The Hot Sauce Topic

[col klink]

Real men put Tabasco Sauce on everything. My brother, and some of my friends are Tabasco hating wimps (these are the same jerks that don't like onions with their food...

Oh please, I can handle Tabasco sauce without a problem. It's not the heat that I don't like, it's the flavor. Crystal just tastes a helluva lot better. Get Crystal extra hot sauce if you can. Crystal and Siracha are my favorites, but the Jalepeno Tabaco isn't that bad. Regular Tabasco is for consumer whores, go buy a tie.

[awbrig]

I agree that regular tabasco sauce is very mild however it beats nothing when you are out at a restaurant and don't have any other choices...

[col klink]

Well, sure. When you're in the desert, you'll drink anything.

[Stone]

I'm a big fan of Inner Beauty hot sauces, which surprises me because it has a bit of fruit juice for sweetness. But it's great on burgers and other sandwiches.

I find tobasco to be more salty than hot; Srichaya is a little sweet for me.

I tried Dave's Insanity once. It's insane. I put a dab on a chip, and then shook it off. When it got into my mouth, it was like an atomic exposion. A mushroom cloud of chilli heat immediately blanketed the inside of my mouth covering the gums, tongue and throat. Ouch.

[joler]

I am hooked on Texas Pete and I have been even before I knew it was manufactured right here in my home state of good ol' NC. It's not as hot as some of the hot sauces, but it has more body than Tabasco and there's a saltiness to it. I put it on just about anything - popcorn, grits, hard boiled eggs. mmmmm

[Schielke]

Has anybody ever tried any of these mega hot sauces? Aparently the Blair's 5 a.m. reserve was the hottest ever made at 6 million scoville units. I think somebody has beat that though but I am not sure.

Is there any redeeming quality to these sauces? I love spicy food, but this seems like hot for the sake of hot.

Blair's 5 a.m. Reserve

Ben

[Schielke]

I did a little more research and found that there are two more sauces hottter right now.

The Source @ 7,500,000 scoville

and

Caldera (from Blair) @ 10,000,000 scoville

Descriptions of many super hot sauces

For reference, Dave's Insanity Sauce is about 150,000 scoville

Ben

[Jason Perlow]

Why?

There is a heat saturation level that adds diminishing marginal returns to the enjoyment of a dish. And that also goes for people who are very tolerant of chile heat.

500,000 scovilles is unimaginably hot. thats like super concentrated essence of Red Savina Habenero. 10 million scovilles is pure capsaicin.

[=Mark]

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.

[Schielke]

Another link to Caldera

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

Ben

[Schielke]

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.

Wow, his stuff is quite affordable too! I expected to see price tags like 25 bucks and more for the really hot stuff. I wonder if the other super hot sauces cost that much more to make...

Ben

[Suzanne F]

Favorites I have not been able to find in a while:

Sontava

Batten Island (some versions not all that hot, but very tasty)

Trinidad (ditto)

Lingham's Chilli Sauce (very very sweet, but with a nice burn)

A brand I will never have to replenish, because I will never use up my one bottle: Jamaican Hellfire Doc's Special. Their 2 in 1 Hot sauce is pretty tasty, though.

[malarkey]

Real men put Tabasco Sauce on everything.

Here is what I suggest putting Tabasco sauce on:

Everything

If you happen to be sharing a meal with a Tabasco hating pussy, be sure to load it up with Tabasco and onions (they hate that).

This is damn funny! Why is it I keep finding all these old threads I haven't read yet?! Someone brings them to the top again and then I see it. *sigh* I just don't get to read egullet nearly often enough

[bjcohan]

My very favorite is a homemade sauce made with a modified recipe from a hot sauce cookbook. The recipe is called "F-16" because it calls for 16 fresh habanero peppers. I add rum and mango and other goodies, and it's wonderful.

However, I can't carry that around with me very well, so, for the bottle-in-the-purse, I prefer:

El Yucateco Habanero (green)

Marie Sharp's Habanero (from Belize)

and Busha Brown's Scotch Bonnet (from Jamaica).

All of these maintain the gorgeous fresh habanero taste without going all vinegary. Sriracha is good, but is based on the serrano (or similar) pepper and, while tasty, lacks the flavor of habanero that this particular fire-eater craves. Different strokes...

Don't leave home without it!!!

Barb

[Teague]

Tabasco is my first love. Mmmm, fermented goodness. I am also very fond of Red Hot for certain things, like marinating wings before frying (I recommend all night). We stray and buy others, but these two are always in the fridge.

[ruthcooks]

I have never been a fan of anything hot, but I read about Marie Sharp's on e-Gullet and tracked some down. Now I find myself putting it in things that I never would have dreamed before. My Tabasco sauce is out the door. By the way...those guys sweating and gasping from eating chiles? It's not a sign of being macho, poor things only have about 17 taste buds.

[KatieLoeb]

So many hot sauces - so little time...

The Yucateco sauces are great staples. I really like the new Green Tabasco on tacos and such. Sriracha is always on the refrigerator door for anything Asian. But my all time favorite is the Jump Up and Kiss Me sauce. It's a fruity, hot and curry-esque sauce that is great with a couple of drops in canned soups or stew to jazz it up a bit.

Barb - what do you need bottled sauce for? You have Adan to make you the killer table hot sauce from Paloma, you lucky girl! Man that stuff is good! Is that the "F-16" sauce you mentioned?

[=Mark]

A sprinkle of Jim Campbells ground apple smoked Red Savina habanero powder on some vanilla ice cream makes for a dandy treat. Frozen sweet and blazing hot, great contrast!

[pnapoli]

hey =mark, there's a cute hot sauce store down your way in red bank. you probably know about it--not a huge selection but the owners are really nice. got a good one called "gator" something or other there.

[sashae]

I actually just picked up a bottle of Lingham's Chili-Garlic-Ginger sauce, and it's quite good -- very sweet, as you mentioned. I'm going to try it out on some ribs today, as it's a bit sweet for me for my breakfast sauce. I like using El Pato sauce for breakfast, as it's fairly mild but with a nice vinegary flavour.

-s

[Jaymes]

I have never been a fan of anything hot, but I read about Marie Sharp's on e-Gullet and tracked some down.  Now I find myself putting it in things that I never would have dreamed before.  My Tabasco sauce is out the door.  By the way...those guys sweating and gasping from eating chiles?  It's not a sign of being macho, poor things only have about  17 taste buds.

I have a nice selection of Marie Sharp's always in the fridge.

I heard about it some years back when I took a trip to Belize with some other folks. As we were chatting about what we were buying there to take home, I noticed that every single one of them was planning on loading up on the Marie Sharp's.

Not knowing what the fuss was all about, but not wanting to be left out, I also bought a wide selection.

And Zowie!

Now, one of my favorite snacks is just a cracker of some kind - anything works - with a few shakes of Marie Sharp's.

A great many BIG shakes, if it's the mild habanero. One or two very SMALL shakes if it's the hot!

Edited May 26, 2003 by Jaymes (log)

[jhlurie]

A sprinkle of Jim Campbells ground apple smoked Red Savina habanero powder on some vanilla ice cream makes for a dandy treat.  Frozen sweet and blazing hot, great contrast!

Geez, Mark. I eat SPICY food, but Red Savina dust is where I draw the line. Unlike Thai spicy peppers, or even most other habeneros, I can't seem to ever get ANY other taste through it. I mean I can deal with the heat--sort of--but I'm still enough of a foodie to want something else in my mouth as well.

Does this remove me from eligibility from the Chilihead hall of fame?

Ask Jason Perlow about some Red Savina Vodka and Tequila he made, by the way. You have to use it in single drops when you mix it into your drinks.

Edited May 26, 2003 by jhlurie (log)

[jrinct]

For me, FRANKS is the best.

[Chad]

Hmm, Cholula is a perennial favorite, though Cajun Sunshine is right up there, too. Right now the stuff I'm splashing on everything is Blair's Death Sauce. Man, it's good. I've tried Dave's stuff, but it's just heat without a whole lot of flavor (aside from the chemical aftertaste). Blair's is plenty hot with a lot of flavor and a slow-build sort of heat.

I've also been playing with Blue Mountain Country, an inexpensive hot sauce that's pretty tastey but a little vinegary for general use.

Next on the list to try are Brother Bru Bru's and Busha Brown's.

By the way http://www.screamindemon.net/ has a good selection and really great prices.

I've got a couple of habanero, Carolina cayenne and SuperChile plants growing at the moment. Should be an interesting summer o' salsas.

Chad

[nervousnelli]

"Bad Girls in Heat" is my favorite -- not super hot but really tasty.