Tuesday, October 6, 2009

4 Hot Pepper Sauce Reviews -- The Winner?


Is there a winner? Well, maybe.

To be honest, these are all Vinegar Sauces first and Hot Sauces 2nd (or 3rd or 4th).

And to be fair, there is not a lot of heat in any of the sauces except the Tabasco, and that I consider mild to moderate. The others I consider anemic from a heat standpoint.

But you can get heat from these last 3 – you just have to add a hell of lot of Hot Sauce.

Trappey’s has a recipe for “Devil Wings” on the label that calls for a 12 oz bottle of sauce for 5 lbs of wings – that’s a lot of sauce, but it still won’t really be a lot of heat.

You will however get a lot of Vinegar acidity and Lemony flavor as well as some Aged Pepper Flavor and Saltiness.

If you were to make the same recipe with Tabasco, you wouldn’t need anywhere near as much Hot Pepper Sauce to get the same level of heat, but you would get a lot more Aged Pepper Flavor, and not so much acidity.

If you made the recipe with Crystal, you’d get a lot Aged Pepper flavor, not too much heat, and a fair amount of acidity.

Tabasco and Crystal are the most interesting Hot Pepper Sauces here, Tabasco more so, and Crystal for its Aged Pepper complexity.

To sum up on a scale of 0 to 5 with 5 being the MOST (relative to each other):

Hot Sauce

Sour-Bright

Sweet-Pepper

Aged-Pepper

Saltiness

Heat

Tabasco

5

4

4

3

2

Crystal

5

2

5

2

0.5

Trappey’s

4

3

3

3

1

Frank’s

3

0

2

2

0.25


By my standards, all of these sauces are overly Sour – some foods can stand up to that, and some can’t. Finally, I have to say, these Hot Pepper Sauces are mislabeled. The principal flavor is Vinegar with a little (sometimes very little) Heat and Pepper flavor. What they will do in to food is make it brighter, more sour, a little salty and a little hot. If that's what your dish needs, these sauces will fill the bill.

I have to admit Frank's is a bit of a disappointment with no Pepper Sweetness, next to no heat, and a little bitterness.

Trappey's is a good choice if you need some thickness and body to your sauce, and Crystal, if you if you like the Tabasco style but do not like the heat, and Tabasco is in a class by itself as far as complexity of aged pepper flavor goes and interesting balance of flavors.

To all of you who swear that one of the above sauces is better by a longshot than the other 3, I say -- Maybe so, for you and what you cook or put your favorite on, but all 4 are more similar than they are different.

Next time: What about Exotic or Specialty Hot Sauces?

Also, how can we make a better Hot Pepper Sauce? A Real One.

Yours in Flavor and Heat,

~Ted


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