso as well.
In Trinidad itself Matouk's isn't all that popular-I saw many small almost homemade sauces on restaurant table/for sale.

As to

actually ive been  to  the  mcelhaney  tabasco  company and took the tour  and  yes  they do  keep to the  strict  standards quoted in your  piece...and even though  you cant  really verify it  for yourself..one  must  think about  all the  bad weather  that  louisiana  has  gone through  over the years  with the  hurricanes  since  the  company was  founded...and  then ask yourself if in that time  has there ever been any shortage  of  their  tabasco products?

One thing they never mentioned during that Tour was that Tobasco Peppers suffer from Tobacco Mosaic disease and aren't produced in any great quantity in any one place for very long without the disease reappearing.
So the production has shifted from place to place-last I checked it was Honduras but Tobacco Mosaic had appeared there to so who knows where the Peppers are coming from now-not Louisiana I can tell you that.

[chefzadi]

Huy Fong Foods, with its humble beginnings in Los Angeles, California in 1980, has grown to become one of the leaders in the Asian hot sauce market.

Their sriracha hot sauce, aside from harissa, is the only other hot sauce I like. Most other hot sauces make me gag. I can't stand it. But sriracha!

I see it everywhere, it's in every kind of Asian grocery store in LA, most major supermarkets. There is something about the flavor that translates across cultures. I mix it with mayonaisse for a quick spicy aioli. I think that it's become a staple item in Asian pantries around here, it's almost as common as soy sauce. In downtown LA I've seen hispanic workers buy a bowl of Korean instant noodles, squeeze some lime juice and sriracha into it.

Of course, but I'm an individual, not a large corporation. In order to control my own quality, I don't have to depend on hundreds of employees.

Are you thinking of getting into the hot sauce business?

[MarketStEl]

We all have favorite hot sauces (see Your Favorite Hot Sauce?), but what I'm interested in in this thread is: What makes a hot sauce commercially sucessful? If you go to Huy Fong's website and click on "Find out about the history of the company and its vision for the future," you can access a page that gives you a somewhat promotional history of the company. Here are some excerpts:

Huy Fong Foods, with its humble beginnings in Los Angeles, California in 1980, has grown to become one of the leaders in the Asian hot sauce market.

The secret of the sauces . . . ? Continued high quality ingredients at low prices and great taste makes it a success in today's trend toward spicy foods.

Is that in fact all it takes to succeed in the hot sauce business? McIlhenny's, the maker of Tabasco Sauce, which I figure is the most famous of all hot sauces, emphasizes selective, artisanal procedures and quality control on its History Tent Perfect Peppers page. In order to get the true flavor of the page, you really have to read the whole thing from beginning to end, but here's the conclusion:

The next pepper crop is ensured by the McIlhennys who personally select the best plants in the field during harvest. The pepper seeds from those select plants are treated and dried and then stored-for use the following year-both on the Island and in a local bank vault as a hedge against any disaster that might befall future crops.

Does such a large company really adhere to such strict quality controls, and is that what accounts for its enduring reputation and market share? Please share your opinions and wisdom here.

Well, maybe the McIlhenny family emphasizes the TLC part of the business far more than Huy Fong does, but is there really that great a difference between the McIlhennys' careful nurturing of the Tabasco pepper and Huy Fong's insistence on using the best ingredients while keeping the price low?

It's quite clear that, in a very short time, Huy Fong's Sriracha sauce--the one in the bottle with the rooster on the label, aka "Tuong Ot Sriracha" after the Vietnamese text over the rooster--has become a staple in many kitchens, including places where very few Asian dishes are served. And I suspect this is the case because the Sriracha is a flavorful hot sauce that works well as both a condiment and an ingredient in a wide variety of dishes. (Did you see the page with the letter warning against purchasing imitators?)

Tabasco's been around a heckuva lot longer, but it too has a distinctive taste. I don't think it's as versatile as Huy Fong Sriracha, but it's indispensable for a number of dishes, including scrambled eggs.

In both cases, the owners are committed to producing a superior product. That, not the cost or the methods of production, is the key ingredient.

[Toliver]

I was perusing the latest issue of Chile Pepper Magazine and saw an ad for a new "adjustable heat" spray pump hot sauce by the company that makes Dave's Insanity Sauce.
Click here for a picture of the bottle. Ironically, the photo of the bottle on Dave's own website was a no-show which is why I linked to the site I did.
It looks like it's a split bottle with a hot sauce on one side and a mild sauce on the other. You adjust the dial/bottle top to how hot you want the sauce to be and then spray pump the sauce on your food.
My question is, for those who don't like it very hot, what do you do when the bottle starts emptying and you don't have any more mild sauce and all that's left is the hot sauce (or vice-versa)? Are refills the next product to be introduced?

Has anyone seen this or tried for themselves? Please report back here if and when you do...

[Toliver]

Has anyone been in the test market area for Tabasco's newest flavor "Sweet & Spicy" pepper sauce?
The latest issue of Chile Pepper Magazine has a brief blurb on this newest flavor but says it won't be officially rolled out until March. There's a link on the web page above to buy it online but I was curious if anyone has tasted it yet.

[repoman]

I am a hot sauce junkie as well. I love Sirhacha, not only in Asian-influenced dishes, but in burgers mixed in with ground beef to the point of saturation. I love Desert Pepper XXX Habanero Sauce mixed with melted butter for dipping artichoke leaves into. I also have a friend who has his own sauce company (www.mbfsauces.com) and he makes some really interesting mixes. This fall he made a pumpkin based sauce that is great in squash soup and on chicken. He also does many pepper-fruit blends. I am also a huge fan of Frank’s as it allows you to add some heat but never overpowers your dishes with too much spice. The local Mexican food store has some great (and very cheap) sauces including some instense chipotle sauce that runs about 1.29 a bottle.

[JohnL]

My favorite, hands down, is El Yucateco.

I have their 3 different sauces, the green one, the red one and the brown one. The brown one is the hottest.

Unlike some other hot sauces which compete solely on the heat level, this one has flavor.

And, at my local Mexican grocery store here in the San Francisco Bay Area, they are about a dollar only for a 4 oz bottle.

Yucateco is awesome. Have you tried their new Chipotle?

I am a huge El Ycateco fan~!
I gotta disagree though--the green is much hotter than the brown.--both are great.
agree that they have heat and flavor!
Chris Schlessinger in his seminal work--"The Thrill of the Grill" notes that Yucateco is one of his favorites.
also
I don't know if anyone mentioned a website " Americanspice.com"
they have a very large range of hot sauces (the descriptions are informative and hilarious).

[Daniel]

Got a delivery from MoHotta.com today.. I bring different hot sauces to the office where they are quickly consumed and talked about..I bought the Anchor Bar wing sauce for the Super Bowl.. The jerk seasoning for some chicken I want to make on the smoker.. And the Lizano I like to dip in Bell Peppers. The rest for the office.



I love the Yucateco Reds... So I am looking forward to try the Jalepeno.. Tabasco Habenero is something I just havent gotten around to trying.. Though I carry a bottle of tabsco in my briefcase.. The bee sting and the Marie Sharps I have heard good things about.. Blairs Sudden Death I have never tried, but the Original Death Sauce is a favorite of mine.. The other DeathWishe,is a cayenne sauce I figured I would give a shot.. The bee sting is a spicy honey mustard, and I enjoy h-mustards.. Mustard Gas is a good one, extremely spicy.. This seems a bit more tame..

Edited by Daniel, 09 January 2006 - 02:13 PM.

[Meez]

My defaults are Tobasco (always); Frank's (when I'm contemplating wings); some kind of plain habanero (once in awhile, and brand does not usually matter); and a jalapeno sauce I make by putting pickled jalapenos into a blender and enough liquid to make it thin, sometimes more, sometimes less, and sometimes with lime, cilantro, or fresh chiles. This stuff I have around most of the time.

I recently gave a friend a huge laugh. He had this stuff with the word "inferno" in it (or something like that) and offered me some to go on the chicken fingers we were snacking on. I'm like yeah, whatever, and proceeded to sprinkle it on liberally. He warned me, but I'm like "I'm used to this; I've been doing this most of my life, and besides, most hot sauces aren't really that hot." I quickly turned into Cheech from Up in Smoke when he was all freaked out and saying "Man, I never had no shit like this before." There was about 10 minutes there when I was actually kind of scared.

[kalypso]

A couple of Mexican favorites

Valentina, from the state of Jalisco I believe, and readily available here in San Diego. Gold lable is the regular stuff, black lable the very hot stuff.

Purepecha brand from a small producer in the state of Michoacan, not available in the U.S., and hard to find outside of Michoacan. This is, without a doubt, the single best chipotle sauce I've ever tasted. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of taking my only bottle to work with me and 15 other people also thought it was the single be chipotle hot sauce they'd ever tasted and we killed the bottle at one lunch testing shrimp tacos