Hot Sauce

[OneMoreRead]

So, I'm at a restaurant with a couple of buddies. One of them orders a fish plate. Before the waitress leaves, the guy asks if they have Louisiana hot sauce. Woman says no. My buddy changes his order.

Hot sauce dominates the conversation for the rest of the night. Hot sauce is hot sauce to me. I don't really care, Louisiana, Franks, Tabasco, Cholula, whatever. They're all liquid heat. But my buddy says if he eats hot sauce, it's Louisiana.

So, I ask you purveyors of all that's culinarily palatable: what are the best hot sauces?

 

[zeke12]

Tabasco.

Cholula will do in a pinch.

 

[Norman Stansfield]

I favor Cholula, followed by Tabasco.

Frank's is a distant third, but will do in a pinch.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Ass in Space.

 

[John]

 

[Ace]

Louisiana by far. It has a good taste. I put it on everything. Tabasco tastes like crap. Won't touch it.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Wasn't that the name of an ultra-fiber cereal in an SNL fake ad?

 

[writing irish]

Best to divide hot sauces into two classes: cayenne sauces and sauces made from Mexican peppers such as chile del arbol, jalapeno, chipotle, etc. To me, the cayenne sauces go well with Southern or other types of "American" food and also go well with Italian and other non-North American cuisines. The cayenne flavor is simple and to the point, kind of an upper-register flavor. The Mexican sauces I think should be used sparingly outside of Mexican food, as they have an earthier flavor that isn't as transferable to other cuisines. Mexican sauces like Cholula are fine on burgers or eggs, but if I'm wanting to spice up a salami and provolone sandwich, I'll reach for a cayenne sauce.

Anyway, I love all the Tabasco sauces, the cayenne-based original as well as the jalapeno and chipotle versions.

With the cayenne ones, I'll take Crystal over Louisiana, although Louisiana's fine. I don't know how widely available Crystal is outside the South...I haven't seen it out here on the Great Plains. Trappey's Red Devil sauce is surprisingly crappy, considering that most of their products are good.

With the Mexican ones, Cholula's good, but Valentina is pretty much the same and it's much cheaper. The best habanero sauce is Yucateco...the green variety is the most common, although they sell an orange one that's just friggin' insanely hot.

There's also that weird Vietnamese hot sauce the name of which I don't know..."rooster sauce." It's good, but it's definitely just for Asian food.

 

[Twoback]

I thought for sure this was a thread about the And 1 Mix Tape tour.

 

[slappy4428]

There's also that weird Vietnamese hot sauce the name of which I don't know..."rooster sauce." It's good, but it's definitely just for Asian food.

Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce and it's the bomb.. it's not runny, but thicker in texture like a mustard, as opposed to a salsa, ketchup or Tabasco...
Found some at World Market over the weekend.. I use on hot dogs, brats, burgers, eggs... anything like that...

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Your buddies will enjoy this blog:

http://www.hotsauceblog.com/

 

[User 1019]

Crystal or Louisiana will do for me, while I do not like Tabasco.

 

[zeke12]

I like the flavor of Louisiana, but it doesn't bring enough hot.

Can't get Crystal around here.

 

[OTD]

Crystal's my favorite, and fortunately widely available on the Left Coast. Tabasco just tastes like heat--Crystal has favor to it as well as heat.

 

[Gomer]

I did a story on a guy who ran a hot sauce store some 10 years ago. He gave me a bottle of his best, award-winning stuff: "Acid Rain."

Most good hot sauces, I've come to realize, put Tabasco to shame. One drop is all you'd ever need of this stuff, and though it goes down hot doesn't stay that way for more than a minute.

I haven't owned a traditional Louisiana or Tabasco sauce since I wrote that article.

 

[lono]

Tapatio for Mexican food, Texas Pete for hotdogs, burgers, etc.

 

[da el g]

another one for Texas Pete, milder and sweeter than Tabasco, excellent on any fried foods, especially pork tenderloin

 

[writing irish]

Figures that Texas Pete goes well on pork. It's from North Carolina, not Texas. Poseurs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_sauce

Mentioned in the link: Pickapeppa, a very nice sweet/hot sauce from Jamaica that's vaguely similar to a steak sauce, but more versatile...more sweet/hot, less tang and vinegar. Pour some over a block of cream cheese and add some crackers and you have a damn fine appetizer/game-watching snack.

Turns out Sriracha is Thai, not Vietnamese...

 

[The Big Ragu]

I love spicy food and I play around with a variety of hot sauces when I cook. My favorite is this red Korean hot sauce that I stock up on. I wish I knew the name, but it just has Korean writing on the outside of the bottle, so I know it by sight, not by name.

I stir fry veggies a couple of times a week. No oil. I just chop up the veggies, and saute some sliced garlic with the Korean hot sauce to get the wok going. I add the stuff liberally as I cook. I've even used that hot sauce, instead of Tabasco, when I make my chili-like thing in a slow cooker. The stuff is really versatile.

 

[doubledown68]

My personal favorite is garlic tabasco, but I can't get that unless I order it online from the fine folks in Louisiana.