Wednesday, December 2, 2009

How Hot is Hot? Is Hotter Hot Sauce Better?

So if we like Hot Sauce, and Heat is Good, and more is better, then the Hotter Hot Sauce is better, right? Well, that's obviously not true, and we all know we have our limits.

Testosterone crazed males aside, most of us will even admit that flavor is important, too. So, how much Heat is right?

If you are to believe the ads and photos for many Hot Sauces, like the one above, and the labels on the Hot Sauce Bottles, many are so hot that they can cause insanity and death -- clearly false advertising! I know, because I have tested regular so-called Insanity Hot Sauces and Death Sauces, and they are quite safe for people who can tolerate a basic level of heat.

The makers of these sauces do offer hotter sauces, and even much, much hotter sauces, and these sauces are really scary hot, often hot enough to cause a nasty accident if used unwisely or by someone unaware. But what purpose do they serve, really?

The truth is, the hotter the sauce, the less you can use of that sauce, and the less you can use, the less flavor you get. Period.

I know when I make a Hot Sauce and use a very Hot Pepper, like a Habanero, I have to use less of that pepper by proportion, compared to, say, a Cayenne Pepper, and even so, because peppers vary in heat from one batch to the next, I have to taste the Hot Sauce and adjust accordingly.

There are some really good Hot Sauces out there, and some of them are pretty hot, too, but one thing the good ones have in common is FLAVOR, not just heat.

One of my favorite Hot Sauces, which is not super hot, but which is a good place to begin because it has Real Flavor, is Blair's Original Death Sauce, which I reviewed earlier. It won't kill ya', and you'll be glad you tried it. You want something hotter, try the other "Death Sauces", from "After Death", "Pure Death", "Megadeath", and "Ultra Death", to "Sudden Death".

Don't be fooled, "Mo' Hotta" ain't necessarily "Mo' Betta!"

That said, I do like fairly hot, Hot Sauce. Just, not with Pepper Extract, and Capsaicin.

I want the Real Pepper, not just the hot part.

~Ted

Image courtesy of Jailhouse Fire Hot Sauce. Love the image -- don't know anything about the Hot Sauce.

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1 comment:

  1. I remember the first time I ever got a bottle of one of Blair's Death Hot Sauces.

    I was just a kid, and my dad had went to this Mongolian Barbecue place. It wasn't spicy enough for him, so he asked for some good hot sauce. They brought out some bland chile sauce of some sort.

    Unsatisfied, he asked for something with more kick. So they bring out this bottle with a skull attached to it.

    "Cute," my dad thought. So he opens it up and starts pooring it out, and the staff that had gathered around yelled, "Whoa! Whoa! That's enough!"

    Giving them the benefit of the doubt, my dad stops. He starts to take a bite and again, "Whoa! Whoa! Mix it in first!" So, he mixes it in his bowl of Mongolian barbecue really good.

    Just a couple of drops made that food come alive. He could barely get it down it was so spicy.

    So then, he started looking for it everywhere...he ended up finding it in a specialty shop somewhere and brought it home. I can't remember which Death sauce it was, but it was intense.

    Both of my parents love hot sauce, so, naturally, I came to love it too, and since I started young, I could handle a lot hotter than they could.

    This stuff, though, it was good, but I could only handle a little bit on food. This bottle lasted us years.

    The insane part of this story is we moved several years later, and I was clearing out the cabinets and found the bottle.

    Reminiscent, I grabbed it and discovered all the hot sauce had leaked out of a hole in the bottom. I thought the bottle had broke, but the hole was round and smooth...eroded.

    The hot sauce had actually eaten a hole through the glass bottle.

    Just thought I'd share my story.

    ReplyDelete

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