Ten Best Hot Sauces of 2018

Kjbartolotta

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I am well and truly addicted to hot sauce, and have sampled hundreds of them in my lifetime. So I was quite pleased when I saw this article detailing the best of the 2018 NYC Hot Sauce Convention.

http://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-hot-sauces.html

Exciting stuff. I'm curious about the garlic sauce, though generally an abhorer of alioli. The Bravado jalapeno and green apple sauce sounds interesting, and I might have to test out the Volcanic Peppers Lava Chocolate Hot Sauce (because I'm an adventurer at heart). Finally, I can personally attest to El Yucateco hot sauce, which I just got done enjoying with my dinner. It's everywhere in my neighborhood, burning hot but with a pleasant, fruity flavor that makes it about more than pure masochism. And they make it in other flavors, Jalapeno and Chipotle, I believe.

Anyone have any favorites?
 
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Lavern08

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Been using hot sauce on my food for over 50 years, and my all-time favorite was Texas Pete - That is, until I discovered (Huy Fong's) Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce...

To me, it's the perfect blend of hot, spicy, garlic, and sweet - Absolutely lurve it! :snoopy:
 
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cornflake

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THERE WAS A HOT SAUCE EXPO?!

I didn't go to the hot sauce expo!??!

What is happening??
 

Enlightened

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I use the cheap stuff (Yacatecan habanero hot sauce sold in my local grocery store) and sometimes I buy the more pricey stuff if it is on sale (Habanero, Tabasco brand hot sauce). Regular hot sauces (Frank's Red, Texas Pete, Sriracha, regular Tabasco, Louisiana hot sauce, other) just don't do it for me anymore. I usually put two or three diablo sauces on one bean burrito from Taco Bell (their hottest sauce available).

EDIT: Ooops, spelled it wrong and wrong name. This stuff (red is a little spicier than green): https://www.elyucateco.com/
 
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Kjbartolotta

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THERE WAS A HOT SAUCE EXPO?!

I didn't go to the hot sauce expo!??!

What is happening??

I just found out there's one in Long Beach later in the year, considering the Pavlovian response I get even thinking about it, I may have to go.

I usually put two or three diablo sauces on one bean burrito from Taco Bell (their hottest sauce available).

Del Taco has a comparable Del Inferno hot sauce they give out, whenever I go there I overdo it, put a million on, and get indigestion. As always, I view food essentially as a vessel for the hot sauce.
 

RedRajah

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The only hot sauce I really like is piri-piri. Which is tricky to find in Cleveland sometimes. Sure, they're carrying Nando's version, but it's not the same...
 

Enlightened

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Del Taco has a comparable Del Inferno hot sauce they give out, whenever I go there I overdo it, put a million on, and get indigestion. As always, I view food essentially as a vessel for the hot sauce.

I have not eaten at El Restaurante Del Taco in decades. The company bought out a fast food chain, in southern California, called Naugles Tacos & Burgers. This place made egg and bean burritos like no one else. They were huge and delicious. I'm on permanent boycott of Del Taco because of them buying it out and killing their menu. I just looked it up. Del Taco closed Naugles in 1995. About a quarter century!!

Edit: Wow, someone fought Del Taco and won the right to run Naugles: http://www.nauglestacos.com/
 
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Bacchus

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A friend of mine brought me a bottle of "Aunt May's" hot pepper sauce from Barbados - amazing stuff! I am running out and so planning a raid on her private stock...

Another thing I have recently been trying is a tiny amount of very finely chopped chilli where you wouldn't expect it; on top of a fried egg or an omelette for example. Highly recommended.
 

MaryMumsy

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I keep a small bottle of Tabasco original for making Bloody Marys. And a bottle of Cholula original for my cousin for when he's here. That's it for hot sauce.

MM
 

blacbird

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A friend of mine brought me a bottle of "Aunt May's" hot pepper sauce from Barbados - amazing stuff!

I would very much like to know what kind of pepper this sauce is made of. Mesuspects "Scotch bonnet" peppers, which are a red variety of habañero, and the major ingredient in Jamaican jerk sauces. But I'm not sure.

It is really useful to check the ingredients list on hot pepper sauces. I am a gardener, and (even where I live at 61 degrees north latitude) I manage some hot peppers every year. So, for the uninitiated, there are fiive cultivated species of pepper that form spicy fruits:

Capsicum anuum, the major species of edible peppers, which include all sweet peppers, as well as jalapeños and serranos.

Capsicum frutescens, thai hot peppers and tabasco peppers.

Capsicum chinense, habanero and scotch bonnet peppers

Capsicum pubescens, rocoto/manzano peppers.

Capsicum baccatum, South American aji peppers (I've never seen these, but I sure would like to.)

If you see rocoto or manzano peppers at your store, be sure to give them a try. They look like miniature bell peppers, are either yellow or red when ripe, and contain black seeds. The fruit wall is thick and very juicy. And very hot when raw, slightly less so when cooked. But they have a magnificent pepper flavor, and are my favorite among the hot peppers I have tried. I even manage to keep a plant alive for a year or so some time back, but have not succeeded since then. Fortunately, they do show up in my local grocery from time to time. I understand that they originated in the Andean region of South America, but are now grown commercially in Mexico, so people in the southern U.S. might have more regular access to them.

caw
 

cornflake

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This might be the Aunt May's stuff -- someone says it is SBs but the label just says capsicum.

I like hot (like I'll put Tabasco on pretty much anything), also smokey hot, like chipotle-based, chipotle and hotter peppers without tons of flavour, ghost peppers (Trader Joe's has a good ghost pepper sauce and a grinder with ghost peppers).
 

MontyBurr

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It sounds like I might sell a couple of copies of my book right here. :)

My MMC is a barbecue cook who’s perfected four hot sauces. I’ve perfected them over the years. Won a contest once. I’m worried about first publication rights or I’d share right here. Here’s a snip:
------------
“On point tomorrow morning for boxes?” asked one of the table toting volunteers.

“Yep. Not my first rodeo,” replied Molly. It was her second rodeo. Not a lie.

“Let’s walk,” said Chaz, moving slowly to the tent opening. Molly followed.

“The mild sauce we called Sexy Monkey. Mostly vinegar, carrots, tamarind, onions, honey and with jalapeño for pop.”

“Mmmm. Sexy Monkey,” purred Molly with her rendition of an aroused Kathleen Turner.

Chaz missed a stride. “I don’t think I should tell you about the other three.”

“Try me,” she said, suppressing a giggle.

“One of my artsy staff made a label in Illustrator. The monkey on the left had eyebrows and a Mae West figure. The others were just your average ‘see no evil and speak no evil’. We amped up the heat with some Thai chilies and called it ‘Naughty Monkey’. This time the second monkey kinda looked, uh, you know, naughty.”

“I’m a naughty, naughty little monkey,” whimpered Molly perfectly imitating a spoiled seven year old after a tantrum.

Chaz turned and looked in bewilderment at her. Molly was sniggering. “You’re creeping me out here,” he said with a smile. “Here goes. The really hot one used Habaneros. The third monkey was flipping the bird.”

“And you called it?”

“Angry Monkey.”

Legend has it that Mercedes McCambridge drank eggs and whiskey to create the demon voice in the 1973 film “The Exorcist.” Molly was sadistically thrilled to unleash her version and growled, “Angry Monkey” in a four second phrase ending in a bark that startled a nearby mother and two small children.

“How many of you are there in there?” asked Chaz with a genuine look of astonishment.

“Eighty Six and counting. That doesn’t include my Mel Blanc collection.” laughed Molly. “It’s what I do. Voice over and audio books.”
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Recipe development was interesting the first few times. I seeded Habaneros without gloves the first time. Big mistake. The second time I wore gloves. I was cooking in the morning and had an unplanned call of nature. I took off the gloves and answered nature. The gloves were now inside-out. I donned them and continued chopping. Nature wanted an encore. My hands are now contaminated. You know where this is going.
 

Kjbartolotta

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Recipe development was interesting the first few times. I seeded Habaneros without gloves the first time. Big mistake. The second time I wore gloves. I was cooking in the morning and had an unplanned call of nature. I took off the gloves and answered nature. The gloves were now inside-out. I donned them and continued chopping. Nature wanted an encore. My hands are now contaminated. You know where this is going.

...You washed your hands with soap and everything was fine? Because I'm not squeamish, but any other ending and I'm liable to pass out.

Anyone read "Hot Sauce Nation" from Denver Nicks?

Whoa, hadn't heard of this. Someone give this guy a MacArthur Grant.