Does hot sauce go bad?

[silenus]

@Northern Piper

May I interrupt with a question from the Great White North? what do you folks use hot sauce for? as a condiment? The only thing I use it for is as an ingredient in certain recipes, bloody marys, and so on. But never straight from the bottle onto food - is that common down south?

Condiment. Ingredient. Lubricant. Whatever. I put hot sauce on ice cream, for Ghu’s sake.

Crystal Sauce gets shaken on crackers for a snack. Pickapeppa gets poured on cream cheese as a dip. Death Sauce gets slathered on meats. There is a sauce for every mood. Everything goes better with capsaicin.

[gotpasswords]

@Northern Piper

May I interrupt with a question from the Great White North? what do you folks use hot sauce for? as a condiment? The only thing I use it for is as an ingredient in certain recipes, bloody marys, and so on. But never straight from the bottle onto food - is that common down south?

It’s not even just a “South” thing. Around here, lots of ethnic restaurants will have an array of heat on the table - different flavors of Tabasco, Crystal, Cholula, chili oil, Sriracha, home-made salsas, etc. (We have a lot of eths, and it seems like most of them like it hot!)

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

If you’ve grown up with it, or if you become addicted to to later in life, it starts to seem like food doesn’t have any taste if it doesn’t have some kind of heat.

[ToeJam]

I’d say Yes.
Because I’ve had the little packets of Taco Bell Hot/Mild/Fire Sauce for so long those things have gone rancid before.

It’s not “real” hot sauce. But still, I was impressed that the little packets went bad. Though it took like several years and all, but still.

[Santo_Rugger]

@Diogenes the Cynic

If you’ve grown up with it, or if you become addicted to to later in life, it starts to seem like food doesn’t have any taste if it doesn’t have some kind of heat.

I was thinking this same thought the other day. I’m wondering if I’ve ruined my tastebuds for good.

Case in point:

@Northern Piper

May I interrupt with a question from the Great White North? what do you folks use hot sauce for? as a condiment? The only thing I use it for is as an ingredient in certain recipes, bloody marys, and so on. But never straight from the bottle onto food - is that common down south?

My mom got mad at me at dinner tonight because I took the inside cap out of the garlic habanero sauce at the restaurant. In other words, yes.

[Northern_Piper]

@Musicat

Ever been to Mexico, son?

No, that’s why I’m asking.

[Northern_Piper]

@Diogenes the Cynic

If you’ve grown up with it, or if you become addicted to to later in life, it starts to seem like food doesn’t have any taste if it doesn’t have some kind of heat.

interesting - I would have thought that if you put hot sauce on everything, everything starts to taste the same.

[AHunter3]

Naah, it’s like salt, it brings out the natural flavors of the food.

And in hot weather, it kicks your taste buds and wakes them up so that you can taste. And paradoxically cuts a hole in the “damn, the weather is hot today” sensation and lets you cool off.

[Lissla_Lissar]

Northern Piper, I’m a Canadian, and I am firmly attached to my bottle of Sriracha. It’s wonderful stuff on almost everything.

[TheLoadedDog]

Never been able to keep a bottle long enough to find out.

I love anything hot. It’s hard because people think you’re a wanker when you say that, but years of living in a Vietnamese household pretty much iron-plated my tastebuds. I don’t do the macho stuff some SE Asian guys do (ostentatiously eating whole extra hot chillies) but I’ve been known to take a small swig of Tabasco while I’m cooking - just for the pleasure of the taste. Tabasco has a lovely and unique flavour, but it ain’t hot. I use Sriracha for most stuff because it has a unique ability to blend well in both Asian and Western food (I use it in Italian cooking), but that’s not ‘hot’ either. If I need more heat, I’ll just add finely sliced fresh chilli to the mix of whatever it is.

[silenus]

There’s a hot sauce thread over here people might want to consult.

[bump]

@Northern Piper

May I interrupt with a question from the Great White North? what do you folks use hot sauce for? as a condiment? The only thing I use it for is as an ingredient in certain recipes, bloody marys, and so on. But never straight from the bottle onto food - is that common down south?

Generally, yeah, it’s a sort of all-purpose condiment.

I’ve eaten it on the usual Cajun/Creole dishes, some Mexican food (tacos primarily), and with some Asian dishes.

Beyond the places you’d expect it to be eaten, I frequently eat it on:

[ul]
[li]Pizza[/li][li]Vegetable soup[/li][li]Pot roast[/li][li]Barbecue[/li][li]Fried Chicken[/li][li]Sandwiches[/li][li]Fried shrimp[/li][li]Various and sundry other dishes I’m not remembering at the moment.[/li][/ul]

[Balthisar]

@Musicat

Ever been to Mexico, son?

The USA has vastly, vastly more choices and variety of hot sauces than Mexico ever has. And we probably have more of a hot sauce culture than Mexico does. If you want to talk about fresh salsas, though, well, that’s a different thing.

Anyway, I’m from the north. If there’s no fresh salsa available, I’ll use hot sauce on most anything that needs seasoning. Of course that’s a habit I picked up when I was in the military where (a) nothing’s seasoned, and (b) there’s lot more southern culture than northern culture in the military.

[Cervaise]

@lizardling

Here in Seattle, they don’t believe in hot sauce.

Have you met the man?

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

@bump

Generally, yeah, it’s a sort of all-purpose condiment.

I’ve eaten it on the usual Cajun/Creole dishes, some Mexican food (tacos primarily), and with some Asian dishes.

Beyond the places you’d expect it to be eaten, I frequently eat it on:

[ul]
[li]Pizza[/li][li]Vegetable soup[/li][li]Pot roast[/li][li]Barbecue[/li][li]Fried Chicken[/li][li]Sandwiches[/li][li]Fried shrimp[/li][li]Various and sundry other dishes I’m not remembering at the moment.[/li][/ul]

Spaghetti, mac and cheese, burgers, ramen noodles. There’s a hot sauce for anything. I like sriracha on hotdogs.

[Cluricaun]

I had an encounter with a bottle of funny tasting Tabasco that had gone a real funny orange brown color that caused massive evacuations of all digestive systems about an hour after eating it, but that could have been the double bacon pizza too.

[Iggins]

@Cervaise

Have you met the man?

You can’t handle the man!

(I was the only one in my group who would try it… )

[Cervaise]

I asked for extra. Everybody in my group laughed at me, and I did cry a bit, but I ate the whole thing.

[cornflakes]

@lizardling

But then, I’m SE Asian + Texas raised…

Few here have stronger credentials in their area of expertise.

[butler1850]

@bump

Beyond the places you’d expect it to be eaten, I frequently eat it on:

Add macaroni & cheese to this list. It’s amazing there.

Even northerners can get good hot sauces now, you just have to look around a little. Of course, I make my own as well as buying interesting bottles, so it’s a bit of an obsession at my house.