I’ve never really liked Tabasco sauce – I’ve always thought it was too vinegary. The other day I bought some habanero sauce by El Yucateco, and I’m loving it (although if it were much hotter, I don’t think I could bring myself to use it).
What should I try next? I’m looking for a moderately hot sauce that I can add to (mainly) Mexican food to spice it up a bit.
I don’t like Tabasco for the same reason, but I love Tapatio. You can get it pretty much anywhere.
I recently found a cheap Mexican one called Cholula which I am splashing on everything. It has a rounder flavour than Tabasco because the vinegar is apple vinegar. Similarly I love DL Jardine’s Blazing Saddles because the carrier for it is carrots giving it a distinct taste.
I have Cholula in my fridge as well, but my favorite hot sauce is probably Tabasco Chipotle. It’s thicker than regular Tabasco, more like an actual sauce than a liquid you shake into things by the drop, and it is smoky and delicious.
Tabasco chipotle and Tabasco jalapeno (AKA Tabasco Green) are the most common hot sauces on my table, and we go thru the bigger bottles of them with great frequency. They are not as hot as traditional tabasco, but lack that vinegary taste that you and I are not so fond of.
For hotter stuff, Tabasco Habanero packs heat, but has a rather fruity taste, which has taken a little time for me to acquire. Otherwise Endorphin Rush supplies plenty of heat with a rather neutral flavor. Cholula is good, Sriracha is nice, and Blair’s 16 Million Reserve will maim or kill you.
Tapatio is absolutely delicious. But in the end, I always go back to my first mistress. Tabasco. She and I have been together since i was 6 years old. My father introduced me to her. I go through a kitchen size bottle of Tabasco about once a month.
And saying Tabasco is too vinegary is like saying Jessica Alba’s breasts are just too darn perky. I think you are missing the point. It’s that perkiness/vinegaryness that’s part of their/its appeal.
El Yucateo is the BEST habenero sauce there is! I love the stuff!
I love hot sauces!My favourites are:
Ortega Taco Sauce(Hot).Sure its a common brand name, but its damn good!Try it!
Taco Bell Fire Sauce. See above comment.
Not sure I remember the name ,but I think it was called Butterfield Bakery,they got some good sauces, if they are still around.I think they are out of biz though.
Jalepeno Gunpowder is worth a try also,if you can find any.It’s a powder but gives the food a good flavor.
Salsas are crap!Sauce is the way to go!
Here’s a handy Scoville scale, comparing various types of peppers and hot sauces by their concentration of capsaicin: http://www.chilliworld.com/FactFile/Scoville_Scale.asp
Tapatio is awesome, but not real hot. Sriracha is a southeast asian hot sauce which is fantastic. It is also a great success story about a Vietnamese immigrant who started selling it out of his garage and built into the number one Asian chili sauce. I manage to hang with Tabasco, Tapatio, and Sriracha, but you may want something ridiculously hotter to round things out. I actually have a collection of about 100 hot sauces, but I’m a bit of a fraud hot saucer.
Arizona Gunslinger Jalapeno Sauce is great for Mexican food, and not all that hot. They sell habanero sauce too, but it’s not as good as the jalapeno sauce IMO.
Blair’s Death Sauce and Blair’s Sudden Death Sauce–one drop of the latter will make an entire lunch both delicious and hot enough to fry your tastebuds.
Tapatio is the Southern California standard for Mexican food, especially fish. Cholula is also popular, but IIRC a little bit more vinegary, so you may not like it.
Frank’s Red Hot and Crystal are vinegar sauces that are not quite as vinegary as Tabasco. I, for one, only use Tabasco if it’s the only sauce available, but I always keep Frank’s and Crystal Extra Hot around. You can also make authentic Buffalo wings with Frank’s, which is a bonus.
Sriracha Chili Sauce can be found in any Asian grocery store or the Asian food aisle at your local department store, and it goes on just about anything. It’s definitely different from North American hot sauces, though, and it’s pretty decently hot.
ETA: I see Darryl Lict beat me out here. Thanks for the info about the rags-to-riches story, BTW, I hadn’t heard that. And WTF is a “fraud hot saucer”?
Sriracha ‘cock’ sauce has a good kick that is not too overpowering in heat, but still brings an amazing flavor in all foods it complements, from pizza to pasta to eggs to Mexican: http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/sriracha.htm
I’ve seen it used on Emeril, what little I watch it, but I had discovered it years before completely by accident. That said, my house is not complete with it stocked in my house.
I’d say Crystal is light years better than Tabasco for the same style. When I was in New Orleans/gulf coast a few years ago, we tried all the different kinds on the table everywhere we went. For raw oysters, crystal won hands down. I can never find it in the supermarket when I visit the US.
That’s odd, since Crystal is very common around here, and a lot cheaper than Tabasco. It’s usually considered a cheap/crappy hot sauce, but if I’m looking for the pure cayenne and vinegar kick, I prefer Crystal. I’d offer to ship you some bottles and charge you my exact cost, but you might not find it worth it due to the high shipping cost to China.
For the best flavor, and not vinegar-y, La Valentina, from Guadalajara. Comes in regular heat, the gold label, and extra hot, black label. I’ve never seen it at a regular white-people grocery store, but WinCo (if you are on the West Coast) or groceries in Hispanic areas should have it. Very good flavor - even my whiter-than-white mother in law is ok with two drops in her posole, and I love dipping quesadillas in it.
Crystal Sauce rules.
My faves are Tennessee Sunshine and Trappeys, but I fear these will label me as a wimp.
Is it just me, or does Cholula taste like tobacco juice? Cholula and Tapatio are two of my least favorite sauces. They have a strange flavor.
Jamaican style hot sauces have some flavor, character, and complexity, if not vinegary.
I just use Rooster brand Chili garlic sauce if I want some heat and flavor. Not vinegary.
I agree with your critique of Tabasco - I don’t use it because it is too vinegary and not hot enough. I buy El Yucoteco Green Habanero sauce by the case, so agree with you there, too.
Okay, where might you go - well, the first place that comes to mind is Mohotta.com, the website for Mo Hotta, Mo Better, a great hot sauce resource. They measure all of their sauces in Scoville units, so you can decide, based on your experience, what a reasonable Scoville rating would be for you and choose accordingly.
The biggest thing you need to decide is the type of base you want for your hot sauce - sweet, savory or more vinegary. The vinegary ones like Tabasco add that flavor to your foods; the ones like El Yucoteco and Cholula are more savory; others, like Melinda’s are more sweet, often with a mashed carrot base or something like that. There is a sauce on Mohotta called Pure Hell that is very hot, but very sweet hot - pairing it with pork or chicken is wonderful!
Head over to Mohotta and have fun…
I use the Sriracha sauce when I want to put hot sauce on something already cooked and the Blair’s Sudden Death for cooking and in barbeque sauce.
Apparently there’s one called Woman Scorned. Seriously. I’m eager to try it.