Thread: Hot Sauces

Okay Zip, here's a bit that I've learned through my passion for sauces and the collecting of them for many years. I will try to explain how I can know what a sauce will taste like by the label or at least whether or not I will like it without ever opening the bottle. Before i go into a long (but I hope interesting) lecture on hot sauces, I must first point out the obvious. The like or dislike of any food item is strictly subjective. When I say something is "putrid crap" I am only giving one of my many opinions. While I believe everyone should accept my opinions as gospel, my thoughts on this topic are offered as guidelines to your own exploration into a selection of sauces that is quite literally a worldwide menu. I have had "hot sauces" from nearly every country on the planet. Some you don't even have to taste to know they aren't going to be any good. I hope my explaination will help folks understand how.

When I was actively collecting, I always tried to get two bottles of every "new" (I put quotation marks on the word "new" to indicate I mean new to my knowledge/collection) sauce I found. One bottle to eat, the other for display. I never display an opened bottle of sauce because the color of the product changes rapidly after they are opened. Eventually, after tasting hundreds of different sauces from hundreds of different places, I began to learn that there was much told by a closed bottle of sauce.

I had a bottle of sauce from Ireland. The first thing was that when viewed through the clear glass bottle the product was a lumpy, oilymess. The list of ingredients was not appetizing either. Well I never had to open the bottle to know that Irish folks don't know anything about hot sauce. This is a place where the cooks take a perfectly good hunk of beef, boil it until it is grey and tastless and season it with salt and pepper. Sadly the bottle fell from my overhead shelf and broke on the floor. WHile I ddon't think I needed to taste it, I still wish I had the sauce for my collection. MAybe someone reading this in Ireland would be able to replace that sauce for my. I think it was called Lakkewood (but I could be wrong). Now the single most attractive bottle in my collection is from Isreal. It is called Segal's Pepper Supreme. With a beautifully printed label with brilliant red peppers and gold Hebrew lettering.It looks more like a bottle of fine liqueur than a condiment. However, because I only have one bottle, I'll likely never know what it tastes like. Today I grabbed five bottles off the shelf. I will give you the name of the sauce, where it was made and the list of ingredients. Then I will tell you what those things tell me.

In no special order:
Sontava! Habanero XX Hot Sauce

from Belize
Choice habanero peppers
fresh carrots s onion, garlic
lime juice
vinegar
garlic
salt

Suck 'N' Duck
Franklin Park, Illinois, USA
Habanero, vinegar
Onion, garlic
Pepper extract
Spices, vegetable gum

Gray's
Westmoreland, Jamaica
Ingredients:
Scotch Bonnet Peppers
cane vinegar
sugar, salt

Blair's After Death
Highlands, New Jersey, USA
Habaneros
Vinegar, fresh cayenne
Garlic, chiipotle
Pepper extract
Lime juice, cilantro, herbs and spices

B]Habanero Heaven Deadly Pepper Sauce[/B]
Falmouth, Maine, USA
Ingredients:
Vinegar, water, tomato paste
mustard, sea salt, garlic
habanero peppers
natural spice extracts

Okay, the first one Sontava is from Belize which is in Central America separating Mexico from Guatemala. This is where the habanero was born. These folks there love big fresh flavor (very much like their Mexican neighbors. The simple list of natural ingredients with the habanero listed first, the vinegar and lime juice tell me this is going to be a pretty hot sauce with bright, tangy flavor. I know i'd love it. Oh, the second ingredient is carrots. While carrots won't do much for taste, the sauce is brilliant orange in color because of them.

Suck 'N' Duck is in a bottle with a sparkly hologram label. It is from Franklin Park, Illinois a suburb of Chicago. Not really known for anything in particular and more than a third of the population being latino if this sauce were made for the locals it would not have pepper extract. It has a silly name, pepper extract and a gimmicky label. This sauce is a joke. I wouldn't even try it but I'll bet it is way too hot to eat and it probably tastes crappy.

Anyone else want to describe one of the remaining three?

Brad

Living in Belize, being married to a Belizean, eating nothing but Belizean cuisine, I'm partial to Marie Sharp's habanero hot sauces. We finish a bottle every two weeks or so. If you like hot sauces and ever visit Belize be sure to visit her factory outside of Dangriga (formerly Stann Creek Town). You'll find a bottle on every table along with ketchup, black pepper, and salt. My favourites are the Hot and the Grapefruit hot sauces. She makes other condiments as well. Won an award for the world's hottest back in '94, I think.

I should visit her place before I go home. Take some pictures. Put them up. Plenty of hype in the marketing though. Untouched foothills of the Mayan mountains? I live in them.

Okay, the first one Sontava is from Belize which is in Central America separating Mexico from Guatemala. This is where the habanero was born. These folks there love big fresh flavor (very much like their Mexican neighbors. The simple list of natural ingredients with the habanero listed first, the vinegar and lime juice tell me this is going to be a pretty hot sauce with bright, tangy flavor. I know i'd love it. Oh, the second ingredient is carrots. While carrots won't do much for taste, the sauce is brilliant orange in color because of them.

No, carrots are all about the flavour. That is why we add them to unblended "pepper": a mix of sliced habaneros, onions, carrots, and vinegar. I guess they make it nice and orange too though. And you're right, you would love that sauce. Crack it open, man.

If you want any Marie Sharp's just PM me. I think you can buy it at Wal-Mart now though.