Hot stuff!

[TromboneGuy]

I don't like Tabasco, it just tastes like vinegar to me.

Now, Cholula I like for an average, everyday hot sauce. When I want something with good flavor and a lot more kick...

If you haven't tried it, it's worth a bottle. A whole lot of heat, but still a very rich flavor.

 

[jamacdon]

I don't like Tabasco, it just tastes like vinegar to me.

Now, Cholula I like for an average, everyday hot sauce. When I want something with good flavor and a lot more kick...

If you haven't tried it, it's worth a bottle. A whole lot of heat, but still a very rich flavor.

Yes, that is great!! A nice smather on a turkey sandwich is superb.

I like Cholula and Siracha as well, but only on a few things.

 

[Phog Allen]

Tim, THIS may be what you are looking for. Ignoring the novelty sauces that aren't actually intended for food use, this is about as hot as it gets. I have a bottle. After I got it, we had a lot of fun in the dorm with this bottle and two chopsticks. When some friends were hanging out in my room, and one was not aware, someone would pull it out. They would stick the tip of one stick in, and hand it to the friend to try. If they wouldn't try it, I would take the stick and sample it, to prove it was not that bad. "See, not so bad? No water, not bread, I'm still alive." Then generally they could be convinced to try it. Some of the facial expressions were great. I wish we had taken pictures.

I've never used it to cook with. I like more flavor, not heat for heat's sake, like this and Insanity. Well, I used it once. I made a pot of rice and beans. A BIG pot. Probably four quarts. I added a teaspoon of Ground Zero. Ruined the pot. Nobody would eat it. I like hot, but it was not in the realm of possibility. My friend who spent two years in India and developed a taste for stuff so hot most people who claim to like super spicy wouldn't dream of eating would not even touch the stuff. It was nasty.

Personally, I like Tabasco. With cajun food, there is nothing like that vinegar bite. Great with eggs too. Cholula is a real favorite too. For something really mild, but fantastic flavor, in a cajun style vinegar base, I like cajun sunshine. You can drink the stuff, but the flavor really is nice. A good dribble on a slice of good chedder, with a slice of plum tomato on a good wheat cracker is a mighty nice too.

-Mo

Hi Mo. Since this thread has been resurrected, what the heck. The sauce you refer to is made here in K.C. by this company, http://www.originaljuan.com/ They are located on Southwest Boulevard in Kansas City Ks. They have a huge product line and it is easy to see they make sauces of all kinds for many different brands. Just look at the bottles in your grocery store. You can tell Original Juan makes a lot regional brands. The sauce you link to http://www.originaljuan.com/ssl/shopping/products/?pg=6d72ab69-d07d-4b98-bddb-a0a53cde9b3a
is not their hottest. This is; http://www.originaljuan.com/ssl/shopping/products/?pg=1c667cba-664f-4a61-a798-48ea0407b89c

I wouldn't touch either with a ten foot pole. I don't mind mild heat but the older I get, the more nuanced I like flavours and the heat just masks and muddles most of it. It is not a sensitive stomach thing, I think mine's made of cast iron. I have just lost my affinity for most spicy things. OJ makes a lot of good products and I really like their sauces on this page; http://www.originaljuan.com/ssl/shopping/products/fruit_sauce/?cg=f1d611a2-04a5-45fe-8050-8993098008c7

Regards, Todd

 

[kalle]

Sriracha is the only Chili sauce I have had in the fridge the last ten years!

But another hot sauce I like a lot is Mojo from the Canary Islands - you don't see it in Swedish grocery stores though.

 

[Smedley]

I've been using this, which is a step up from Tabasco heat. Not super hot, nice flavours.

And check out www.hotsauceblog.com!

 

[galpman]

Dave's Total Insanity.... .hands down my favorite - however if you choose to give it a go, be sure to use it conservatively.

+1 This stuff rocks!!

 

[Prince]

I've used the Chipotle Tabasco for the past few years on almost everything.

 

[Scotty]

Tabasco sauce is my favorite except with chili.
Demus "Smokin' Hot Jalapenos" in tomato sauce are really good & super hot!
They are made at Demus Market, 263 Main St., Worthington, WV. 26591

 

[Brooks]

Sriracha is my mainstay: http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/sriracha.htm

As a native New Orleanian, I also love Crystal — just the ticket when you want a bit of vinegary sharpness without too much heat.

Cholula's nice. I also keep Plain, Chipotle, and Garlic Tabasco on hand.

Really, life without hot sauce would be an empty shell.

 

[rickw]

For Heat....for Heat's sake
Dave's Insanity sauce

For flavor with some kick, I've been eating a lot of this lately:

I like that on my eggs.

When I was in Budapest I got to like Eros Pista (Strong Peter). It is a hot Hungarian Paprika paste.

Rick

 

[judge]

for heat: Dave's insanity
http://www.davesgourmet.com/

but I think blackmamba is some extreme heat and makes Dave's look like pace picante. http://www.hotsauceworld.com/hsw1553.html

for flavor:
Garlic chile sauce http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriracha
but this can have too strong a flavor and can overpower what you are eating

THUS
my favorite by far is (and has been for many years)
http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/oelek.htm

 

[Howard Newell]

What's the hottest of hot sauces?

I've tried Dave's Insanity Sauce, but Satan's Blood is the hottest, most insane hot sauce I've ever tried. You should seriously plan on washing your hands for 5 minutes after handling it, and not touching your face or using the bathroom for the next hour. It's really potent stuff!

 

[highre]

The El Yucateco Chipotle is also one of my favorites. Although, I'm a longtime fan of the other Yucateco hot sauces.

Sriracha has a permanent place in my kitchen, but I've recently discovered the Shark brand of Thai chili sauce. It's a bit sweeter than the Sriracha pictured earlier in the thread.

 

[moses]

I've tried Dave's Insanity Sauce, but Satan's Blood is the hottest, most insane hot sauce I've ever tried. You should seriously plan on washing your hands for 5 minutes after handling it, and not touching your face or using the bathroom for the next hour. It's really potent stuff!

Yeah, what the hottest really is is kinda strange actually. Since everything from Dave's Insanity up uses capsicum extract, they can make it as hot as they want up to the straight stuff (think capsicum bear defense spray hot).

I am curious what the hottest "real" hot sauces are.

-Mo

 

[Baloosh]

For whatever you define as "hot sauce":

http://www.chez-williams.com/Hot Sauce/hothome.htm

 

[Rice Cooka]

There must be some hot sauce aficionados here. What are your favorites? I've been on a major Melinda's kick lately. What they say about it blending well with food is absolutely true, and it really is the best blend of heat and flavor that I've yet found.

I'm reviving the first post to express my love of hot sauce and share a little Melinda's story.

First of all, a disclaimer: Melinda's is an great hot sauce. It has a great flavor, nice bite and goes well with pretty much everything. However, after you read this story, you might change Melinda's in for Marie Sharp's, the greatest bottled hot sauce this world has ever seen.

The story for me begins in the early 90s. My father goes on a business trip to Belize and brings back a bottle of Melinda's for me (even as a young teen I was into the spice)... this humble sauce rocks my world and completely shatters what my expectation is for a hot sauce. Ever since that first bottle, I would compare every subsequent hot sauce I had to the marvelous, miraculous Melinda's. Needless to say, most hot sauces came up short.

Inevitably, the single bottle of Melinda's, hot sauce from the gods runs out. In those pre internet pre global market days, I had no means to procure additional bottles. It would be several years before another business conference took my dad to Belize. This time, armed with more knowledge, we decided that he should bring back several bottles of sweet, sweet Melinda's (the man also had had a tough time weaning himself off the stuff). Fast forward a week. He comes back, opens up his suitcase and pulls our............. MARIE SHARP'S?!?!? ***!! Where's sweet smiling Melinda on the bottle beckoning me to enjoy her sauce splendors? What happened? Should I know ask to be divorced from my father?

Relax, he says and tells me his story. Turns out, everywhere he went and asked for Belize's finest, Melinda's, the locals would say: "No, get THIS (Marie Sharp's) instead. This is the real stuff." He didn't give much explanation past this but, a taste test proved it: this was IT! Greatest sauce known to man. The years went by and, my dad and I were able to feed our habit occasionally thanks to friends and colleagues who happened to go by Belize. Our addiction made us have no shame in bumming a bottle of hot sauce off of them.

Fast forward to years. I have moved away from the mother land and into the US. I am shopping at this wonderful store known as World Market when something catches my eye: it's Melinda. Her nubile face is looking at me from the hot sauce rack. Beckoning me. "I thought you were... dead" I exclaim (ok, I'm lying on that last part) and immediately "The Hunger" returns. I buy a bottle, the spectre of my dad's warning of "it's not the real stuff" almost forgotten by now.

Once home, I fix a lovely dinner, sprinkle some Melinda's on it hoping to rekindle the magic. It had been several years since my last Marie Sharp's tryst. First taste? Delicious. A wonderful hot sauce that tastes great. Yet something is missing. This is not the same sauce. This is not the sauce that haunts my dreams. It is similar sure. But it can't quite compare to my memories. Was it pure nostalgia? Was I crazy? Only one way to find out. The wonders of the internet allow me to hop online and within minutes find a seller of Marie Sharp's. I order my bottle and read up on the whole history of Melinda's / Marie Sharp's.

The whole article is here but here's the gist of it:

- Marie Sharp a simple Belizean homemaker plants habanero chilies in her yard but doesn't know what to do with all of them.
- Marie Sharp receives some sort of divine intervention and comes up with THE recipe for hot sauce.
- Marie Sharp starts selling her celestial concoction, now named Melinda's, and soon has a nationwide hit on her hands
- The dastardly american partners with Marie to distribute Melinda's in the US.
- Contracts are signed and, after a few years, Marie has her Melinda's name stolen from her as the dastardly american makes his own fake Melinda's sauce with inferior costa rican habanero mash (as a costa rican it pains me to write this)
- Marie perseveres and brings back the REAL stuff, now branded with her own name.

To sum up, I try the Marie Sharp's I bought online and.... WOW. This is it. STILL the best hot sauce I've ever had. Effing incredible stuff that all of you should try.

 

[Rice Cooka]

Have any of you tried the Iguana brand of hot sauces? They make several varieties but the golden habanero pepper sauce is a favorite of mine and has a wonderful flavor:

http://www.mohotta.com/product/542/1

Additionally, Lizano sauce is a wonderful condiment (this sauce isn't hot at all, but compliments anything well.):

http://www.mohotta.com/product/569/1

Are you by any chance Costa Rican like myself? Not having Lizano sauce for me is not having a complete kitchen. Good stuff. Reminds me of home.

 

[ouch]

here's the gist of it:

- Marie Sharp a simple Belizean homemaker plants habanero chilies in her yard but doesn't know what to do with all of them.
- Marie Sharp receives some sort of divine intervention and comes up with THE recipe for hot sauce.
- Marie Sharp starts selling her celestial concoction, now named Melinda's, and soon has a nationwide hit on her hands
- The dastardly american partners with Marie to distribute Melinda's in the US.
- Contracts are signed and, after a few years, Marie has her Melinda's name stolen from her as the dastardly american makes his own fake Melinda's sauce with inferior costa rican habanero mash (as a costa rican it pains me to write this)
- Marie perseveres and brings back the REAL stuff, now branded with her own name.

That's right, we swiped it from her. And now we'll do it again.

 

[Baloosh]

I'm reviving the first post to express my love of hot sauce and share a little Melinda's story.

Am I to understand from the link in your post, that this ambrosia is available at Wal Mart?

 

[Frank7580]

Are you by any chance Costa Rican like myself? Not having Lizano sauce for me is not having a complete kitchen. Good stuff. Reminds me of home.

Actually, I'm North Carolinian but I have a lot of connections in El Salvador and further down into South America. Occasionally, the larger tiendas in Salvador would wind up with a small stock of Lizano... they never lasted long .