Hot sauces
 

I don't know about you, but I'm a certifiable hot sauce junkie. There's a rare food I care to eat without determined lashings of pepper sauce. When I travel I always sample the local hot sauces along with the spiciest available dishes and I love all things chili. When I'm home, I generally stick to one or two brands for daily flavouring and when I travel I always pack a bottle for those bland little places that one always seems to end up in once in a while. Sometimes I carry a minature bottle in my pants pocket to spice up dreary meals on the go and there's always a bottle stashed away in my car. No stay with family or friends is on the cards for me without the comforting backup of a couple of different bottles of pepper sauce in my luggage.

My day to day favourite, while it changes every few months is currently Tabasco habanero pepper sauce (but I usually change to normal Tabasco for breakfasts and Bloody Marys) and I tote around either a Lea and Perrins West Indian Hot Sauce, which I find a bit too salty now, or a Malawi made red flaming connoction called Nali when I can find it. Sometimes I try Texas Pete, just for the novelty of it being available in South Africa but it doesn't have any burn and when I'm in a barbeque/braai mood I tend to splurge on Nandos extra hot peri peri sauce- which is particularly good with chicken livers.

Hamburgers, for some reason, seem to go down a treat with generous smears of Florida's famous Datil pepper sauce and of course, my fridge would look naked without a full complement of no name farm stall chili and salsa relishes. Mmmm. What blows your hair back? :D

Only one hot sauce is allowed to be mentioned on FlyerTalk.

tabasco habanero is indeed the dog's b****cks.
I just tried Cholula, it's good but I find I need copious amounts for it to reach the required hotness, rendering it too watery and even expensive for me.

See also this recent thread:

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=748832

There are a lot of Cholula fans around here! :)^

But sometimes one must distinguish between CTM (Cholula the Man) and CTS (Cholula the Sauce). :)

Thanks for the link. I remember it back from 2003 couldn't find it. I searched under hot sauces and that Cholula water didn't come up:)

The test of time and temp for hot is a unctuous Mexican tripe and hominy stew called "Menudo".

Menudo is served with cut Key Limes, chopped raw onion and a bowl of chopped fresh jalapeno (Much hotter than sauces and relished which used pickled or cooked versions of the fruit of the Gods).

I must admit to be enraptured with a variety of Oriental Chile/Garlic pastes/sauces, and an addict of recipes which contain both Nam Pla (Thai Fish Sauce) and chopped fresh chilis.

The goal is not pure heat, but the breadth of flavors in any chili. Comapring chopped fresh jalapeno with "Chipotle", the smoked version of the same chili when ripe and a cousin such as Guajillo gives one the same sort of scope and vision with which Micelangelo mounted the scaffolding to paint the Pope's ceiling.

Here in the Islands, our local chili pepper - the Hawai'ian Red -
http://www.chileplants.com/search.as...Button=Pressed

is used to produce our local favorite hot sauce, Hawai'ian Chili Pepper Water
http://www.slashfood.com/2006/03/05/...ian-condiment/

It's easy to make your own, or you can purchase it in our stores.

Onolicious!

My two favorites: Regular Cholula and Tabasco Chipotle.

For those who like it hot, visit a Central Market sometime. ;)

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

Bearing in mind, of course, that if it couldn't stand on its own merits,
there wouldn't be such a fan club here or elsewhere. I've been using
Cholula since before the wood cap had a liner; I also enjoy Tapatio
(having used it since the manufacturer put his home phone number
on the label) and the various carrot sauces (Melinda's, Marie Sharp's,
etc.). Mad Dog (not the Inferno, which is heat for the sake of heat)
has a nice herbal spicy balance, as does Sachs. For real heat I use
Pendery's 60000 S.U. powder, as it adds a pleasant paprika-y aspect
without any excess vinegar.

Sriracha Tuong Ot, and Tuong Ot Toi are two we like.

Huge variety of chili sauces in China as well. I'm particularly fond of Nanjing style slightly sweetish sauces that go extremely well with pak choi and omelettes.

A couple of months ago, ms. jmd001 came back from Santa Fe with a present of some Mac's Hot Sauce for me.

I was very positively impressed, primarily because of the thickness/texture of it. May not be as hot as many folks like, but definitely worth a try!:)^

(Forgive the blasphemy, it moved Cholula to #2 on my list of favorites!)

For me, u can't beat Matouk's West Indian Hot Sauce:

http://carolinasauce.stores.yahoo.ne...062204842.html

When u read the ingredients they don't sound impressive but the heat is REAL and the flavor is wonderful! I love it in soups. There are 3 other flavors but West Indian is my fav. First tasted it in Marco Island, FL on clams.
***Welcome to FT!

For flavor I definitely go for CTS. I hate sauces that are mostly vinegar. That one is not.

For pure heat, a nice Dave's Insanity Sauce Spacial Reserve. (apologies to other Daves with different sauces ;)). To try it, they make you sign a waiver (just for fun, I'm sure, but it adds micely to the mystique) and they dipped the tip of a toothpick in the stuff. From that one drop, my mouth hurt for hours and I thought I had indegestion.

Nobody ever mention Asian hot sauce. What you get in US is just not quite the same.

Singapore chilli sauce (those on crab) is unique cause it compliments the food not overwhelm it. Korean BBQ beef sauce is very good, esp over grilled over flame on beef late at nite (thx god NYC has 24 hr Korean town BBQ places). Authentic Sichuan numbing hot pepper sauce is nothing you've ever experienced. So hot it silences you, but only for a couple mins. Excellent esp over thinly sliced conch. Not to mention the HOT "mala" Chinese hot pot. Just make sure you are not getting on a plane/car anything longer than 15 min for the next 48 hours. I love Hong Kong "Shelter pond" mix (usually over crab or shrimp, but hey, I put it over fried eggs or hotdogs), which is fried pepper / chilli / garlic, dried up in a bottle. Not exactly hot but you can not get anything quite close. Macau hot sauce with chopped up scallop / fish inside. Oh boy, I always get several bottles at home. I don't feel right w/o them in my fridge.

Just too bad there isn't enough English words for all the different kind of kim chi and hot sauces. :)

Funny, we just used cholula for dinner tonight. It's wonderful stuff.

When in Korea I had the opportunity to sample some home made sauce that tasted wonderful but burned at both ends :(

Funny thing is that I was a Cholula aficionado for 7 or 8 years before I ever heard of FT.

Or before I thunk up this here handle. ;)

And it still remains my personal favorite.

I personally have a dozen hot sauces in my cupboard depending on what's cooking or what mood I'm in at any given time.

I've got Scotch Bonnet and Habanero sauces handy for when I feel like a real man and the sheep run scared. :)

And I've got those wussy Crystal, Frank's and Texas Pete's sauces handy for when I'm trying to take it easy.

Our research showed that true hot sauce fans all had a cupboard full of various sauces that they picked and chose from.

But with all that competition, it's fortunate that CTS has been the fastest growing hot sauce in the US for the past six years.

I no longer get any $$$ benefit for that achievement but it never fails to put a :) on my face when I hear about it.

That's the true test of a quality hot sauce.

It has to announce itself coming and going.

amen^, different sauces different dishes/uses.

--

I cannot tolerate too much heat in my condiments.I like the southern vinegar based sauces as well as Cholula,Tapatio and Sriracha-but must use them with discretion.

I have 6-7 I use depending on the meal.

My all around is Cholula, since I can't find Tapatio out here.

Also have Frank's, Anchor bar wing sauce (the place in Buffalo where they were invented), Sriracha, Tabasco (for cajun) and some glowing red "insane" hotsauce that i used on a piece of breaded chicken once. That was a lot.

I brought back a back a bottle of Erica's Country Style Hot Pepper Sauce from the Grenadines that is now one of my favorites

Wow!
 

What's wrong with good ole Frank's RedHot Hot Sauce :confused:

Guess I'm not much of a hot sauce connoisseur...

Amen to the Tabasco Chipotle...I love it on french fries, it's absolutely addictive! :)

Nothing wrong with Frank's but it's about as exciting as kissing your sister, ordering vanilla ice cream at Baskin-Robbin's or watching paint dry. :)

I'm a huge fan of Cholula too. I didn't know there was a huge FT Cholula cult.

today Pico Pica by Juanita's (hot) sounds good...

I am somewhat of a connoisseur and agree with Cholula that a cupboard full is just about the right amount. I don't recognize most of these names, but some I do. Dave's Insanity is too terribly hot, highlighting my biggest pet peeve. Taste is extremely important, but hot is too. After a certain point hot registers more than taste, and the hot sauce is instantly worthless IMO. Too much flavor (taste) and not enough hot is equally worthless.

So, Dave's Insanity sauce is out, but Dave's Hurtin' Jalapeno is great, and I also like the Roasted Garlic.

Salsas should not be excluded from this conversation. My favorite in this category - Joe T. Garcia's (hot) is sold in DFW grocery stores and possibly elsewhere.

I grow my own scotch bonnet peppers and I have a particularly hot AND flavourful hybrid from Jamaica but which takes quite a bit of attention to grow.

No sauce is a good as the fresh peppers from the tree and scotch bonnet (the hottest of the habanero family) itself is hottest and has the best flavor when still green, just before riping.

That said Dave's Insanity is crap

My favorites hots sauces are
1) The Red Pickappepa from Jamaica ( which is no longer manufactured because it took three years to become "matured") but I still have a few bottles left.
2)The "yellow" - Salsa Kutbil-ik, El Yacateco (as opposed to milder green and even less so red) from Mexico
3) Matouks - the red or the yellow variety from Trinidad.
4) Any of the crushed (with seeds) Scotch Bonnet Pepper sauces from Jamaica - JCS Brand and there are a number of others.

mike

Tabasco chipotle for me

The Blazin sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings is the hottest sauce I have ever had...

Cholula sauce, is not hot. It is full of flavor. That's why I love it! When I want hot Thai I use Thai peppers to numb my tongue. But CTS rocks!

It is also available in a great Garlic Hot Sauce, as well as powder rubs...Truly a wonderful product!

The Green Habanero hot sauce by El Yucateco. Not a day (or a meal usually) goes by when I don't use this stuff. I have 3-5 bottles in my fridge at all times. Amazing stuff.

Or if you really want to die, this stuff: (http://www.hotsauceworld.com/357maddoghot.html)
I've had a bottle for 2 months now, and haven't made a dent b/c its too damn hot.

Ortego's (not pronounced like the Spanish/Mexican name, but Or-tah-go's & said very fast) Hot Sauce from Ville Platte, LA.

Evidently this is a single store in Ville Platte, LA that makes and bottles their own hot sauce.

Very :cool:.

Thanks for sharing.

My last bottle of Ortego's was Gone With The Wind (Katrina). Believe me, after your refrigerator has been without power for several days, everything in it goes. For a little Ville Platte entertainment:

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2073/vp.htm

That sounds a bit like it could have come from Deliverance. ;)

I'd have to see the product ingredients but 99% of all hot sauces don't need refrigeration. If vinegar is high up on the ingredient list then it's shelf stable for years. Just a heads-up when you get a replacement bottle.

Same with soy sauce which is high in salt. People tend to refrigerate it but it actually lasts longer if you just keep it in the cupboard and don't subject it to temperature changes.

My favorite is Sriracha. Cholula is good, Tabasco is good, there is also a Mexican one made with green chilies that is SUPER hot, that I like.

It's El Yucateco Green Habanero Sauce.

I found tabasco to be the perfect last sauce for a well-cooked spaghetti meal. ;) To be honest, I don't find it very hot at all.

The Naga Jolokia pepper from India is reportedly the world's hottest pepper. It has a Scoville rating of 1 million which equates to 200 times hotter than the average jalapeno pepper.

We are living in Zurich right now, so whenever I visit SF, I bring a couple of the quart sized bottles of Tapatio with me in my carry on. I wonder what the baggage inspectors think!

We can get Cholula here, and have a Mexican store with lots of variety. And we can buy Tabasco at any market. So I have a whole cupboard full of sauces but Tapatio is the favorite.

We have a new friend from Barbados who is launching his own sauce company. It is also very good and comes in all sorts of temperatures...

fduvall