Hot sauces and salsas, and the peppers involved (and jerky snacks)

[Aerows]

Last edited Sun Jan 13, 2013, 06:20 PM - Edit history (1)

I love hot foods. I love Tabasco sauce, Scotch Bonnet peppers and Serrano peppers. I bought an innocent looking jar of salsa today, though, that was labeled "Pain is Good", Habanero sauce. I tried it. My mouth caught on fire. I was hit with a minor coughing fit. And then... the blaze of intense pepper pleasure flooded my body.

Okay, so I'm not a complete novice. I went to a few pepper festivals in Florida and I'm pretty sure I had a very small taste of Ghost Pepper there and nearly died, but then thought the pain rocked.

Mine was Batch #37 of the Habanero Salsa. I'll be eating it on, well, everything.

Tell me about your favorites, where i can get them, and all the rest

[1983law]

1. Here ya go.

http://extremefood.com/shop/home.php

I am a hot sauce/extract junkie, and buy most of my product from Blair.

[Aerows]

2. I've heard of those

They look fantastic. Thanks for the link

EDIT: How's the beef jerky? Sometimes I like that as a snack, but if it's hot, I like it better.

[1983law]

3. I didn't like

the beef jerky or the chips. Not because of the heat, just that the flavor was off. The beauty about Blair's is that the upper Scoville sauces--mega death and higher--will last a long time. I go through an ultra death bottle every 2-plus months.

[Aerows]

4. Thanks for letting me know

Sounds like the jerky is crap. Know any with heat that is improved by heat? And the heat used?

[1983law]

5. You know what?

Slim Jim is making a "Dare" class for beef sticks. The "Really Freakin Hot" will light you up a bit. But if you are seriously looking into something like that, you may want to make your own jerky using Blair's "original" but not hotter than "sudden" death. Anything hotter will ruin jerky if you ask me. Here's another link:

http://www.hotsauce.com/Fiery-Foods-and-Hot-Sauce-Snacks-s/7.htm

Great to know another chili head out there.

[Aerows]

9. That sounds delicious :)

I love hot foods, that sounds up my alley and around the bend

[Aerows]

10. I like Jerky

and a "dare" slim jim sounds like just my street.

I hope they make them.

[zappaman]

38. Thanks for this thread!

Always looking for the hottest whatever.
Ghost pepper is insane!
http://www.hotsauce.com

[Aerows]

40. Insanity is what

I look for in peppers It's a better drug than any other, and doesn't kill you. The very best just make you wish you were

[zappaman]

41. If there is a hotter pepper than the ghost pepper, I haven't had it.

But, when the burn wears off, it is quite tasty!

[Aerows]

43. Keep an eye

on the chocolate 7-pots. They have a consistently high burn, nothing below 900K scu. I haven't had any yet, but they are said to sting worse than Trinidad Scorpions and the beloved Bhut Jolokia.

[zappaman]

44. Damn you!

Now I have to try one!

[Aerows]

45. They are consistently badass

from what I hear. A fellow DUer is growing some. Paint peeling delicious is the word about them.

[Moondog]

6. After a hiatus of several years

I grew a bunch of hot peppers last spring / summer. Habaneros, serranos, and Bulgarian Carrot peppers. The latter make a wonderful pico de gallo, or a nice salsa. They all freeze well. The habs and the serranos also dry well, but the Bulgarians, well, either eat them fresh or freeze them.

Got a mailing in yesterday from http://www.chileplants.com , which is where I got last year's seedlings. I doubt if I will grow any this year - I have enough left on hand in the deep freeze to last a few years. But these guys are already booking early orders for '13.

I had six plants of each in a total of three Earth Boxes. Waaaaay too many peppers for me. And I live amidst a bunch of transplanted midwesterners for whom freshly ground good quality black pepper (Penzey's) is very exotic and much too spicy. So my chances of giving any of these away are slim and none.

Just moved a few months ago, and I got myself a new smoker as a Christmas present to myself, which should be delivered tomorrow. I can probably use up some of these excess peppers in marinades, rubs, etc, but still. Looking back, one Earth Box with two plants of each variety would have been more than enough.

Anyway, if you are seriously into this stuff, grow your own. Cheaper. Better. Stronger.

[Aerows]

7. Great Post

and I am trying with a 40 x 40 piece of land that I grew onions on. I can't grow ghost or Jamaican scorpions, I wish.

[Aerows]

8. 7-Pots

I want to grow them :O. Niyad is a grower of fierce chili's here on DU.

[zappaman]

42. By the way, if you grow habaneros...

the first batch is heat-free.
You can actually pick the pepper and eat it.

The heat starts appearing in the second generation.

Fun to grow and relatively easy!

[HarveyDarkey]

29. Then you need to make some of my "magic powder"

At the end of the year (usually early October) I put all the hot peppers I haven't used for salsas in my smoker for about 3 hours until they start to dry. Then I finish them off in my dehydrator until they're completely dry. Then i grind them in the food processor until they're coarsely ground. A tablespoon (or three) in a pot of Chile, Spaghetti sauce or whatever adds a nice smoky fiery touch. I usually grow about 10 varieties & the flavor profile varies from year to year depending on how many of each variety I have left over.

[Moondog]

31. That, my friend, is a great idea! Thanks! n/t

[Aerows]

37. OMG smoked peppers

That is an incredibly good idea, and thank you for sharing it. My mouth is watering just thinking about it and the possibilities.

[Major Nikon]

11. I bought this one thinking it wouldn't be all that bad

At work we bring in snacks for the break room and share. Several of the guys like really hot salsa, so I picked up the one below along with a bag of chips, left them in the break room, and didn't think any more about it. The guy at work that likes the hottest hot stuff said it was too hot to eat. Someone else had brought in a big bottle of Pace mild, so he mixed it half-n-half and he said it was still too damn hot to eat. So he dumped out half again and added another half of Pace mild and it was STILL hot as bejebus. Who would have thought with a name like Mrs. Renfro's it would have been all that hot?

[Aerows]

16. It's Ghost Pepper

Of course it's going to be hot as bejebus. I agree, though, Mrs. Renfro's sounds like it would be tame

[libodem]

25. I like this brand

For green sauce, when I don't make my own.

[Aerows]

36. I'd love to hear the ingredients in your own

That's why I started this thread. Onion, scorching chilis and a smear of garlic with your tomatoes makes great salsa.

[1983law]

48. That is a good one.

Surprised it sells as well given it has some muscle.

[hobbit709]

12. I make my own

I start with a pound of Red Savina Habaneros and go from there. If my chile pequin bush in the front yard is producing I add those. Add onion, garlic and apricots.

[Aerows]

17. Apricots?

Hmm. That sounds very interesting to add sweet to the hot.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

13. El Yucateco

Should be classified as a chemical weapon. Comes in several varieties: Green, Red, Brown (The hottest) plus Chipotle and Caribbean. You can get it in any grocery store in areas where there is a significant Latin population.

Once when I was sick I burned my tongue on soup that I didn't let cool off enough. The next day I was back on solid food and had a burrito with El Yucateco red sauce. Couldn't taste anything for a month after that. You've been warned.



Another one that's been popping up lately in the local Chinese restaurants (And grocery stores with good Asian aisles) is Huy Fong Sriracha sause. Not as dangerous as El Yucateco, but not to be underestimated.

[pokerfan]

22. Dear Sriracha

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sriracha

[Aerows]

35. Mmm. Death and fire

Hot sauce. Make it hotter and hand it to me.

[zappaman]

39. sriracha is my ketchup!

I can put that on anything!
Especially fries...

[riderinthestorm]

14. I just have to add that this thead is loco. Seriously loco. My butt would be burning for a month!

If I tried ANY of these (sorry if its TMI but this is CRAZY shit).

The guys who work for me always plant their own gardens alongside our organic veggie fields and they give me some of their peppers and LAUGH at what a wimp I am when they give me their mildest stuff. I've tried to make salsa and other sauces with their mildest peppers and I cringe at how much food I've thrown away.

All's I can add is a

[Aerows]

18. My family pretty much thinks

that black pepper is a hot spice, so I understand how you feel. Myself, though, I like the BURN. They tease me that I a throwback from some ancient ancestor because none of my family likes heat the way that I do LOL.

[niyad]

15. ah, so wonderful to be talking to other chileheads!! and clearly, compared to what I am

reading here, there are some truly expert growers amoung you. my latest attempt is the chocolate 7-pot, for which I recently acquired some seedlings. since I am growing them indoors, in what is now a fairly cold climate, it is rather slow-going. still working on a trinidad scorpion, a few weeks ahead of the 7-pot (thank goodness the kittehs are leaving them alone)


I am lucky that there is a shop very close by which carries about 100 different hot sauces,and various salsas, mustards, rubs, etc., and a wonderful tasting bar, which I have not seen since similar shops in SD and phoenix. and I am very fortunate that there is a shop in the area that carries the ghost chile in many forms, from powder to whole dried chiles to some truly wicked sauces (and, oh, what wonderful bloody marys!!). there is another shop that sells a colorado chocolate bar with chiles--mmmmm.

my favourite source of mail order is "mo hotta, mo betta", which was one of the first.http://www.mohotta.com/

years ago, when the red savina first became available, a friend who ordered some was making bloody marys. he offered to make me one, and asked how many drops of the sauce he should put in, saying that most people could handle about two drops. several people piped up and said, "it's for niyad, make it ten". shocked the heck out of them when I didn't even blink. of course, I grew up on very spicy foods, even know how to make my own horseradish (not that difficult, and a GREAT treatment for colds--swallow a spoonful of the really good, hot stuff and it will clear your congestion in no time)

for those of you with connections to the trade, and who might be in the albuquerque area the first of march: http://www.fieryfoodsshow.com/ I had the thrill of going several years ago with a friend in the business--it was tremendous fun!

[Aerows]

19. The pepper festival

that I went to was one of the best shows I've ever been to. It was in Clearwater, FL. I had a fantastic time trying out all of the different creations! I am nowhere near Albequerque, but I'm sure you will have fun when you go. It is so much fun to try out all the different peppers.

I hope you will take pictures and share the highlights with your fellow chileheads on DU .

[niyad]

20. a pepper festival in clearwater? darn, wish it had been there when I was there, that would

have been fun (this was many years ago, so perhaps this is something fairly new??)

alas, does not look like I will get to go to the fiery foods festival this year--my friend is not available. will have to check around and see if anyone else I know is going, though.

[Aerows]

21. It was about 9 years ago

It was something a friend of mine found, and since we both share a love of hot foods, she and I decided it would be a great way to spend a Saturday on a lovely spring day. It ended up being a lot of fun. I don't know if it is annual or not. I bought a Tabasco pepper plant there, too. Unfortunately, it didn't do very well in Florida weather (or it could have been that I had to travel too much for work and the poor thing wasn't cared for properly. I'm still sad about that one.)

[OriginalGeek]

23. On a side note

If you go friend the Tabasco folks on Facebook you can enter their daily gallon give-away
For the next year (I think it's a year) they are giving away a gallon of whichever of their sauces you want (I picked the Chipotle tabasco - it's not very hot but has great flavor and I would definitely use a gallon of it up).

The downside is you have to enter every day anew.

[Aerows]

27. I'm not on facebook

and never will be LOL. I had some great prints of Tabasco in all shades of contemporary art. Dali Tabasco bottle, etc, much like Absolut has done with their vodka, but these were art sized prints

[OriginalGeek]

30. Well dang.

lol. So I went and looked and they will let you sign up without facebook: https://www.wf-site.com/microsite/pages/620139152e2622f0

(There is a link to the above site on the tabasco site: http://www.tabasco.com/mcilhenny-company/coupons-promotions/ )

You only have to fill out a dossier on yourself that includes, most likely, all the information you never wanted to put on facebook in the first place!

but at least on the tabasco.com front page there is a 50 cent coupon for your next bottle. You can probably print that without giving them your life history.

We have a local restaurant chain here called Tijuana Flats that features pretty good Mexican food - not a sit-down restaurant (order at counter and they bring it to you) but a giant leap ahead of Taco Bell. One of their features is the hot sauce bar featuring a rotating supply of 15 or 20 sauces ranging from mild and sweet happy face to nuclear frowny face with tears. We go every Tuesday for Taco Tuesdays and often a few other times a week for lunch. Always fun to see what's next. They have 5 or 6 regular sauces always there (May favorite is a medium hot sauce called "Don't Be A Chicken Shit&quot and then rotate in any new sauces they find they think will interest their customers. The latest awesome one was a frowny face with habanero and pineapple and garlic and I forget what else but it lit me up pretty good. They also sell bottles of the sauces so you can take home the ones you love. My friend has a sauce bar at home bigger than his alcohol bar.

They do good work there.

[Aerows]

33. That

sounds like my kind of place! We could roll in there, eat some fiery treats, and kick back a beer.

[RebelOne]

24. I love hot sauces and hot food,

but unfortunately, as I age, they wreak havoc on my stomach. I eat some hot food at night and I pay for it in the morning.

When I was in Jamaica many years ago, most of the restaurants would have jars of hot peppers on the table. Those things would make your hair curl. I loved them, but would not touch them now.

[Aerows]

26. I'm young enough

that I like hair curling peppers. I'm glad that you ate enough of them in your youth that you remember them fondly I will enjoy as many as I can for you and myself

[RebelOne]

32. Thanks. Enjoy and I hope someday you are able to go to Jamaica and sample those hot peppers. n/t

[Earth_First]

28. My love for Sriracha knows no bounds...

It replaced my Red Hot affair when that became too boring.

Apparently it's currently experiencing a cult following among the hipster crowd; fuck it! I still enjoy it...

There is also a new sauce I've found that a friend of mine purchased from me from Costa Rica; Naga Jolokia I believe...

WOWIE WOW WOW!

That stuff is the real deal!

[Aerows]

34. I love Tabasco, the same

I know the attachment to a particular sauce. I can't eat grits without a huge plop of Tabasco

[Aerows]

46. I have to say

that it is awesome that there are so many pepper fanatics on DU. You folks make me smile wider than a truckload of Scorpion salsa! You are that good, my friends.

I was hesitant to start a thread about my vice, and you all came through.

[SteveG]

47. I've gotten too old to do much in the way of very hot

But we have a local store in Rehoboth Beach, DE called Peppers http://www.peppers.com/cube/ They do mail order.