Southern cooks seem to love certain brands rarely seen in Canada. The two mentioned in recipes I’ve seen are White Lily flour (for biscuits) and Texas Pete hot sauce.
Are these products replaceable? Are they all that and a side of poutine?
Those aren’t available in boring sliced bread Nebraska either so you have company in your misery.
White Lily isn’t irreplaceable. Just find another flour made exclusively from soft winter wheat. But that flour is essential for good biscuits.
Texas Pete is Crystal is Louisiana is Frank’s. Cayenne hot sauce is cayenne hot sauce. And yes, I have them all in my cabinet and have tasted them side-by-side-by-side.
What is essential is Duke’s mayo. Nothing else will do. Amazon sells 3-packs, btw.
I may be murdered in my sleep by purists for saying this (so if I’m not online tomorrow you know what happened) but outside of tradition, there is zero reason to use most cayenne hot sauces in cooking. It is a fine source of mild heat and acid, but was mostly used back when your only option was Tabasco or a local equivalent. In the modern market, there are dozens of varieties of hot sauce in your average grocery story (although that may be slightly less in Canada, and perhaps even sliced bread Nebraska) which can be tailored to the flavor profile of your specific dish.
One of my best friends mother was ‘nawlins’ born and bred, and we had holiday meals with them for years and years. She always used Frank’s in all her traditional cooking, until said friend introduced her to Yellowbird sauces. She grumbled, but admitted the resulting dishes had a stronger flavor, and by picking out the right sauce you can emphasize the fruit, savory, or sour tastes more specifically. Or if you’re just adding heat, well, the traditional options are small potatoes compared to the sort of peppers seen these days.
But still, sometimes if you’re just making something and trying to replicate the taste you had as a child, the various cayenne sauces are mostly interchangeable, so go with what you want. When you’re ready to expand, the sky’s the limit.
And back to the flour - yeah, the type of wheat and gluten content is key in baked goods. I’ve had problems when using high protein flours in low protein applications, or using rice flour when I needed to use glutenous rice flour. --hangs head in shame–
I prefer Mexican hot sauces in general*. Frank’s is good on chicken wings (add Nexican hot sauce too) but it’s not like any hot sauce is irreplaceable. I do not find cayenne very spicy but like the flavour in Nashville fried chicken and such. I have no idea what Texas Pete tastes like, but if it is mainly cayenne Frank’s is presumably similar.
White Lily is lower gluten with added phosphate for rise. Never used it. Perhaps British self-raising flour is similar, or a mixture of cake and all-purpose flour with a touch of baking powder.
*Sriracha is also good. Certain applications (Jamaican patties) need certain sauces (Pick-a-peppa)…
I use either White Lily or Southern Biscuit flour to make biscuits (the regular kind, NOT the self-rising). You can probably put something similar together yourself if you can’t find those flours by mixing pastry flour with regular all-purpose. Try starting with a 1-1 ratio and see what you get.
I disagree with this. Louisiana-style hot sauce (Tabasco, Crystal, Louisiana, and apparently Texas Pete) is cayenne, salt, and vinegar. Frank’s has paprika and garlic powder. I haven’t had Texas Pete, but Tabasco, Crystal, and Louisiana taste different to me. Crystal seems ‘weak’ to me.
I feel that Tabasco is sour and too sharp to be tasty. Crystal and Louisiana are swappable and I don’t really like or use Frank’s very much. Mainly because I think wings are a waste of time and effort. Texas Pete fits right in with the first two to my taste buds.
Different strokes and all that. There are enough sauces out there to keep anybody happy.
I prefer Tabasco for American food. As you say, ‘Different strokes.’ I’ll take Louisiana over Crystal any day. That’s the brand I use in the dressing for shaved beef salad. I don’t use Frank’s very often; mostly when I make wings. And I don’t make the wings the proper way. I just use salt and Frank’s because that’s the way I like it. It’s good on (the rare) pizza. Generally I use Tabasco for American food, Sriracha for Asian, pizza, eggs, and other things, Tapatio for Mexican food, and Franks for wings and pizza.
To avoid hijacking the thread any more, one ingredient I’ve never seen is cane syrup (also an ingredient in the shaved-beef salad dressing). I substitute mild molasses.
Look for Lyle’s Golden Syrup on the “International” aisle at the grocery store. It ought to be right next to the HP Sauce.
Around this casa, it’s Cholula on Mexican, Crystal on damn near everything, Yellowbird Blue Agave sriracha on Asian. For that matter, I don’t really use that much cayenne sauce. Too many good sauces being made from tastier peppers to limit yourself to cayenne.
Just out of curiosity I went on Amazon Canada and looked for some of these things.
- 18-oz squeeze bottle of Duke’s mayo: $43
- 5lb bag of White Lily flour: $80.
- Texas Pete Original hot sauce, 2-pack of 6 oz bottles: under $5, but $35 more for shipping
I’m guessing the extra shipping is included in the price of the first two, and the shipping in general is the cause of those insane prices? (I’m assuming those are Canadian dollars, but still; CAD is only at about $0.80 to the American dollar.)
I hate Texas Pete like I hate few other foods. As far as I can tell, the only purpose it serves is to trick restaurants into thinking they’ve adequately stocked a hot sauce. It’s definitely a sauce, but the “hot” part is a damn lie.
I love making biscuits, and I don’t ever use White Lily. A few years back I bought a bag to see what it’d be like, and honestly, I prefer the texture of biscuits without White Lily: King Arthur all-purpose works great.
Duke’s, though? Yeah, Duke’s is mandatory.
That’s how I feel about Cholula.