Hot Sauce: We Need to Have a Serious Discussion about Hot Sauce

[ProudLib72]

List your favorites. How hot they are. Their taste. Where to get them.


Por exemplo, has anyone tried one from this list? https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/worlds-hottest-hot-sauces-gallery

[House of Roberts]

1. Hot sauce is all right for food that is unfit for consumption otherwise,

that you have no choice except to eat.

It is then absolutely essential that you have at least one beer (preferably pints) available for every drop of hot sauce you expect to consume.

[Kali]

2. not gimicky but cheap and tasty, we go through a couple of cans per day...green can is the best

[mr_lebowski]

9. El Pato is definitely a staple of my kitchen ...

Not really 'hot sauce' per se, but good versatile salsa-type stuff goes good on lots of things.

[Kali]

40. yeah I see the gist was the small bottles of hot sauce, my mistake

some of those are good for making hot wings

[hunter]

17. Yeah, I go with cheap and tasty...

... using the green and yellow El Pato cans.

In addition, I always have a few bottles of Tapatío hot sauce on hand.

wikipedia

It's good on most anything that needs to be spiced up.

[Kali]

39. yep

also Cholula, Valentino, and good old Tabasco (also Franks or other "wing" type sauce)

I like a vinegary sauce for pork tacos. Less vinegar for eggs and other uses. El Pato just on all kinds of food, or as a base for other stuff.

[alwaysinasnit]

53. +1000

[ProudLib72]

21. The green says "salsa", but the others say "tomato sauce"

I may need to investigate this since it's so cheap. Maybe I could use the tomato sauce to make smothered burritos?

[Kali]

38. they really aren't very different

I think the green can is a little chunkier, all have what I consider medium heat - they make a great base for some more fresh chopped veggies (onion, chiles of various types, tomato, cilantro etc)

[ProudLib72]

44. I just bought a small can of the yellow

I'm thinking about either smothering burritos or using it as a base for chili. This will be the week for investigation!

[Nac Mac Feegle]

22. A recipe from one of my co-workers:

1 can El Pato Salsa
1 8oz block cream cheese, softened

Mix together in a suitable container until smooth.

Serve with tortilla chips of your choice.

Alternative: 3 cans El Pato and 2 bricks cream cheese. A bit spicier, for larger groups. (Or a long football game.)

You may have to experiment a bit to find your favorite flavor of sauce to use. (Yes, we'll call it "experimenting", "to find the right one". That's the ticket)

We're going to need more tortilla chips.

[Kali]

37. works with velveeta too

[Major Nikon]

58. Salsa and cream cheese. I've been making that same recipe for decades

I prefer using it for fresh vegetables instead of tortilla chips. It's always a big hit at pot lucks. Everyone wants the recipe which is ridiculously simple.

[area51]

3. I'm having trouble getting the link completely loaded on my laptop,

so apologies if this is already mentioned on it. I heard of the Mohotta website awhile back. They've got hot sauces, hot peanuts and more.

[redstateblues]

4. Louisiana Hot Sauce

[Lunabell]

5. Yes!

The only good brand for greens and buffalo wings.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

27. I put that sh!t on everything! (Sorry Frank).

[comradebillyboy]

6. I have Dolores' Salsa Verde with my eggs every day. It's hot.

http://www.doloressalsa.net/chile-salsa

[Ilsa]

45. Huevos y salsa verde. Delicioso! nt

[happybird]

7. Cholula for eggs

and green Tobasco on quesadillas and other things with sour cream. I hate regular Tobasco and only use the green one with sour cream items.

I don't use much hot sauce but like to use chiles, cayenne, Sriracha and jerk sauce while cooking. That usually gets stuff spicy enough for me.

[OriginalGeek]

14. I don;t like regular tabasco either

but I love their chipotle tabasco.

I like chipotle just about anywhere I find it except for the restaurant of that name.

But even though it's not really very hot it's too much for the rest of the household so I don;t get to put it in stuff like I'd like. I can add sauce after but it's not the same is cooking it in.

I do occasionally get to make Mexican Spaghetti with Ro-Tel but I still have to add hot sauce after cooking to my serving.

That's about as hot as they are willing to go.

[yellowdogintexas]

46. Ro-Tel is essential to any party in Texas

I buy it by the case at Costco

[OriginalGeek]

59. lol yep

Texas is where I learned about it. My mom got the recipe from a lady at church and I pretty much grew up eating that. Either at home or at pot-lucks.


You can take the boy out of church but you can't take the Ro-Tel out of the boy!

[jmowreader]

8. Any discussion of hot sauce begins and ends with Tabasco

It is completely reliable. It contains everything you need and nothing you don't. And it will be on the market long after the "10 million Scoville Units" fad passes.

[elias7]

10. Tabasco is great, but you're missing out on the 21st century

Do you still drink Budweiser when there are so many wonderful craft beers out there?

It’s not all about the heat, though for true hot sauce aficionados, a habanero sauce will go a lot farther than the relatively mild Tabasco pepper sauce, the small bottle will last a handle of meals for me because I have to pour so much on.

The issue is taste. Sure Tabasco is great on eggs and some savory dishes, it just doesn’t have the versatility to complement most Chinese, Thai, French, Italian Indian or African cuisine. The beauty of this fad as you call it, is that people create sauces with all sorts of flavors that complement different foods.

Sure, some folks love the ghost pepper paste just for heat sake, but that’s just a subset of what’s going on out there.

Experiment a little!!!!

[jmowreader]

16. There are very few craft beers that I'll drink

I really dislike IPA, and IPA seems to be the standard style of craft beer. Well, that and Hefeweizen, which I hated before anyone in the US decided to start making it. Goose Island has a decent pils. Anchor Steam is also a respectable pils, and of course Sam Adams has always been good. (Oh yes: if you are ever in Boston you simply MUST go on the Sam Adams Brewery Tour. Truth be told it’s not much of a tour - you visit their R&D facility, not a working brewery, and the whole tour is “these are the ingredients in our beer, this is a fermenting tank, come have some beer” - but you get free Sam Adams, and the young lady who runs the tour is an absolute delight. Take the T to Stony Brook. If you’re traveling south on the T, turn right when you leave the train and walk up the stairs. Go left once you climb the stairs, and walk down to the main drag. Turn right and walk til you see the old Haffenreffer brewery. Sam Adams is on the back side of it.)

[CentralMass]

56. Great tour.

[Major Nikon]

60. Comparing Tabasco to Budweiser isn't really a fair comparison

Pretty much all beer used to be craft until large scale distributors starting mass producing it cutting corners along the way to produce a cheaper inferior product.

Tabasco hasn't changed much if at all in over 100 years. It was and is the original craft product that still exists today the same way it was back then. The only thing that's really changed is the peppers are grown south of the US where they can be grown year round with greater consistency. If all you care about is capsicum, there's plenty of products containing habanero and other hotter peppers which will go farther. Personally I like the flavor of tabasco peppers and tabasco sauce is a very simple product that contains little more than the sauce from aged tabasco peppers and vinegar. Products that use hotter peppers typically have other ingredients designed to make them palatable. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, sometimes all you want is simplicity. I'll still always have a bottle of McIlhenny on hand.

[ProudLib72]

64. So what you're saying is Tabasco is the MGD of hot sauces?

Nothing wrong with MGD. I still like it. Good flavor. Just not "craft".

[Major Nikon]

66. I'm saying comparing it to beer isn't valid

Especially mass produced beer from mediocre ingredients. Tabasco sauce is made from a very simple recipe from quality peppers in pretty much the same way that made it immensely popular to begin with.

[ProudLib72]

67. I'm bummed I didn't get to visit the factory when I went to New Orleans

I'm even more bummed that I have never found a store that carries those x large bottles. The largest of their bottles lasts me about a month.

[Major Nikon]

68. When I was in the military we ate the first generation of MREs

I probably would have starved without it. Subsequent generations of MREs contained a small bottle.

[hlthe2b]

12. Yeah, 'will always be favorite for me, though I've tried & liked a lot of the overwhelming new ones

[Dave Starsky]

13. Tabasco is a bit "vinegary".

That's not necessarily a bad thing. It tastes great on eggs and seafood.

I find Frank's Original Red Hot sauce to have the most latitude. It tastes great on EVERYTHING, from hot wings to Cajun food to Mexican food. It is the Swiss Army Knife of hot sauces.

[ProudLib72]

19. I started drinking Tabasco when I was 7, and I've kept it up ever since

Some tiny Tabasco sample bottles came in the mail. My friend and I took them to a ball game. When we got bored with the game, we started drinking the Tabasco. It was GOOD! Shoot, I just had some on rice not ten minutes ago!

[kwassa]

29. I don't like Tabasco.

It was the first but not the best.

I once visited the Tabasco plant on Avery Island and took the tour. Driving through that part of Louisiana made me realize that there were lots of local hot sauce makers that we never see outside that region. Tabasco really is the Budweiser of hot sauces.

[lillypaddle]

11. My favorite is Texas Pete's "Hotter" hot sauce

Louisiana hot sauce is good, but not quite hot enough, so I usually us it along with Texas Pete's "Hotter" hot sauce. Kroger finally started carrying it, I used to order it online.

[OriginalGeek]

15. there's a taco place near work

that has the best tacos al pastor and their red sauce makes me cry. By the time I get to my 4th one I'm glad I have that soothing cooling horchata. Ordinarily I'm not about heat for the sake of heat - it's just that this stuff tastes so good the heat is worth it. They'll give me an extra little plastic cup but I wish they would market bottles of it because I like to make tacos at home too and have yet to find a product that matches this stuff.

[Brother Buzz]

18. Jamaica Hell Fire 4 in 1 Hot Sauce was the hottest shit I ever encountered

I collected dozens of hot sauces in Jamaica years ago, and some were great and I've never been able to find then since. Jamaica Hell Fire wasn't one of them; it was just plain blistering hot and destroyed a huge pot of chili on a fishing trip. If an idiot in my party didn't work and eat all of it in three days, I'm convinced the shit would have eaten through the pot. The greatest hot sauce I found in Jamaica was 'Caribbean Choice'. I found the label in the states, but it wasn't the same recipe.

My go-to hot sauce today is Crystal Hot Sauce - Cheap, flavorful, and modest heat, but I hold Pickapeppa in reserve for certain dishes

[ProudLib72]

20. While I agree that Pickapeppa is excellent

It's not what I would call "hot sauce". But man o man, that stuff goes quickly!

[Brother Buzz]

23. I don't disagree

And when I go into the Pickapeppa mode, hot sauces are generally pushed aside.

[Kali]

41. a lot of my family love that stuff

I put it in Worcestershire category, though.

[Brother Buzz]

42. And A.1. Steak Sauce. All three are light years ahead of Ketchup

I've found Pickapeppa works exceptionally well with a lot of Middle Eastern dishes.

[Kali]

43. oh yeah that too

they are not in my main repertoire, but sometimes a key "secret" ingredient

[yellowdogintexas]

47. Crystal is awesome. So handy for so many things nt

[Brother Buzz]

49. It's the hot sauce of choice in discerning greasy spoons

[Nac Mac Feegle]

24. Cholula or Tapatio are my current favorites

They're not as 'sharp' as Tabasco, more flavor than heat. Maybe I'm getting old, but I'm not into the "heat for the sake of heat" thing.
They're a condiment, an accent to a dish, not to take over the dish. I see these "Hotter Than Hell" types as the province of the "Here, watch this, hold my beer" types. Showing off.

I want to add some flavor to my eggs, not burn off my tongue. A few drops, (OK, more than a few) on the over easys, and it helps the coffee to get me going for the day.

A small dab of the Green or Red at Stan's Grocery in Yuma on a supreme breakfast burrito is just the thing to keep me going for the day. That and the fact that their burritos are better than a pound apiece. I don't need to stop for lunch.

I guess that I'm saying to use the right tool for the job, add flavor and spice, don't light up your intestines.

[ProudLib72]

25. I understand, and I agree to an extent

I want flavor and heat. If you look at those sauces in the article I posted in the OP, the last few are made with pure capsaicin. That's all about the heat and to hell with any flavor. What's the point? On the other hand, most hot sauces that restaurants have do absolutely nothing for me heat wise. Cholula tastes pretty good, but I end up drowning my food to get a little heat.

There is a creole restaurant in town that has been one of my favorite places since college (so over 20 years). Back in the day, they kept red Tabasco on the tables. Then, about a decade ago, the Tabasco disappeared. They substituted their own "homemade" hot sauce, but it tastes like slightly augmented ketchup. It's very disappointing.

[kwassa]

26. Sriraja Panich

The one, the only, the original Sriracha sauce from Sri Racha Thailand. It costs about $1.69 at the global market across the street.

[ProudLib72]

28. Oh!

Does it taste like the ubiquitous Sriracha? I like that stuff, but I also really like to get the chilli pepper flakes in oil stuff at the restaurants. More chilli taste is better.

[kwassa]

30. It is lighter and less hot, but a very nice flavor.

I am more about the blend of flavors these days. Heat for heat's sake is just boring. The flavor should augment the dish.

[Doreen]

31. Dave's Insanity Sauce.

If you are making a large pot of chili you need only 3-4 drops in the pot.

[alwaysinasnit]

54. That stuff will make your nose run faster than you can reach for a tissue.

[Doreen]

55. And that is from a distance.

[yonder]

32. Sriracha, Cholula or Frank's for all around, everyday and

Dave's Gourmet, from mild to atomic for specialties. Their hottest ones will guarantee if you didn't have hemorrhoids before, you will the next day.

Tabasco for emergencies only, or applied topically after an unfortunate session with Dave's the night before.

Be careful out there!

[Mersky]

33. I've been a little obsessed with green salsas this year

Herdez guacamole salsa is so good in place of mayo on a sandwich. Great with chips, breakfast, rice, chicken, fish, and everything else savory. Medium brings a nice front end heat.

La Victoria Salsa Verde is tangy and super with tortilla chips and beer on a warm day.

Cholula, Louisiana hot sauce, and Sriracha are constant staples in our house.

Also keep some bottles of Houston based Big Daddy's for when I want to make wings a little meaner.

[ProudLib72]

34. Herdez salsa verde is awesome!

It comes in one of those funky looking glass jars. It's not really very hot at all, but it is soooooo good! And it's cheap enough to just pour on everything. The secret is the tomatillos. They make it tangy.

[Mersky]

35. Verde is cool, but goes so well with spicy

La Victoria Verde (I think it's tomatillo taste is little brighter than Herdez, which is also good) is cool and just dang tangy good. Not uncommon to have some jalapenos, etc on the same plate. Goes well with Tecate or even an amber.

Now the Herdez guacamole salsa? It's, eh, creamy in texture. The medium has a kick... More than the Verde.

[ProudLib72]

65. I checked out the guac salsa, but i couldn't bring myself to buy it

I'm not a big fan of guac in the first place (heresy, I know). I also looked at the La Victoria, but it said it was chunky. I really hate chunky. In the end, I just bought another bottle of the Herdez verde, which I can combine with something else that's hot.

[lunasun]

36. Or you can make your own

[ProudLib72]

50. Sometimes I do make my own

The trouble is that I use a coffee grinder to grind up the dried peppers, and that creates pepper dust. Now, depending on which peppers I was using, that could be mildly irritating to "call 911!". For some reason, most people find ghost pepper dust disagrees with their sinuses.


And that reminds me that I bought a huge bag of dried ghost peppers not long ago...

[MissB]

63. That's what I do

From peppers that I grow in my garden.

[yellowdogintexas]

48. Yucateca Habanero Green Sauce!!

It is awesome.

We put in all sorts of things. My husband even put it in a batch of popcorn, and it was quite nice.

I make a handy soup which we call Pantry Soup (one could also call it Costco Soup because I get most of the ingredients in case lots at Costco)

1 can Kirkland canned chicken breast
1 can chicken broth
1 can Ro-tel
1 can rinsed and drained black beans

combine all of this in a saucepan and simmer. I usually add some cumin and chili powder.

When all the flavors have blended, add a good handful of frozen corn and simmer until the corn is cooked

If I have any, I will sometimes toss in some frozen leftover rice.

A couple of drops of that Yucateca just tops this off!

Makes 4 generous servings

Unless you add the rice - the WW count is 0

[Ponietz]

51. Trader Joe's Extra Hot Habanero Ghost Pepper salsa is delicious!

Fresh, in the refrigerated foods.

[doc03]

52. I don't like the original Tabasco sauce, the new milder green sauce is good. I like the

flavor of Frank's Red Hot. I also like Cholula sauce.

[samnsara]

57. i like tabasco or plain ol franks..

..with the hotter ones theres no taste..just burn.

[hauweg]

61. Plenty of flavor and heat

My favorite: DA BOMB Ground Zero

It has a great smokey chilly taste and plenty of heat. A few drops added to any dish do the job. A bottle lasts months...

[Alpeduez21]

62. "rooster sauce"

I love siracha. Good on eggs. Also slathered on slices of extra sharp cheddar cheese.

Franks red hot or tabasco style sauces, the thinner more vinegar ones, are good on slices of cucumber.