Hot Sauce

The Drifter

New member
I went to edit my post, but it was too late.
I just wanted to add that Sriracha is also good on breakfast burritos along with a spread of picante sauce.
Hmmmm, I may update my Recipe thread with how I make these.
 

The Drifter

New member
I have been dabbling in habanaro sauces with a carrot base. I have a few of these sauces, and they go so good in soups and stews.
 

The Drifter

New member
I went awhile without picking any new sauces up, just the regular ones that I enjoy using. Went to a mall in a town about 40 minutes away. Never been to this mall, and was overjoyed to see that they had a shop there that sold nothing but hot sauce and BBQ sauce (along with a few other odds-and-ends).
It was like my own little slice of Heaven in there. I picked up a few bottles of stuff that I hadn't tried before.

The first is Melinda's Fire Roasted Habanero Pepper Sauce. Haven't opened this one up yet. But, I have tried a few of Melinda's sauces (thanks to our favorite professor), and enjoy them a lot.
Melindas-Fire-Roasted-Habanero-Pepper-Sauce_1024x1024.png


Second in line is Iguana Mean Green Hot n' Tasty Jalapeno Pepper Sauce. I tried some of this in a bowl of my beef stew. It has such a great tangy flavor from the jalapenos, and it's good and thick with the pulp of the peppers much like Melinda's brand of sauces.
1851-2T.jpg


I plan on hitting that shop pretty regular from here on out. They're a family owned place, so I'd rather get my stuff from them than to order it online.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
The Drifter said:
It was like my own little slice of Heaven in there.
Ha! I see Cholula on your rack. My girlfriend just bought the chipotle flavoured one 4 days ago. She also bought a bottle of Louisiana Gold Tabasco Pepper Sauce (and I thought about The Drifter when she put both of them in the grocery basket).

Anyway, I'm happy for you that you've now found this new store. :)
 

The Drifter

New member
Stoo said:
Ha! I see Cholula on your rack. My girlfriend just bought the chipotle flavoured one 4 days ago. She also bought a bottle of Louisiana Gold Tabasco Pepper Sauce (and I thought about The Drifter when she put both of them in the grocery basket).

Anyway, I'm happy for you that you've now found this new store. :)

Oh, yes - Cholula is a mainstay. I've never tried the chipotle flavored Cholula (at least to my knowledge), does your girlfriend seem to like it? What are some of her favorite brands? I may pick some of them up as she seems to have good taste.
And, the ol' Drifter was drifting around in Stoo's thoughts at the grocery store? Speaking of that, there used to be a TV commercial that came on around here a few months back. It had the generic jingle with it, but one line went "And Spaceman Stu knows me and you.". Everytime I heard it I thought of old Stoo at the Raven! Hah!

I'm glad that I found the store also. I'm think about making a trip there tomorrow. If I do, I'll post my goodies when I get back.
 
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The Drifter

New member
My apologizes for the double-posts. I use this thread as a 'saucy diary' of sorts, excuse the pun. If any of you mods out there in my computer screen have a problem with that, just tell me, and I'll stop.
Well, I picked up a few more sauces at my local store (Shameless plug for All Fired Up in The Bristol Mall in Bristol, Virginia!) and welp, this is what I got:

First up is Ass Kickin' Cajun Hot Sauce: Kick Yo' Ass Hot!. It says that it has a mix of habanero and jalapeno peppers.
1452306_10202389495399953_1133239350_n.jpg


The second kind I got is Hog's Breath World Famous Hot Sauce: Hog's Breath is better than no breath at all. This sauce was made from a pretty popular saloon down in Florida. It has worcestershire in it. I love worcestershire.
h87.jpg


And the third and last kind caught my eye before I walked out the door. It's called African Rhino Peri-Peri Sauce. It's got a beautiful orange color with bits of pepper floating around. Also, it's made with an African pepper called the peri-peri. Never heard of that before.
945803_10202389502200123_1485333005_n.jpg


That's my haul for today. I can't wait to try these out!
 

Mickiana

Well-known member
I love the names and sights and whiffs of spicy hotness in this thread. I tried Tabasco Habanero sauce on my scrambled eggs yesterday morning for breakfast. It was as good as a coffee in waking me up!
 

The Drifter

New member
Mickiana said:
I love the names and sights and whiffs of spicy hotness in this thread. I tried Tabasco Habanero sauce on my scrambled eggs yesterday morning for breakfast. It was as good as a coffee in waking me up!

Hot sauce and eggs go together like Peanut butter and jelly. And Tabasco should be in everyone's cupboard. I used some tonight at Chili's. Yummmm!
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
My only problem with the double posts, Drifter, is that it makes me feel guilty about not posting here more often.

I've been pretty low-key on the sauces lately, honestly. A hot sauce store opened near me a few months back, but I've only gone once, and ended up picking up, on the proprietor's recommendation, a bottle of Chicaoji, with "Apple Cider Vinegar, Water, Goji Berries, Chipotles, Agave nectar, Celtic Sea Salt, [and] Cacao nibs." Good stuff, but I think it's flavor was arguably too specific to be all that versatile, something I've thought before about other, especially sweeter, hot sauces. This was in particular was sweet, spicy, and a bit tart, owing to the vinegar and Cacao, I suppose.

chicaoji_chipotle_chile_sauce-xl.jpg


(I also picked up a couple of mango habanero lollipops, which were pleasingly mild.) I guess I had a bottle of Yucatan Sunshine knocking around in the past year, an old favorite of both of ours, Drifter, it seems.

I have a bottle of Crystal Louisiana Hot Sauce (for whipping up a Buffalo sauce), Tabasco, and Chipotle Tabasco in the cupboard right now. Oh, and Sriracha, which maybe we should start hoarding?

I'm aware of Peri-Peri's existence, but I don't think I've ever had it. Maybe that's worth picking up next time I mosey on down to that store.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
The Drifter said:
Oh, yes - Cholula is a mainstay. I've never tried the chipotle flavored Cholula (at least to my knowledge), does your girlfriend seem to like it? What are some of her favorite brands? I may pick some of them up as she seems to have good taste.
Yes, the chipotle Cholula gets a thumbs-up. I will ask about her favourite brands but she is a hardcore snob regarding food. Some Italians can get very elitist when it comes to that subject. She will not eat at any restaurant or buy any food product which has an apostrophe S in the name so you can automatically rule out brands like Dave's, Hot Mama's, Uncle Ben's, etc.

Right off the bat, I can tell you that her hands-down faves are the Huy Fong Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce and the Huy Fong Garlic Chili Sauce (both of which you showed a photo of in post #37). She ALWAYS has a bottles of those with emergency spares in the cupboard. Like many others have said here, the sauce must have flavour because heat without flavour is pointless. That said, she can handle sauce heat more than any other person I've ever met in my entire life. It'd be fun if you & her could have a competition some time because I'm curious to know who'd win!:D

P.S. I'm pretty sure that double posting is only a no-no when it's done within the 30 min. time limit to edit a post.
Mickiana said:
I love the names and sights and whiffs of spicy hotness in this thread.
Yeah, the names are a hoot. The best name is the one that KT Templar mentioned, 100% Pain!:eek: If The Raven ever made some, we could call it, Marion's Hot Poker Sauce or Mola Ram's Flaming Lava Pit Sauce.:)

---
Do either of you guys watch, "Curb Your Enthusiasm"? One episode has a hilarious moment involving hot sauce but I wanted to ask if you guys know the scene before bothering to type it out. (Due to the scene's sexual context, I'd also prefer to have permission from a Mod. I promise to use clean language.)

P.P.S. Just saw Attila's post with the link to the Hoy Fung Sriracha odour complaints. Reminds me of that bacon smell problem a couple of months ago.
 
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The Drifter

New member
Attila the Professor said:
My only problem with the double posts, Drifter, is that it makes me feel guilty about not posting here more often.

All is well, Attila. It was well over a year before I bumped this thread back up. It's like a good friend, it'll be there when we need it.

Attila the Professor said:
I've been pretty low-key on the sauces lately, honestly. A hot sauce store opened near me a few months back, but I've only gone once, and ended up picking up, on the proprietor's recommendation, a bottle of Chicaoji, with "Apple Cider Vinegar, Water, Goji Berries, Chipotles, Agave nectar, Celtic Sea Salt, [and] Cacao nibs." Good stuff, but I think it's flavor was arguably too specific to be all that versatile, something I've thought before about other, especially sweeter, hot sauces. This was in particular was sweet, spicy, and a bit tart, owing to the vinegar and Cacao, I suppose.

I don't recall seeing that one at my store, but I most likely overlooked it. There were so many to choose from, that I felt a bit overwhelmed and I'm sure that I skipped over tons of good sauces.
The African Rhino Peri-Peri sauce that I picked up uses cider vinegar. I haven't tried it yet, but I wonder if using that sort of vinegar cut's down on the tartness? I've read good things about the sauce so far.

There was a large line of a brand (that I forget the name of) that had fruits in it, such as mangos, apples, passionfruit, etc. I may try one of those next. I also spied a few different bottles of hot sauce made from pumpkin and allspice. I would like to have that for the holidays that's just around the bend.

Attila the Professor said:
(I also picked up a couple of mango habanero lollipops, which were pleasingly mild.) I guess I had a bottle of Yucatan Sunshine knocking around in the past year, an old favorite of both of ours, Drifter, it seems.

Yep, goold ol' Yucatan Sunshine. There's a bottle still in my cupboard. I haven't used it in awhile.
Were the lollipops good? I was close to picking up a bag of Tabasco jellybeans...

Attila the Professor said:
I have a bottle of Crystal Louisiana Hot Sauce (for whipping up a Buffalo sauce), Tabasco, and Chipotle Tabasco in the cupboard right now. Oh, and Sriracha, which maybe we should start hoarding?

Crystal is one of my all time favorites. It's mostly the one that I go to when I'm in a hurry as I keep it inside the fridge door. And, I sure wouldn't be complaining if I lived next to the factory making Rooster Sauce. I'd take a big and deep breath every day. Yum.

Attila the Professor said:
I'm aware of Peri-Peri's existence, but I don't think I've ever had it. Maybe that's worth picking up next time I mosey on down to that store.

I'm thinking of cracking open the bottle tonight. Depends of what I make for supper. If I do, I'll let you know how it tastes.

Stoo said:
Yes, the chipotle Cholula gets a thumbs-up. I will ask about her favourite brands but she is a hardcore snob regarding food. Some Italians can get very elitist when it comes to that subject. She will not eat at any restaurant or buy any food product which has an apostrophe S in the name so you can automatically rule out brands like Dave's, Hot Mama's, Uncle Ben's, etc.

Right off the bat, I can tell you that her hands-down faves are the Huy Fong Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce and the Huy Fong Garlic Chili Sauce (both of which you showed a photo of in post #37). She ALWAYS has a bottles of those with emergency spares in the cupboard. Like many others have said here, the sauce must have flavour because heat without flavour is pointless. That said, she can handle sauce heat more than any other person I've ever met in my entire life. It'd be fun if you & her could have a competition some time because I'm curious to know who'd win

Now that would be a fun contest! When I was about eight years old, I used to stay with my uncle a lot. Once we had a contest. We each had a bowl of spicy hot ramen noodles, covered it in black pepper, and poured a ton of hot sauce in it. We each had to eat the whole bowl and drink the broth, without taking one drink of anything. I won! :D

And if she enjoys Huy Fong's "Rooster Sauce" (as I call it) and the Garlic Chili Sauce (the best on a breakfast burrito. yum!) than I trust her judgement fully!

Stoo said:
Yeah, the names are a hoot. The best name is the one that KT Templar mentioned, 100% Pain! If The Raven ever made some, we could call it, Marion's Hot Poker Sauce or Mola Ram's Flaming Lava Pit Sauce

I seen some funny ones at my local shop. Off the top of my head, I remember the following:
Dr. Assburns
Queen of Farts
Sir Farts-A-Lot
Hemorrhoid Helper
Ass Blast

Also, I forgot to mention one kind that I did buy a few months back:
A35-FFMOONSHINE.image


I found it at a cupcake bakery a few miles from here of all places. It has a great smokey flavor to it, unlike anything I've tasted.

Stoo said:
Do either of you guys watch, "Curb Your Enthusiasm"? One episode has a hilarious moment involving hot sauce but I wanted to ask if you guys know the scene before bothering to type it out.

No, I haven't watched the show, but would like to hear more about that scene.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
The Drifter said:
Yep, goold ol' Yucatan Sunshine. There's a bottle still in my cupboard. I haven't used it in awhile.
Were the lollipops good? I was close to picking up a bag of Tabasco jellybeans...

Yeah, I really liked them. I think there might have been two different flavors, actually, but the mango is all I can remember. It was the flat sucker type of thing, not a rounder lollipop.

The Drifter said:
I don't recall seeing that one at my store, but I most likely overlooked it. There were so many to choose from, that I felt a bit overwhelmed and I'm sure that I skipped over tons of good sauces.

I wouldn't go out of my way for the Chicaoji, honestly. It was all right, but hard to find a good opportunity for. I think that happens, in particular, when the sauce is pretty much invented out of nowhere, rather than being a version of an existing flavor profile. Hot sauce doesn't get eaten on its own, and so maybe it can only afford to be so complicated.
 

The Drifter

New member
Hello, folks!
Been a few moons since I last updated this thread. I've bought a few new hot sauces and thought I'd share. As always, your opinions and reviews are most welcome!

I love Iguana Brand sauces. I tried a few of their flavors that I haven't tried before. Their Cayenne Pepper Sauce is one of those.
10262150_10203659421467311_5858524486008864368_n.jpg


Love this sauce! Bought it a few weeks back. Gold Island Pepper Sauce!
10151375_10203659431347558_7177526958926871106_n.jpg


Bought this today. Haven't tried it yet. I've read some good stuff on the makers. It's a smoked tomato hot sauce with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I want to try it in chili beans. Sgt. Pepper's El Chipotle Hot Sauce.
1966928_10203659456708192_8676355140602370083_n.jpg


Bought this one today as well. The label caught my eye. It's made by Captain Thom's Chili Pepper Company. It seems to be a teriyaki-based hot sauce. Would go great in hot & sour soup!
Thai Monkey
1897683_10203659484468886_1129423823601936895_n.jpg


The last sauce I bought today is CaJohn's Select Jalapeno Puree. Nothing but the thick pulp of the peppers in distilled vinegar. I love the tartness of jalapeno-based hot sauces.
10154979_10203659495909172_5279710539115981205_n.jpg
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
This is a little off-model for this thread, but I made an adobo a couple months back for a duck dish that, honestly, turned out better than the meal itself.

There is an excellent and exciting cookbook by the Cuban chef and scholar of medieval Spain Maricel E. Presilla, covering the broad swath of Latin cuisine in Central and South America. (So, everything south of the Rio Bravo/Grande; no Florida, Texas, California, or Southwest to be found.)

8023756667_8d0d89da96_z.jpg


It's a heck of a work, which I've only scratched the surface of, but this one might be of interest to some of you.

Here's the recipe for the sauce, with footnotes to follow:

For the Adobo*

6 dried mirasol** peppers
1 head garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
1 tablespoon ground cumin***
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup red wine vinegar

Preparing the peppers:
Stem and seed the peppers according to the directions on page 744.**** Cover with 1 quart fresh water and bring to a boil over medium heat.***** Lower the heat and simmer until soft and plump, about 15 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid.

Making the Adobo:
Place the peppers in a blender or food processor with the reserved cooking liquid, garlic, cumin, salt, and vinegar and process to a smooth puree. (The Adobo then goes on to be rubbed over the duck, which is allowed to marinate for a few hours.)

*As Presilla writes, "An adobo can be either a marinade for meats or a liquid for braising them that contains the key elements of hotness and sourness tempered with other flavors. In Old Spain, the hot and sour players would have been black pepper and vinegar. Here in the New World, native hot peppers got in on the adobo act, and in some regions (for example, the Yucatán) they are often combined with citrus juices, a lot of garlic, and various herbs and spices. I use the term adobo mostly to refer either to hot-sour-garlicky mixtures, some thick enough to be rubs and some thin enough to be basting sauces, or to stews or soup-stews where the meat is cooked in a sauce (thick or thin) that provides a foundation of acidity and heat that still endures."

**The mirasol pepper, or <I>ají mirasol</I> (<I>ají</I> meaning pepper), was pretty hard to come by, and, from the best that I can tell, <I>may</I> come in both large and small sizes. Frankly, I had to order mine from Amazon. The mirasol is the dried form of the ají amarillo, which is yellow, befitting its name. Presilla writes: "The color of old copper, it has a lovely sweetness and fruitiness with winey, slightly smoky notes. You can buy it pre-ground to a powder." The ones I ordered...well, frankly, I'm not 100% persuaded that they were the right ones, based on some of the reviews on the product page and some lack of clarity online about how large they should be. That said, they did seem to have the requisite sweetness and smokiness, so I'm confident enough in the outcome. Oh, and these pictures which come up are just like what I ordered, about half-a-foot long.

20775.jpeg


***The cumin is the real star. Presilla has a couple of other sauce recipes in here involving the mirasol, none of which I have tried yet, but they don't include the cumin.

****In brief form, remove the stem, butterfly it (cutting down one send to open it up), and remove the seeds, scraping them out, essentially.

*****You'll have a decently spicy smell going in your kitchen at this point, so be warned. It'll get in your nostrils.

So, that's the process. I reserved some from marinade purposes, and tried it with some chips. <I>Excellent</I>. Not super-spicy, but that could be adjusted readily enough, perhaps with the addition of some spicier pepper powder like cayenne. And it's possibly worth trying the basic principle with a more readily available dried pepper than the mirasol, retaining the rest of the recipe.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Attila the Professor said:
This is a little off-model for this thread, but I made an adobo a couple months back for a duck dish that, honestly, turned out better than the meal itself.

There is an excellent and exciting cookbook by the Cuban chef and scholar of medieval Spain Maricel E. Presilla, covering the broad swath of Latin cuisine in Central and South America. (So, everything south of the Rio Bravo/Grande; no Florida, Texas, California, or Southwest to be found.)

8023756667_8d0d89da96_z.jpg


It's a heck of a work, which I've only scratched the surface of, but this one might be of interest to some of you.

Here's the recipe for the sauce, with footnotes to follow:



*As Presilla writes, "An adobo can be either a marinade for meats or a liquid for braising them that contains the key elements of hotness and sourness tempered with other flavors. In Old Spain, the hot and sour players would have been black pepper and vinegar. Here in the New World, native hot peppers got in on the adobo act, and in some regions (for example, the Yucatán) they are often combined with citrus juices, a lot of garlic, and various herbs and spices. I use the term adobo mostly to refer either to hot-sour-garlicky mixtures, some thick enough to be rubs and some thin enough to be basting sauces, or to stews or soup-stews where the meat is cooked in a sauce (thick or thin) that provides a foundation of acidity and heat that still endures."

**The mirasol pepper, or <I>ají mirasol</I> (<I>ají</I> meaning pepper), was pretty hard to come by, and, from the best that I can tell, <I>may</I> come in both large and small sizes. Frankly, I had to order mine from Amazon. The mirasol is the dried form of the ají amarillo, which is yellow, befitting its name. Presilla writes: "The color of old copper, it has a lovely sweetness and fruitiness with winey, slightly smoky notes. You can buy it pre-ground to a powder." The ones I ordered...well, frankly, I'm not 100% persuaded that they were the right ones, based on some of the reviews on the product page and some lack of clarity online about how large they should be. That said, they did seem to have the requisite sweetness and smokiness, so I'm confident enough in the outcome. Oh, and these pictures which come up are just like what I ordered, about half-a-foot long.

20775.jpeg


***The cumin is the real star. Presilla has a couple of other sauce recipes in here involving the mirasol, none of which I have tried yet, but they don't include the cumin.

****In brief form, remove the stem, butterfly it (cutting down one send to open it up), and remove the seeds, scraping them out, essentially.

*****You'll have a decently spicy smell going in your kitchen at this point, so be warned. It'll get in your nostrils.

So, that's the process. I reserved some from marinade purposes, and tried it with some chips. <I>Excellent</I>. Not super-spicy, but that could be adjusted readily enough, perhaps with the addition of some spicier pepper powder like cayenne. And it's possibly worth trying the basic principle with a more readily available dried pepper than the mirasol, retaining the rest of the recipe.

There comes a time when a man, looks at another man and realizes the scope of his being. Attila, will you marry me?
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
I recently bought some harissa for the first time, astonishingly. Haven't done much with it other than mix it with some mayo for use on an egg sandwich, but it's solid stuff. This is the Trader Joe's brand, which certainly came at a reasonable price point, but I'm sure there are better boutique labels out there.

We should probably consider naming it the official condiment of the Raven, seeing as it's most associated with Tunisia.
 
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