Hot Sauce -- "What's In Your Kitchen?"

[Matthew323]

I can't claim to be a true hot sauce aficionado.

I can recall going into a McDonald's fast food restaurant in San Antonio, Texas in the year 1976. I was at Ft. Sam Houston for my Advanced Individual Training (AIT) to become a medic in the Army. A bunch of us trainees had gone off base, and McDonald's was an inexpensive lunch.

On a sideboard like shelf on one side of the restaurant was an incredible array of hot sauces stationed next to the napkins, salt and pepper. Most of which I had never heard of before. The only one that I recognized was, of course, standard Tabasco Sauce.

That's when I realized that I was not in white bread Baltimore, Maryland any longer. I had encountered a far different culture than the one I was born into.

That set me on a course to eat spicy food that, to some degree, I am still following. Kimchee, and all kinds of spicy Korean food came along just a few months later when I got to Ft Lewis, Washington where I spent 3 years.

All these years later, I will admit to a fondness for plain, old regular Tabasco sauce.

What's your favorite hot sauce(s)?

 

[deermanok]

Ketchup.

 

[ShawnT]

Not to much for Real Hot hot sauces. Not crazy about regular Tabasco but did love the Tabasco Rocoto sauce but they stopped making it ☹ . For me just depends on what I am eating. I love Tabasco Chipotle sauce for things like Stew, Chili or pintos and Red Beans. Otherwise I really like Taco bell Fire sauce when I can get it in bottles.

 

[dbowling]

Habernero hot sauce the green type, I like really hot food..

 

[03mossy]

Tabasco Chipotle sauce Or my favorite is Franks Red hot.

 

[Matthew323]

When I worked as a chef, both Texas Pete, and Frank's Red Hot Sauce were the perennial favorites for tossing Buffalo wings in.

 

[Caniborrowsomeammo]

I don't buy hot sauce anymore, I make my own. A friend of mine grows Fresno Chilis for me. I make about 12 qts. a year. I give away most of them and everyone asks for more. I use probably 3-4 qts. a year. Great flavor and a semi mild heat.
Recipe- Instant Tabasco - 1 minute in the pressure cooker! ⋆ hip pressure cooking

 

[GM54-120]

I make most of my own but i got a thing for this one because its really low sodium and taste great.

 

[firedawg60]

Franks but will have to try Lola's.

 

[yoyodoc]

My capsaicin craving comes and goes with my rheumatism. If I hurt I want it hot, whether internally or externally, and I'll take the hottest I can find.

 

[GM54-120]

Lola's is actually pretty mild. Their scorpion sauce is nowhere near as hot as Tabasco Scorpion sauce. Personally i dont see much heat difference across the offerings. Just subtle flavor differences.

For outright heat, Tropical Pepper Company Scorpion or Burns & McCoy Exhorresco are far far hotter.

This one was too salty for me
https://www.amazon.com/Tropical-Pepper-Co-Scorpion-Sauce/dp/B074MMCGRZ
This one uses 7 Pot Primo peppers. Pretty freaking hot but still has some flavor too.
https://www.amazon.com/BURNS-MCCOY-Exhorresco-Hot-Sauce/dp/B07215M16K
Rogue was good too. Not that hot at all for scorpion sauce. Some sweetness from the brown sugar and blood orange. VERY low sodium
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BADXRRO

 

[GM54-120]

For you guys that dont like Tabasco much, i hear you but you must try Tabasco Family Reserve sometime. It can be stupid expensive on Amazon. You can order it for less directly from Tabasco. The price on Amazon jumps all over the place but you probably wont see it for under $12ish very often.

This is REAL Tabasco from the old recipe. Aged 8yrs instead of 3yr. White wine vinegar instead of the distilled white garbage. Yeah its a bit expensive but this is a really good sauce that wont melt your face. I just bought the last bottle Amazon had.
https://countrystore.tabasco.com/products/tabasco-family-reserve-sauce

 

[MrTom]

I have enough peppers to fill a one gallon canning jar right now and am fermenting them ala fermented pickles. I picked up an Oster blender with the glass jar and a separate smaller food chopper style add on cup that'll work great for grinding dried herbs for $4 at a garage sale so I won't have to use Ma's baby when I puree the peppers after cooking them. I have a very spendy white wine vinegar to use for this pureeing process as well as the simmering aspect. Over time I have washed out and kept empty hot sauce bottles and will store this sauce in those in the garage fridge. I'll use some powdered sea salt to season this after I have added vinegar to get it to the consistency I want.

I did this 5 years ago and just finished up the last bottle from that batch. Good stuff and slightly hotter than the standard Tabasco. Its pretty easy to make but one does NOT want to use a kitchen appliance to puree the cooked peppers prior to running them thru the sieve to remove solids. Probably a very good idea to have a separate sieve for this too. Experience speaking load and clear here. That Oster I bough works better than Ma's so I think I got a bargain.

 

[GM54-120]

Ive got a quart of mash i started fermenting almost a year ago. It will be 1yr old next month. You need about 5-6% salt by weight of mash to ferment peppers or they have a good chance of molding.

I get Korean sea salt for this. Same stuff used to make high quality kimchi. Its about $10/kilo on Amazon. Make up a bottle of unchlorinated water also with a %5 solution.
https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Premium-Salt-Kimchi-Brining/dp/B00KNGFG2I
Easy Fermenter and a culture starter are also a big help. Adjust your water pH to start around 5pH using brewing lactic acid. My tap water pH is over 8pH so its a must for me. Niagra bottled water is around 5-6pH if you want a easy solution to start with. The faster your pH gets below 4pH the sooner mold and yeast cant live in it.

These fermenters have a pump to remove the air. Mold/yeast need oxygen. Lacto bacteria does not. These make great kraut without fail every time using 2% Korean sea salt. Just give it about 10-14days in the cupboard and a month in the fridge after. You will have great sauerkraut.
https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Fermenter-Wide-Mouth-Lid/dp/B01DJVVORE
Caldwells or Cutting Edge are a great way to kickstart a ferment or use a tbs of homemade kraut juice per quart of mash.
https://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Edge-Cultures-Vegetable-Starter/dp/B01MG0C5X1

 

[GM54-120]

Its pretty easy to make but one does NOT want to use a kitchen appliance to puree the cooked peppers prior to running them thru the sieve to remove solids

I use a NutriBullet 1200. I bought extra blades and containers just for hot sauce. Milder peppers are no big deal but stuff like habanero or hotter can be rough getting the heat out of appliances. Glass is fine. It washes right out but not plastics. I keep a spare coffee/spice grinder also just for dried pepper powders. They are under $20 for cheapies.

DONT USE your wifes food processor for this stuff. You will have a pissed off woman to deal with.

 

[Firewater Forge]

Arizona Gunslinger,
nuf said.

 

[GM54-120]

This is another top shelf sauce. I adore the Taco Fuego. Some of his other sauces are pretty brutal but they are all natural too. Most are super low sodium.
https://pexpeppers.com/collections/hot-sauces

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

My kids and I like to dabble with hot sauces. This one is a tad on the side.

 

[GM54-120]

My kids and I like to dabble with hot sauces. This one is a tad on the side.

Try the Burns & McCoy i linked if you like hot. Pex and High Rivers also have some REALLY hot ones.

This stuff is killer if you can handle HOT.

 

[Matthew323]

There are two stores in Delaware that specialize in hot sauces. The Pepper Palace in Rehoboth, Delaware; and Peppers in Lewes, Delaware.

https://www.pepperpalace.com
https://www.peppers.com
I can't recall which one of these stores purchased my name/address to put on their mailing list, but I started recieving a catalog in the mail about 15 years ago.