Hot Sauces and cooking

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

Many years ago, back when my guts were tougher, I was a devotee of hot sauce; the hotter the better. The rule of thumb we always followed though, was never make it so hot that you couldn't taste the underlying meat. Of course, that rule was broken many times until the following morning's payback became too high a price to pay.

These days I still cook hot and spicy, certainly not as hot as back then, but I've found it much easier to follow the rule. Most of my hot and spicy cooking is done Jamaican Jerk style with a dry rub you can find here. But for marinades I use only 3 different store-bought brands:

Cholula Original - this is an orange color wing sauce with medium heat and amazing flavor. Sold nationwide. Buy the big bottle and save! I use this in place of ketchup. For marinating chicken or pork overnight.

Tiger Sauce - a "Try Me" brand product that's sweet heat. Not as hot as Cholula and a totally different flavor - some citrus and tamarind perhaps. I just used up a bottle yesterday it's gone out with the trash. Google it. Buy it. Great on shellfish, lamb or beef short ribs as an overnight marinade.

Grays Hot Pepper Sauce - very hot, from Jamaica where the heat is Scotch Bonnet. Marinating chicken thighs in this overnight and then fast grilling them cooks off the flavor of the sauce and leaves the heat.

Any one of these can be mixed with apple juice, ginger ale, cola, pineapple juice, coconut water, and on, and on, and on. They will all add heat, the other liquids or spices will add the flavor. Full joy!

Featured Answer

Lars

9 years ago

Here's what some of my plants look like now. If you are in a cold climate, you will need to start the seeds indoors by February, as they can take a month or so to germinate, and then you can keep them indoors for another month or so, until you have no danger of frost. Once they get to a certain size, they need as much sun as you can give them, and they need fairly large pots, as they get root-bound fairly easily.

I'll save some seeds the next time I pick chilies and dry them for you, and I can send you what I have left over from last year's seed packet (which is not much). I do not think that these chilies have been hybridized, as other chilies in my yard were not blooming at the same time, but you never know for sure what you will get. I'll try to collect seeds from several different plants. Sometimes hybrid plants are even better.

I sent you an email.

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Comments (6)

plllog
9 years ago
The best pepper sauce I've used was homemade from charred serranos but what a pain! I used to like Cholula but nowadays it tastes like chemicals to me. :)
Lars
9 years ago
Charred chilies definitely make the best chili sauce, and I make so much chili sauce myself that I never buy any, and I give a lot of what I make away. Right now I have a huge supply of Chocolate Habanero chilies in my back yard, and I will be making a huge batch of chili sauce this week-end, and so I hope it does not rain on Saturday. I add red bell peppers and garlic to the grill when I char the chilies, and this time I am going to make the chili sauce outdoors so that I won't have to wear a swim mask and snorkel in the kitchen.

After I have made my Habanero sauce (which is very hot), I can then water it down when making other sauces or marinades, but at least I always have the option of making it as hot as I want. I use a lot of fresh Habanero chilies when cooking as well, which is one of the reasons the hot sauces I make last so long. I did find one brand of smoked Habanero sauce that was almost as good as what I make, but it's fairly expensive. I have cayenne chili plants as well, and I dry the chilies and store them in my kitchen for use in a lot of Italian dishes.

The other ingredients I use in my hot sauce are salt and vinegar, and I use strongly flavored vinegars, such as Balsamic or red wine, usually from Italy or France. Since I only use tiny amounts of my hot sauce at a time, I can add a lot of salt to the sauce to help preserve it, and I cannot taste the salt in in. I can barely taste the vinegar either, but it does help to use a good vinegar to make the flavor more complex.
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fawnridge (Ricky)
Original Author
9 years ago
Lars - I'm interested in growing Chocolate Habs. Could you spare some seeds? If yes, send me an email at ricky at fawnridge dot com and I'll forward you my address. Thanks!
sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA)
9 years ago
Gorgeous plants Lars. I have trouble growing peppers. I have lots of seed and am starting a 72 cell tray this weekend. Way early for me but they take so long to get going and i'm antsy. (i have a heat mat) Another one i'm trying is a low/no-heat hab. Love the flavor of a habanero but want to add more of that flavor to my roasted/smoked pepper mix for salsa. I should have more control of the heat.

My hot sauce is good but could be better. I've been making two. Work testers love them. The antho tomatoes and darker peppers along with the roasted Green hatch chilies looses a vibrant color but distinguishes what is what. The red one is actually the spicy one. Less spicy, no hatch. The hatch chilis i ordered are med-spicy.

Ricky, a favorite at work is YellowBird. Interesting ingredients. Similar to what you are doing by adding to juices. Called a condiment. Smart as it is less spicy but still a good balanced kick.
fawnridge (Ricky)
Original Author
9 years ago
My favorite chicken wings are marinaded in Cholula, ginger ale, and a couple of tablespoons of my Jamaican Jerk rub.

Hot Sauces and cooking

Lars

Comments (6)

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