Search & Destroy: Hot Sauce

I live in NO,LA, the home of Crystal, and I don't like it. If I want a pepper flavored vinegar, I could concoct one pretty easily.

Tabasco is overpriced.

"Louisiana" brand hot sauce is all the aged-pepper flavor of Tabasco, without so much vinegar as in Crystal. It's cheap. It's my go to.

The best hot sauce distributed from Louisiana remains Melinda's, a Belizean/Caribbean style hot sauce where the peppers are sweetened with carrots and tartened up with lime juice. Made in Costa Rica, distributed from a warehouse near the New Orleans airport. It's not the right sauce for Monday red beans and rice. But its the right hot sauce maybe 30% of the time.

I keep Huy Fong Sambal Oelek, Huy Fong Sriracha, La Costena chipotles in adobo, Melinda's XXX, and Louisiana brand hot sauces in the house at all times. They're all good. The sambal oelek is the most useful in general cooking and Mediterranean dishes like hummus bi tahini, the chipotles in adobe in Latin dishes, the Louisiana brand in Creole dishes, the sriracha in dishes that want heat/sweet/garlic, and Melinda's at the table.

I have become a hot sauce locavore. I like to use a lot of Uncle Brutha’s (https://www.unclebrutha.com) in my cooking, and the annual editions of the Number One Sons’ Chili Bears (http://number-1-sons-kimchi-pickles-kraut.mybigcommerce.com/2018-full-chili-bear-lineup/) are important things because that is my source for travel hot sauce, a key item in my operational man bag.

The only non-DC area hot sauce I use is that Spicy Chili Crisp stuff that online people never shut about, because it’s really good with ramen and basically anything else, I just resent not knowing exactly what the hell is actually in it, just like every other American who finds themselves relying heavily on a product from China.

I've bought six hot sauces from Heatonist (the latest Hot Ones season's mellower 3 pack, 3 others earlier) and pleased with all of them. The Heartbeat and Hippy Dippy Green sauces are standouts on eggs. The mild to medium sauces add a nice flavor without tilting to too much heat, for me. Plus, it's fun to watch the Hot Ones interviews and know the tastes of some sauces.

Second Secret Aardvark, too. Will try the Serrabanero and Spicy Mayo versions, when I see them at my usual stores.

I love sambal oelek

I just learned what sambal oelek and spicy chili crisp is. I always just called them red chili garlic paste. Love those on poke.

oh, i like Melinda's too. currently have their naga jolokia version in rotation
xpost to Sanpaku

Melinda’s Naga Jolokia is in the fridge next to Uncle Brutha’s No. 9 but I rarely break it out because the Chili Bears are more fun

I live in NO,LA, the home of Crystal, and I don't like it. If I want a pepper flavored vinegar, I could concoct one pretty easily.

like good for you but honest to god between work parenting trying to move all this shit i'm not gonna spend time making my own inferior version of something i can buy a big bottle of for $1.50

louisiana is a good hot sauce will investigate melinda's

Now mix that Louisiana with some lemony tartare sauce. Lovely tangy sauce for fish and chips.

I haven't been able to find Louisiana Gold around here. Is it worth ordering online to try it?

I kind of would want to start making my own hot sauce just to know what is going in it. And to manage the hot and sodium level.

I have a nephew who regularly grows cultivars of absurdly hot peppers (bhut jolokia, red savina habanero, scotch bonnet). When he drops off a bag I'll make my version of a Belizean hot sauce, and give my nephew a couple jars of the product. Honestly, less hot supermarket habaneros work better.

If you have ripe (red) jalepenos, a Hoy Fong-style sriracha (just 5 ingredients) would be pretty simple, too.

Creole style hot sauces require aging the peppers, sometimes in staved barrels, so are less of a lazy afternoon project.

This is my fav. Hot, but not crazy hot like Dave's, and loaded with flavor. Hell hath no fury ...
https://i2.wp.com/majormike.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2014-09-05-17.39.32.jpg

el yucateco green imo

― gbx, Sunday, February 17, 2019 11:34 AM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

classic. tried the black label (smoked version) once but don't recall if i felt a preference.

original is much better. black label obscures the charm of yucateco.

lol my mother in law (who is not a hot sauce fan) had a bottle of Scorned Woman in her fridge for what seemed like years, until I used it up and replaced it with Tapatio (which has now been there for quite a while itself)

also cosign this:

Seriously, the original unadulterated Tabasco has a taste you'll simply never find in any other brand because of the three years of aging.

el yucateco xxxtra hot

otm about tabasco. I use it for very specific things, and nothing else is similar.

I was also very listless at work once and started eating my almonds with one drop of tabasco on each. It was pretty satisfying.

and tbh the hot ones house sauce, Los calientes, is also good

― gbx, Sunday, February 17, 2019 5:45 PM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Haven't had that one but did have their Fiery Chipotle and it was very good. Also tried Queen Majesty Scotch Bonnet & Ginger which was featured on Hot Ones. Terrific flavor tho atypical for a """hot sauce""". Ginger gives it an Indian feel.

tabasco on jambalaya is excellent imo

cholula is great but the bottle design makes it dribble down the side of the bottle and that makes a mess.

I adore this stuff but the local deli which carried it has run out! WHY
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59849fd086e6c0f72196ccfc/598a8c1d7131a5274bd727cf/5c6454df104c7b924b9a6d60/1550079764293/h1.jpg

I picked up a few of these at the airport in Mexico city. I haven't seen it States-side yet, but the one I've tried so far is good:

http://pikabanero.com.mx/

everybody who loves hot sauce should visit Hot Sauce and Panko when they are in San Francisco

I was going to visit the Heatonist store when I was in NYC but got sidetracked :/

been pondering the history of hot sauce speciality stores, their appeal, and whether the clientele has changed. back in the 90s there was such a place in the Mall of America and it was 50% hot sauce and 50% t-shirts, cooking aprons, etc declaring how badass the wearer was

pretty sure the stores of yesteryear were for edgy dads, but... maybe that hasn't changed

i've been to that store, didn't buy anything because the vibe was still very much 'PETA PEOOPLE EATING TASTY ANIMALS LOL' and the aforementioned 'badass' shirts

valentina is my go to nowadays. good every day hot sauce. then i like cholula chipotle if I'm looking for that smokiness

i actively dislike sriracha now i think. too sweet

and too much garlic?

It's hard to find a sriracha without additives these days.

I'm partial to Bajan sauces. Windmill or Aunt May's.

sriracha is amazing, it's not too sweet but it is perfectly hot

also I really love sambal oelek

Cholula is delicious and I like the feel of the wooden top, but I go through a tiny bottle in three days so I switched to Valentina's.

Generally though I think chili crisp and sambal oelek are my favourite choices for every day hot sauce, kind of not Mexican/American but they work well with everything, I've found.

I don't like regular begular Korean hot sauce or sriracha because I find them too sweet.

Tabasco gets dunked on a lot but I love it, Crystal is it's thicker cousin and I love Crystal as well.

All this is to say that hot sauce doesn't agree with me like it once used to and I've switched to Maggi or Bragg when I need to live a little

The garlic chili (of the same brand) is basically the same as sambal oelek but just +++ garlic, right? I was in the grocery store today and had a moment of deep contemplation.

I also bought some cholula for the first time ever.

I don't think the garlic chili sambal oelek is as good as the regular version, but I wouldn't say no to it

our table arsenal includes:
- Cholula Green Pepper
- Melinda's Garlic Hot Habanero (white bottle)
- El Yucateco Green
- Dave's Insanity Black
- Valentina
- Huy Fong Sriracha
- and usually this excellent spicy Jamaican-style hot sauce that our local store was sold out of last time we went to buy, but they assured us they were getting more soon.

i am not as much a fanatic as my partner, but we use a fair amount of hot sauce

I go through so much hot sauce. The hot sauce situation is dire in Chile, oddly enough.

I would make my own, but the hot pepper situation is also dire.

that is strange!!

we also make our own, but most of the time it is a roasted habanero paste that is more for cooking purposes than sprinkling on food purposes.

they hate spicy here. It's kind of ridiculous.

Last night I had some crawfish cakes that were almost upstaged by the bed of greens, dressed with tabasco + cane syrup + butter. I gotta get some tabasco.

wow, that sounds amazing.

i’ve tried making things with a hot sauce/paste base and I always underdo it on the sugar or fat

It's a brilliant approach to vinaigrette, can't wait to try it at home.

Tabasco is underrated. There is nothing that approaches tabasco for certain things.

I know I posted upthread but I once brought a salad to work but forgot any kind of dressing so I just put tabasco on it. It was only ok. Interesting about the cane syrup+ butter.

I really like Tabasco

Good old Frank's Red Hot really hits the spot