Good ol’ Sriracha because of its versatility. It goes well with so many foods.
Hmm it’s the sweetness that makes it not versatile for me. I love it in pho though!
I’ve tried a few different brands of sriracha, and there were only like two that I liked. The others had more sweetness that I didn’t like.
Just want to soapbox here about the hot sauces that are sold to: 1) be as hot as possible; 2) have no flavor aside from pepper.
No one is enjoying XXX: Blow our ur Sphincter 3000 and as far as I am concerned these things are novelty items like pranks from joke shops. If the “schoville” number is factoring into your hot sauce buying decisions then I have personal beef with you and hope you step in a deep puddle next time it’s raining.
I have an interesting biological quirk where my mouth doesn’t register capsacin, the chemical that makes thing spicy/hot. It’s been a thing my entire life. I can and have just chomped down on habanero and ghost peppers with no immediate problems (I don’t tend to notice how spicy food is until it’s on the way out).
Those super hot sauces you describe don’t even taste like pepper most of the time. More often than not, they just taste like vinegar. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and there’s a hint of liquid smoke, but most of the time it’s just vinegar and capsacin.
You get a pass.
Might have been slightly exaggerating my disdain for comic effect!
I’m agreeing with you. Those super hot sauces which only exist to prove hot they can make them are absolute ass. They taste gross.
Ah my bad misread it as you having some genetic predisposition towards them or something lol
Nah. Since my mouth doesn’t register the spicy, I don’t get the flavor of the sauce drowned out by the overwhelming spiciness. So I feel like I get a better sense for the flavor of the sauce than most people do. And I can assure you, if they advertise themselves as being absurdly spicy, they taste like straight vinegar. And not good vinegar, just a bland white vinegar.
Gotcha
the “schoville” number is factoring into your hot sauce buying decisions then I have personal beef
Not everyone is looking for the highest number. Some of us take it as another piece of useful info about the sauce. For example if I’m going to have company, I need to compare to Tabasco, because that’s what normies know. I also like different levels of heat with different foods, and the Scoville level gives me that
Tapatío
This was my go-to for a while. I still keep this one on hand, but I recently have been defaulting to Hoff Sauce more recently. If you see it for sale, I recommend you give it a try.
I love all kinds of hot sauce (sate/sambal is my #1. Does that count as sauce? It’s more a paste). But my widespread you can find this anywhere go-to for eggs and potatoes is good ol’ Tapatio. I’ll take Valentina’s too, since it’s so similar.
Delicious sauce, but I personally wouldn’t consider that hot at all.
Secret Aardvark habanero sauce is so, so good. I’ll put it on just about anything. It’s by no means the hottest sauce out there, but I’ll put its flavor up against any other sauce. I buy this stuff by the case at this point.
I knew I would find this comment here. It’s so damn good, got some in my fridge right now.
Agreed, that and yellow bird habanero are the two sauces that I need to have a supply of at all times.
Damn, thought I’d beat you to it lol
Also highly recommend the smoky aardvark if you haven’t tried that one yet. It’s not in as many stores as the original, but it’s delicious.
Tapatio, Valentina’s, or Cholula.
Cholula Chipotle!
I love pretty much anything by Melinda’s
I recently got a bottle of Melinda’s Garlic & Habanero sauce. It might be my favorite hot sauce that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Was coming to praise the Ghost Pepper Wing Sauce. It’s so good on and in so many things, but especially a chicken sandwich from a local joint we go to on Wednesdays. I look forward to that every week.
Marie Sharp’s, a hot sauce company out of Belize. Sooooo good.
Carrot based Habenaro sauce: although it appears they have a few versions. (Figured if I was going to search what these were I might as well share the quick results)
Yellowbird also makes a carrot based habenero sauce that’s really good!
100%!! Probably also mentioning that Melinda’s essentially ripped off Marie’s recipes during some sheisty imporg deal.
i love yuzu kosho, most brands are fine. i’ll put it on anything remotely asian. panda express gets the yuzu kosho. instant ramen gets the yuzu kosho. homemade gyuudon gets the yuzu kosho. plain white rice gets the yuzu kosho. its so good
Frank’s RedHot
Do you….
put that shit on everything?
You bet your ass I do
I’m a pepper head, but for some dishes, that cayenne vinegar is a necessary flavor component.
That’s my favorite on most foods. For Mexican I go with Valentina and for Asian food I go with Sriracha
I like Franks in wing sauce but prefer Cholula for pretty much anything else.
Cholula with mayo and ketchup makes a great fry sauce.
Yellowbird Habenero
It really depends on the dish and what you want out of the hot sauce.
My general, everyday preference is Cholula or Crystal. Both those have a distinctly hispanic/tex-mex flavor profile. For east and southeast Asian cuisine, I prefer Sriracha. If I really want the hot sauce to be the focus of the dish, I tend to prefer Marie Sharp’s, especially the carrot or grapefruit varieties.
Best I can find locally is Enconas Carolina Reaper sauce but I will say it’s nowhere near hot enough to justify that name imo. Always a bottle of Sirracha handy as well.
I’m partial to the Dave’s Carolina Reaper sauce.
If I’m in a different mood the El Yucateco habanero sauce has great flavor.
Gochujang for cooking. Usually the T. UP imported stuff from Korea.
Gochujang chicken with rice and veggies in a bowl has become a default “lazy workday dish” at our place.
Sambal Oelek
“Sambal is a spicy, chili-based condiment or relish that originated in Southeast Asia and is common in Indonesian, Malaysian, and Singaporean cuisine”
Yup, there’s lots of varieties too.
El yucateco has types with some decent heat while still being cheap. Usually if you want any kind of spice the price rises with the spice level.
The Tabasco scorpion one is pretty good heat for the cost as well
