The Hot Sauce Topic

[phaelon56]

Wow. I'm ready to sell my collection of NASCAR collectors plates (complete with certificates of authenticity)just so I can afford this

Colelctible food items that aren't consumed. Who'da thunk? I know there are folks who collect bottles of hot sauce for the cool labels but this latest one is way out there.

[Chef Shogun]

I was under the impression that you could 1) get pure Capsaicin from chemical supply house only with 2) the proper license.

[Patrick S]

Pepper spray can be about 30% capsaicin (5 million Scoville). If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to spray some on your burrito for a few dollars.

[Patrick S]

I was under the impression that you could 1) get pure Capsaicin from chemical supply house only with 2) the proper license.

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I don't think there's any reason why you couldn't do your own capsaicin extraction at home if you were a reasonably competent chemist. I dont think its illegal.

[Patrick S]

Question: Has anyone here tried an extraction from pepper? My understanding is that capsaicin can be extracted using ethyl alcohol (e.g. pure grain). You would dry the peppers, crumble them, soak them in the alcohol, then filter the alcohol, then evaporate of the alcohol, leaving behind the capsaicin and whatever other ethyl-alcohol soluble compounds are in the peppers. I have no idea what capsaicin% the resulting product would be, but I bet it would be pretty high.

[elswinger]

Can you smoke capsaicin or shoot it directly in your veins? I like hot sauce and spicy foods, but what is the point in making something so hot you can't taste it, unless you are trying to get high? I've had a hot sauce buzz here and there, but have only got high on the stuff twice. Once at a Thai restaurant I asked for pepper on the side, and wound up putting two heaping tablespoons of ground red pepper on my garlic pork. And once I had a dish at Bruno's in San Francisco and it had some little Thai peppers in it, and this girl I was with challenged me to a pepper eating contest (we thaied). The high was great, but both times my stomach (and I'm being polite by saying "stomach") hurt for days.

[Patrick S]

Can you smoke capsaicin or shoot it directly in your veins?

←

Yes.

But I wouldn't recommend it. I imagine smoking it would instantly result in prolonged, spasmodic coughing, airway constriction, and extreme pain. If that's your cup of tea, then go for it. Intravenous injection, on the other hand, well I dont know what that would do. Most of the effects of capsaicin are mediated by vanilloid receptors, and IIRC, these are restricted to epithelial tissue, like those that line your mouth and disgestive tract. So, I don't know what would happen if you introduced it directly into your circulatory system.

Any volunteers willing to sacrifice their bodies for science?

Edited March 23, 2005 by Patrick S (log)

[TongoRad]

I've been a fan of Blair's Death Sauce since, well...since it came out, I guess (more than 10 years that's for sure) but have steadfastly avoided the After Death Sauce, the Dave's Insanity and all the others that add pure cap because I knew that all of this frat-boy one-upmanship would come to something like this. Something tells me that it won't end here, though...

I'll stick with the stuff you can eat.

[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.

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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.

[ejebud]

I've been a fan of Blair's Death Sauce since, well...since it came out, I guess (more than 10 years that's for sure) but have steadfastly avoided the After Death Sauce, the Dave's Insanity and all the others that add pure cap

I'll stick with the stuff you can eat.

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I actually use Dave's insanity etc.. to "upgrade" sauces that fall short in the Scoville Dept. Oh yea, and to torture my friends by daring them to lick the end of the toothpick while asking"how hot can this microscopic amount be?"

[rxrfrx]

Why would someone buy this? It's way cheaper to buy purified capsacin (from peppers) from a chemical company, and you actually get a guarantee of a certain degree of purity.

[phaelon56]

Pepper spray can be about 30% capsaicin (5 million Scoville). If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to spray some on your burrito for a few dollars.

Oh heck... I'd spray it on for free and even pay a couple dollars just to watch some fool eat a pepper sprayed burrito.

[NulloModo]

I've been a fan of Blair's Death Sauce since, well...since it came out, I guess (more than 10 years that's for sure) but have steadfastly avoided the After Death Sauce, the Dave's Insanity and all the others that add pure cap because I knew that all of this frat-boy one-upmanship would come to something like this. Something tells me that it won't end here, though...

I'll stick with the stuff you can eat.

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You might want to give After Death a try. I actually much prefer the flavor of the After Death sauce to the regular Blair's Death Sauce. The after death has a fuller smokier bite to it that the regular death sauce lacks.

[jhlurie]

It's stupid.

As someone who has a pretty darn high capability for spice, after years of high spicing I find myself gravitating back to slightly lower heat concoctions. Not because of any change in my capability or digestion, but merely out of boredom.

Heat--even high heat--has to be part of a synthesis of tastes. While an experienced chilihead gets better and better at tasting THROUGH the heat to other tastes underneath, something like dressing up Pharmaceutical -grade capsicum like this is just a joke. It has nothing to do with taste, just profit off ignorance.

I can actually walk down to my local Vitamin Shoppe location and buy capsicum-in-a-bottle quite easily. They've got it buffered somehow in pills for those people who think there's some holoistic health benefit. It's not some stupid "collectible".

[Al_Dente]

You're head would simply explode. And then you'd still have that eventual trip to the bathroom to look forward to.

[jhlurie]

Let's just say, I think someone who buys this needs to constantly carry the collectors bottle around their neck on a string, and wear an accompanying sign which says "Hi, I'm a Jackass".

[Jason Perlow]

Speaking of Jackasses though, I'd love to see those dudes who did that TV show crack a bottle of that open and eat it on camera.

[Daniel]

I back guys quest to make the hottest sauce.. Despite the fact that no one should eat it, its the American way.. Make the biggest, hottest, most over the top thing, even if the only point is to do it.. And just for the record, i have absolutely no interest in trying anything close to that..

Edited April 8, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Patrick S]

Speaking of Jackasses though, I'd love to see those dudes who did that TV show crack a bottle of that open and eat it on camera.

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Great idea. Fear Factor could use some capsaicin, too. I mean, eating the bugs and cow guts was entertaining for like 15 seconds, but now its soooo 2004. I want to see someone douse their eyeballs with capsaicin. Or give themselvs an enema with it. Or something equally painful and entertaining. I'd switch channels to watch that.

[michaeldauphinais]

I'm kind of a fan of the "Pain is Good" line of sauces - the heat is high, but in proportion to their magnificent flavor. Outstanding is the "Garlic Style, batch #37" - it's hard to determine which is more addictive, the heat level or the wonderful flavor. Not that it's anywhere near as hot as some of the others that have been mentioned, but it gets my vote as best tasting in proportion to level of heat.

[TongoRad]

NulloModo

You might want to give After Death a try. I actually much prefer the flavor of the After Death sauce to the regular Blair's Death Sauce. The after death has a fuller smokier bite to it that the regular death sauce lacks.

I definitely prefer flavor over heat, so you're singing my song there. I will have to give it a shot. Generally, though, things that promise to be 'the hottest sauce in the world' don't really get my attention. I tend to use a lot of the stuff when I use it, for sandwiches, tacos and the like.

[Daniel]

I think i reached my limit today.. I need to keep it down below 125,000 skoville.. I had Crazy Jerry's Mustard Gas on a grilled chicken sandwich.. Incredibly hot, the flavor was like honey mustard.. Unfortunately i over did it..

[alexw]

no clue how many skoville it was but my one and only foray into true pain was lat year, when one of my chefs and I were racing to blag a harrisa paste for service, one we used to place sparingly into cous-cous and serve with a melon & cucumber yogurt. to go with our chicken dish.

we raced it and as we roasted our spices we were none the wiser, nor were we any more clued up when we blended the spices together and the cloud that ploomed from the processor managed to clear our kitchen. (we were "dans la merde" at the time). we promptly finished the paste with the tomato reduction and give a final taste for seasoning when we realised the recipe called for 50grams birds eye chillies and not the 500grams we had actually put in.

Tears in my eyes I could only see one salvation the milk fridge at the far end of the kitchen which we dashed for throwing commis chefs and waiters out of the way in our wake.

safe to say we don't rush the spicey recipes anymore.

ouch.

[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.