The Hot Sauce Topic

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Cholula was for years my airline companion. I used to buy the tiny 2 ounce bottles by the case just for air travel. Sky Chefs hasn't invented a food perversion that Cholula can't mitigate, be it airline-omelet or seagull-in-the-sky. My most memorable Cholula sitcom occurred when my husband and I were seated A and C, with a stranger in the middle seat. When the meal was served, I pulled out my Chulula, tilted it and uncapped it, to have it torrent into my palm because of the pressurized cabin. With great steadiness, I set the bottle on my tray, licked the enormous glob off my left palm, recapped the bottle and ate my dinner. It was only after we were off the plane that my husband told me that precisely as I was juggling my Cholula, he dropped his bloody Mary into his lap, and was similarly trying to mop up the splash. I don't want to hear the stories the young man seated between us told whoever met him when we arrived! Hope it wasn't any of you.

[richw]

I found a great new Trinidad/Tobago hot pepper sauce in St. Maarten called Matouk's that I brought back with me. It comes in various heat levels, and is mighty tasty. They use it with ribs on the island as a condiment.

Jason,

Matouk hot sauce is quite common at caribbean restaurants in South Florida.

I like:

Huy Fong Chili Garlic

Cholula

good old Crystal Louisiana Hot Sauce (nice and vinegary and great for buffalo wing sauce)

[malachi]

I highly, highly recommend the Bello Hot Pepper Sauce (from Dominica). Incredible stuff.

[malachi]

Oh...and here we go (cribbed from Robb Walsh):

Hot Papaya Pepper Sauce

Heat 1 teaspoon canola oil in a saucepan. Saute 2 medium diced onions until soft. Add 6 diced carrots, 2 peeled and diced chayote, 12 allspice berries, 10 whole peppercorns, 4 sprigs thyme (cleaned) and 1 ounce diced fresh ginger. Cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup sugar, 2 ripe papayas (skinned and seeded) and 12 scotch bonnet chilis (stemmed and seeded). Once the sugar becomes syrup, add 1/4 cup cane vinegar and cook until carrots are soft (5-10 minutes). Blend to smooth consistency and bottle to cool.

[davepress]

One word... Inner Beauty Hot Sauce.

Uh..I mean two words.

[stagis]

Inner Beauty is excellent. It went off the market for a while several years ago and I was just crushed. It does seem to change a little now, though, on a batch-to-batch basis.

[T. Brooks]

Ass in the Tub Hot Sauce...

or what is it... Blake's? for chili and large batches only, by the dropper.

[awbrig]

Speaking of hot sauces, went to Heaven on Seven on Saturday. Have you seen their wall of hot sauces, talk about cool!

http://www.heavenonseven.com/frameset2.html

While ordering, I asked how was their Angry Shrimp dish was...our waitress highly suggested not getting it since it was soo spicy and not many peoploe could eat it. I took this as a challenge! I ordered the Angry Shrimp.

It was hot. Very Hot. I need to find out what was in it to give it so much heat - but I loved it and ate 3/4 of it. My waitress was surprised that I did so well...I took the rest home and ate it later that night. Great dish that Angry Shrimp!

Heaven on Seven is great. You have to love a place that places so much emphasis and selection of hot sauces...

[baruch]

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

love texas pete also!!! the best

[Xanthippe]

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

love texas pete also!!! the best

I order this stuff four bottles at a time (we can't get it out here), so I'll always have a couple extras on hand when the revolution comes. Texas Pete rocks!

[baruch]

does anyone know the orgin of the name "texas Pete"?? the company info states that pete is for the son's name, but very vague on "texas"!! btw, originated & made in north carolina.

thx

[sladeums]

does anyone know the orgin of the name "texas Pete"?? the company info states that pete is for the son's name, but very vague on "texas"!! btw, originated & made in north carolina.

thx

The 'story' is on their website:

click here, sit a piece and learn the legend of Texas Pete

[baruch]

thx pardner, but it doesn't the question i posed

[sladeums]

thx pardner, but it doesn't the question i posed

did you scroll through the rest of that story (the little up down arrows)?

the last paragraph:

"...The brothers struggled to name this mighty sauce. The three brothers had a consensus agreement on the name "Mexican Joe" and were satisfied until their father insisted that it should be an American name..."maybe Texas...," but "Texas what?"...At that moment Samuel's eyes fell upon his son Harold who was nicknamed "Pete". And that was how "Texas Pete" became legend...."

I dunno, I thought that's what you meant.

[baruch]

did you scroll through the rest of that story (the little up down arrows)?

the last paragraph:

"...The brothers struggled to name this mighty sauce. The three brothers had a consensus agreement on the name "Mexican Joe" and were satisfied until their father insisted that it should be an American name..."maybe Texas...,"

[HungryChris]

I have what I call "the big three" for hot sauces and I think if I had to keep just one it would be Sriracha. I like that stuff tons!! I put it in Shrimp Fra Diavlo with diced tomatoes, garlic, capers, basil, chopped olives and of course, shrimp, over angel hair pasta.

Next is Texas Pete. I don't know if it has ever been tested for narcotic content, but I would await that investigation with some concern. I like to use that stuff in soups, most notably, my rendidtion of Olive Garden Pasta Fa Gioli(SP).

Then it's Frank's Red Hot! Put eggs and home fries in front of me (actually please don't, since my recent blood tests) and I won't eat the stuff without Frank's Red Hot. There is something about the heat from cayenne that fills another endorphine receptor that the other guys don't touch.

[bong]

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.

Edited July 28, 2003 by bong (log)

[Jason Perlow]

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?

[Vidia]

Being SE Asian I naturally prefer sauces from those parts to tabasco-type sauces which I find merely hot but not flavorful.

I like Lingam's chilli sauce which is also sweet (great as a dipping sauce for fried foods), and Sriracha is great for making won ton noodles with (the dry version, mix sriracha, dark soy sauce and a little sesame oil, boil noodles, drain, dunk in cold water to stop cooking, then toss in the sauce, add won tons and char siu and you're ready to roll!), but my favorites are, alas, not bottled commercially: the perfect sambal belacan and the perfect Hainanese chicken rice chilli sauce. Wish I was a better cook.

V.

[larrymorman]

I love tiger sauce,piri piri (a portugese specialty hot sauce) and malageta ( a brasilian hot pepper sauce made with a variety of nuclear quality fire) and a shout out to grace's scotch bonnet sauce(jamaican)

[FoodZealot]

I like different hot sauces for different moods, but some favorites are:

Tapatio

Bufalo Chipotle

Red Rooster

the Smokehouse sauce from Lexington Barbecue

Huy Fong (rooster, green top) sriacha

Cajun Power Garlic Pepper

Huy Fong also makes a sambal badjak that is genius, but relatively hard to find.

~Tad

[kpurvis]

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

Yea! I'm just catching up after a couple of weeks on the road and was worried my personal favorite, Texas Pete, got left off the list. I did a story on Pete a couple of years ago and did a comparative tasting of hot sauces -- Pete, Frank's and Tabasco. When tasted straight, Tabasco is all heat. Pete definitely has more flavor. It has the vinegar twang we North Carolinians love.

One more word in Pete's favor: Ardie Davis, aka Remus Powers, author of books on sauces and founder of the Diddy Wah Diddy sauce contest, tells me that of all the sauces he has in his collection, Texas Pete is the one he carries in his briefcase when he travels.

[=Mark]

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.

Missed this the first time around! Have known about the Pepper Shack for years, even when it started in Fair Haven. The owner Lorraine is quite nice, until you get to know her and she'll endlessly rag on you... She's damn cute too, too bad about her boyfriend Sonny... (Just kidding!) Will likely see her this weekend to renew my stash of Hoboken Eddie's Mean Green...

[kpurvis]

then why not "TarHeel Pete" ?? no wonder north carolineans are so backwards?? 

?em esucxe

(Greetings from Charlotte. North Carolina.)

[Grillboy2k]

I like an awful lot of hot sauces, but this is what I have in my fridge right now:

Tabasco: regular, chipotle, habanero, green, and garlic

Kato's Island Sauce (habanero & mango)

Franks

Tapatio

Da Bomb Beyond Insanity (man, this shit'll kill ya)

The Pepper Plant California Style

Sriracha

Walkerswood Jamaican Jerk Seasoning (not exactly a hot sauce, but damn good)