Sriracha, Tajin or good ol' Tabasco?

Cafe Society
41

I have a little bottle on the counter. When the liquid level goes down below an inch, I add extra vinegar — usually apple cider, sometimes red wine, white wine, or even balsamic if I’m in a weird mood. The non-liquid contents is the ribs and seeds of the last pepper I cut up for a recipe, or a teaspoon of ghost pepper powder, or chunks of the wickedly hot habaneros that our ex-roommate sent to me as a gift and which live in our freezer.

I take a teaspoon or two at random when I pass by. It’s utterly volcanic with a slow developing bloom and I love it.

It’s never going to spoil, because of the vinegar, although it can mold.

42

That makes me feel better. I don’t have 15 bottles of hot sauce in the house, but I probably have close to 15 capsaicin-forward flavoring substances in the house, including Tabasco, Cholula, a couple of varieties of dried whole chili peppers, Momofuku chili crunch(*), crushed Aleppo peppers, powdered cayenne, homemade sambal bajak (an especially complex Indonesian chili condiment), pickled ghost peppers, and a few more I’m forgetting. So maybe not 15, but almost certainly more than 10.

*I bought this because it’s been hyped so much that I was curious. The flavor is nice but I don’t particularly like the texture; when it’s gone I will not be purchasing more.

43

We’ve gone on and off the chili crunch a few times. I like it but get bored with it.

44

That’s an awesome idea. Did you invent that yourself, or is it a known cooking technique that somehow I never heard of?

45

I’m white so my taste buds aren’t that advanced. I normally use ortega taco sauce, but I recently discovered Chick-fila’s Sweet & Spicy siracha sauce. This stuff is great.

46

Cholula calls itself ‘hot sauce’. They;'re half-right. It’s a sauce.

Me too, as an ingredient to Herbsaint’s dressing for shaved beef salad. Crystal? I know it’s popular, and many people prefer it to Tabaso; but it just doesn’t do it for me.

47

Oh, its fairly common.

48

Cool - I had no idea! (But now that I do, I’m gonna do it.)

49

Pshaw. I’m sure that comment was tongue in cheek (heh) but just to be clear: white people can advance their tastebuds. Black people can be wary of heat.

True story: yesterday one of my friends, who is half Scottish and half Ugandan, was complaining that his mother (who is Ugandan) doesn’t like spicy food (he loves it, and makes delicious homemade hot sauces). What conclusions about spice tolerance do you draw from that?

50

Most of those advertising ghost and reaper and scorpion or whatnot aren’t as strong as you’d think, or at least not as strong as I’d think. Melinda’s, for instance, ghost and scorpion sauces are pretty tasty and more than tolerable (though I do have a really high spice tolerance.) Anything mass-marketed as having those peppers (like a product from Wendy’s or a potato chip, the one chip challenge chip excluded) contains almost homeopathic amounts of the advertised stuff and is pure marketing. I mean, there are some people who may find it spicy, but if you’re used to hot sauces, they’re really not.

51

I have not read the whole thread but my vote is…it depends.

There is no ONE hot sauce to rule them all. I always have Tobasco in the house. Also Sriracha. Tapatios for tacos. And at least one or two others.

Bottom line is use whatever you like but I recommend trying different ones on different things. Learn what goes best with what.

That said…if I could only have ONE it’ll be…aw hell…I dunno. Tell me the one dish I will eat forever and I will tell you the one (IMO) hot sauce to go with it.

Maybe Sriracha is the most generic, kinda sorta works with most stuff. Tobasco is good too for heat (Sriracha is a bit sweet…Tobasco will mostly add heat…some flavor but less than Sriracha).

I guess I would go with Tobasco if I had to have one for all eternity and no other. Works on a taco, works on a pizza, works on pasta and most things you want to add some spice to.

52

Huh. I thought I was the only one.

Hot sauces are taking off here. Tabasco and siracha are fairly easy to find. Tajin, not yet. Hope I can find Tajin Habanero - the basic recipe didn’t really make want to buy another container.

I don’t have sriracha, tajin or tabasco at the moment. Just Marie Sharp’s pineapple pure love, which is pineapple and habenero. I don’t like just heat. And I’m partial to habeneros.

53

:musical_notes: :musical_note: Gimme some hot-stuff, Baby, this evening!!

54

I had a quick look in the fridge and you might enjoy this one, if you like fruit-forward habanero sauces:

It’s a habanero-based mustard sauce with pear, peaches, pineapple making up the fruit component. It’s not what I would call very mustardy, but it’s got some mustard to it, and I swear there’s something vaguelly Caribbean curry powder going on with it, or maybe I’m just getting allspice and ginger hints, though I feel there is a touch of cumin or coriander seed going on there, too. It’s quite delicious and on the sweeter side, but with a reasonable kick from the habanero.

55

Thanks for the recommendation. Did you buy it from the place you linked, or did you get it at a store local to you?

56

For the life of me, I don’t remember where it came from. I think it was a gift from my brother.

57

I used to be able to eat the hottest of the hot. I even grew my own hot peppers (we’re talking ghost peppers, scorpion, Carolina Reapers… the hot ones), dried them, then ground them into a powder for sprinkling on pizza, chili, eggs… you name it. But since having Covid my tolerance for heat has been reduced dramatically and now even restaurant “hot” salsa is sometimes too hot. This is truly the biggest lingering negative effect from having Covid.

Despite that I still partake in a few hot sauces because the flavors are just too good to avoid. I no longer have any homeade sprinkle and haven’t had a pepper garden since 2021.

Nope. Me as well. I’ve never liked the OG Tabasco as to me it just tastes like vinegar and dirt mixed together, so that was never in my house. I do like and keep on hand the green Tabasco, which is great on grilled veggies, eggs, omelettes, and hashbrowns. Tabasco’s Buffalo sauce is good but I usually make own using Frank’s. I keep both Cholula and Tapatio on hand for Mexican dishes. I also keep sriracha, the Huy Fong stuff, in the fridge for noodles and veggies.

I have some Frank’s Red Hot for brushing onto bbq chicken. Or rather, I mix it with a bit of honey and Lea & Perrins to make an ersatz Buffalo sauce.

And like a few upthread, I go to a local farmer’s market where occasionally I’ll get some homemade hot sauces. The quality is hit-or-miss and the prices are exorbitant. However, I like supporting my local farmers so I usually end up with a bottle or two (and some jam, and some honey, and and and…) in my bag that ultimately go mostly uneaten.

Being in Oregon, I get the McMenamins stuff on occasion when my wife and I go there for dinner. All their condiments (and drinks, for that matter) are very good. 10/10, would recommend.

I don’t go to Trader Joes as there is’t a store convenient to me so I’ve never tried any of their hot sauces, more’s the pity.

I’ve never tried Tajin anything.

58

I probably should use hot sauce more since I like it so much. I usually don’t add more than a recipe calls for unless it’s some sort of Mexican food. I have Cholula and Tobasco. I learned to love Tobasco when they started putting tiny bottles in MREs. I like the taste of Cholula better. I do like the sauces the company that does Hot Ones puts out. They sell a ton of other people’s sauces but they have several of their own. Probably my favorite mild sauce is their Classic. Their Los Calientes is good too. So is their Buffalo. Unfortunately they are expensive.