Heh. One of the McIlhennys was in a no-budget film I worked on. I was told he was ‘the black sheep’ of the family, who was basically paid to keep low and not cause embarrassment.
I recently visited the Tobasco Factory and got this nice, glowing mouse: http://countrystore.tabasco.com/searchprods.asp
Tobasco all the way for me. One of those “off brands” if desperation demands it.
Aside from the general awesomeness of it, Tobasco has two great qualities:
- It can fix a lot of Army chow hall food
- It always seems to be in plentiful supply where Army food is found, even being included in the MRE (Meals Rejected by the Enemy) field rations. Hell, we could get a hold of the stuff in basic training for the Air Force, when we weren’t allowed bare necessities such as coffee.
Also, IIRC, the McIlhenny family has a history of military service going back to the Spanish American War, so that’s kinda neat too.
Tabasco in clam chowder. Accept no substitutes.
In anything else soupy or brothy though, it has to be Sriracha sauce.
I’m a Tabasco® devotee (excepting their garlic flavor, which does nothing for me,) but I love trying other sauces whenever possible. I first had El Yucateco at Benny’s Burritos in Greenwhich Village 20 years ago and immediately slipped the bottle in my pocket. No, I’m not ashamed!
Anyway, I recently picked up a bottle of Peach Hot Sauce at a local peachery. It’s made from peach pulp and jalapenos, and is remarkable. Not sweet at all, but the peach somehow blends with the jalapeno to make deliciousness. For some unogly reason, the peach hot sauce is not available on their website, but you can call them and order it. If you love hot sauces like I do, try it.
No bloody mary is complete without Tabasco, I love it.
A bit of a hijack, I guess, but I gotta ask.
What’s with the “registered trademark” symbols? Those of you who are using them, why are you using them?
-FrL-
I used it to indicate I’m talking about the brand, rather than generic ‘tabasco’ sauce.
I just copied it because I thought it was neat.
I prefer Trappeys Red Devil myself. I find it has less of the vinegar kick.
My latest fave hot sauce is Dat’l Do It Datil pepper sauce from St. Augustine, FL. It’s a thick sauce with more sweetness and smokiness to it. I think it’s awesome on roast chicken.
I love Louisiana hot sauce, but Tabasco has a kind of weird, bitter, rancid taste to me that Frank’s, Crystal, and Trappey’s don’t have, so I like them more.
The Tabasco Chipotle is divine though, especially used sparingly on hash brown potatoes or in marinades.
The Tabasco Jalapeno is ok… more of a general-purpose condiment in my mind, since it’s not all that hot.
I use a wide variety of hot sauces, but Tabasco is still a favorite. There are a lot of things it’s just not hot enough for (eggs), but it’s just right for tuna fish sandwiches, turkey breast, etc
When I was eating Army chow (even though I was in the Navy–long story) it was Tobasco that let me eat enough to survive. They offered Crystal on the table as well and for a time I just assumed it was some off-brand supplied by the lowest bidder, then I tried some. “Hey! This is pretty good!” I still settled on Tobasco for most things, but I could see the point of Crystal’s fans.
I don’t like the flavor of vinegar much. The best sauce for this sort of app, IMO, is chile de arbol. I had a recipe—it was simple, just some dried red peppers, some onion, cilantro, salt and pepper and buzz in the food processor IIRC. Really hot, and especially excellent on fried chicken.
I don’t know a single person from Louisiana who doesn’t prefer Crystal. Tabasco seems to be to Louisiana cooking what Fosters is to Australian beer.
I often use Texas Pete (which comes from my Grandmother’s town of Winston-Salem, NC) which is very, very similar to Crystal.
bump, I know exactly what you mean. I think it is a grassy flavor.
I’ve never even heard of this “Crystal.” Dad grew up in the military (quite literally – he joined when he was 15 due to it being really difficult to verify way the hell back in the dark ages) and so learned to love Tobasco. He taught us that not only does it help the flavour of food, it also works as a natural bug repellent – good stuff. Me, I only ever use it for bean & bacon soup. Used the last of my sauce up yesterday for lunch, though, so it’s time to get some more. I can think of very few foods finer for a Sunday lunch than hot bean & bacon soup with bread crumbled into it and generously loaded up with Tobasco. YUM!
I have friends , who while visiting Avery Island, bought several “bags” of tabasco filtrate. They brought it home, divided it up amongst friends, and I was lucky enough to get a big jar.
This stuff was great to cook with, although not great to eat straight.
An interesting characteristic of Tabasco is the sensory shift from hot to sweet when applied to egg yolk. You can really impress non-pepperheads by exposing the yolk of a hard boiled egg to shake a teaspoon (or whatever you’ve got room for) of Tabasco onto it, consuming the egg without so much as a wince. I don’t know if it works with other sauces, but it’s my favorite way to eat eggs.
I wonder if the capsaicin binds to the egg yolk lipids or something like that- I’d imagine that without the capsaicin, tabasco and other hot sauces might be kind of sweet.
I like the ridiculously hot Blair’s Mega Death on my fried egg sandwiches. It’s too hot to eat on much of anything else but I love it on my egg sandwiches. Must do something with eggs.