When I gave my talk at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday I was asked, I believe by reader Crystal who blogs at Cafe Cyan, what hot sauces do I keep in my fridge. While normally easy for anyone else to answer, it was a difficult question for me to come up with an answer to so I answered with those that I end up replacing most often–Frank’s Red Hot and Sriracha, two of the most commonly used hot sauces on the market today.
My wife pointed out to me my failure as a hot sauce connoisseur by mentioning that these two mass market hot sauces are what I consider to be my go-to sauces. For the sake of time I decided it was a lot easier than going to great lengths in listing all of the ones that I have on hand at any time and use for any number of things including reviewing and/or just taking up space in the fridge because I’m a hot sauce pack rat.
I mean we’ve all been through the list of those that I’ve reviewed here including: Lucky’s, Blair’s Ultra Death Sauce 20/20, San Pedro Pequin, etc. In addition to those I also have Bossman’s Swamp Juice and Ron’s Nuckin’ Futs (both provided to me, following a trip down South, by UpWithTheMooses but I just haven’t gotten around to reviewing them yet).
Yesterday I went to the State Fair and stopped by both the Girvan Grille booth and Singh’s Caribbean Heat to check out what hot stuff they had to offer. Because of rolling power outages across the State Fair, Girvan’s booth was down and out but Singh’s was still open. He not only had fresh, homegrown Ghost Chilies on hand ($5/ea) but also his homemade ghost pepper sauce which he was selling for $50/bottle…
Now while I realize it’s the State Fair and everything comes at a premium, especially sauce made from chilies which do not grow well in Minnesota (I apologized and stood corrected when I told him that I didn’t know of anyone who could grow them in MN and he showed me his softening pile of ghost chilies which looked like they were picked off plants three weeks ago), I cannot see why you would ever pay $50 for his sauce. I took a taste and found it only slightly hotter than comparable habanero based sauces. He says he uses straight ghost chilies for the sauce and he really does need some work, either in the chilies’ strength themselves, or kicking the sauce up a notch.
After chatting with him about Girvan’s wings (I told him I hadn’t had them at the Fair yet, only at the actual restaurant) and how they were most definitely hotter than what he was selling for $50 he had the audacity to tell me that Girvan’s sauce was inferior because, “it’s a bunch of white people making our food.” I seriously stood there in shock, came to, shook my head and told him that was not cool. He gave me a smirk and turned away from me. That’s definitely not the way to sell hot sauces to someone who has no less than 10 of them in his fridge/cabinets at any given time and would happily pay a reasonable rate to get a decent bottle of sauce.
Even though I don’t have a bottle of Minnesota borne ghost sauce in my fridge and I still have $50 in my wallet, I still do enjoy a good hot sauce. Unfortunately with so many of them priced so high I have to stick with the cheap, yet still hot and flavorful favorites, Sriracha and Frank’s. I put them in or on just about everything including spaghetti, burger meat, pretzels, chips, or even my finger or a spoon.
I know that a bunch of you out there enjoy a little hot sauce now and then so why don’t you answer Crystal’s question about which hot sauces you keep in your fridge when you want a little kick? While I’m certainly you don’t go through the estimated 5 gallons I do a year of Frank’s, how often do you have to replenish your stash? Do you ever try new hot sauces or do you just stick to your tried and true favorites? Whatever you have to say about your choice in hot sauces go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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September 1st, 2010 at 8:38 am
Does sriracha count? Cuz that’s as ubiquitous as salt & pepper for me.
September 1st, 2010 at 8:57 am
Sriracha, Louisianna, and Yucateco (Habanero). I mostly use Louisianna.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:03 am
Ketchup!
No, really, I like Frank’s, Crystal and Sriracha.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:08 am
Isn’t it funny what answers come out when asked something on the spot? I always blank on the most obvious answers when asked, “What’s your favorite restaurant?” or “What dishes do you like to cook?”…um…tacos?
Anyway…we have green Tabasco, Pace Picante medium, sriracha, and Cholula. When we want to add some spice, we often use crushed peppers that we have grown and dried.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:26 am
Siracha and Tabasco Sauce. And usually some kind of hot salsa.
It’s funny how fast Siracha become a mainstream product, a few years ago it seems like I had to go to a specialty store to get it and now they stock it at Target and Cub.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:28 am
BK, I think it’s really interesting how good Cub is at stocking ethnic specialty foods. The AV Cub is now stocking Polish imports such as pickles and canned herring. I didn’t realize we had a viable Polish immigrant community in the 55124.
I really need to bite the bullet and buy one of the $6.50 jars of pickles and see if they are really worth it.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:35 am
Sriracha, Frank’s, Chipotle Tabasco and Cholula are the choices in my refrigerator.
September 1st, 2010 at 11:37 am
Always have a bottle of Franks on hand. I’ve been actually digging Trader Joe’s Jalapeno hot sauce. It’s not the hottest thing in the world, but has a good flavor. Oh and I have that green habanero hot sauce that a lot of Mexican restaurants have on hand, I just can’t remember the name of it.
September 1st, 2010 at 11:40 am
Nils, El Yucateco Green.
September 1st, 2010 at 11:49 am
I knew it was ‘El’ something…
September 1st, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Hey, don’t disrespect the Frank’s! I love that stuff.
Somebody asked this question on Chow, a website devoted to food, and far away Frank’s was the favorite.
We also have the Siracha, but Frank’s is our go-to. My daughter uses it for everything.
September 1st, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Tapatio
September 2nd, 2010 at 4:51 am
[...] to celebrate its upcoming move with a Mardi Gras style parade, a Girvan/Singh’s State Fair hot sauce throwdown, a new egg-centric menu at Corner Table, the always handy City Pages month in review, and Edina [...]
September 2nd, 2010 at 9:17 am
Other than the one-and-done sauces that I receive as gifts or buy on a lark, Sriracha, Cholula, Blair’s After Death sauce, McIlhenny’s Habanero, and El Yucateno find spots in the regular rotation, alongside the homemade sauces I make out of the year’s pepper yield from my garden.
That pepper yield used to include the ghost pepper! Full disclosure – I AM “white people” as well, so I guess, despite my racial handicap, it is possible to grow them in Minnesota, though apparently I should not try to prepare them. A place called Brewery Creek in Belle Plaine used to sell the plants in pots – they were $6 a plant, but the three years I had them they provided enough ghost chilis that this was a pittance. Sadly, this nursery is no longer in operation (death of the owner/sole sower), and have gone wanting the last two seasons (one year because I was unprepared for this operation’s closure, and this year because the eight I started from the seeds of the last dried chili I had died when a friend-who-shall-remain-nameless with a proper greenhouse set-up in his basement left them to bake under the lights for a whole week without checking on them or watering them – my bad for outsourcing).
If you can get the seeds (I think New Mexico U. sells them) and start them early enough indoors, ghost chilis can be grown successfully in Minnesota with the following caveat: A summer like this one would provide a bumper crop, while one like last year’s would render it sickly and meager.
One last thing: After making salsas and providing the chilis to my co-workers and hearing their stories (e.g. one used HALF of a ghost pepper in his chili and he had to double the batch to make it palatable), there should be no excuse for a relatively tepid hot sauce made from ghost chilis. I’ve had too many versions that I can spoon up as if it were soup, and it sounds like the ($50!) ghost sauce you tried is of that ilk.
September 3rd, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Heinz Ketchup…that is all the “spice” I need.
September 4th, 2010 at 7:17 am
Siracha, Crystal, Green Tabasco, Chipotle Tabasco, are in rotation and great use.
September 4th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
On my dinner table tonight, green chili cheese burgers. Fresh, home made, roasted green chilis dripping with hot goodness. Red onion. Slab of american cheese on a toasted bun, medium rare 1/4 pound burger.
September 5th, 2010 at 9:35 am
mrs marcos, you need to change your name to Mrs. Excitement:)
bb
September 6th, 2010 at 2:44 am
Well, that is what Mr Marcos calls me. ;)
September 7th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
I just heard tonight on Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food, did you know that the average sweet red pepper contains as much Vitamin C as THREE oranges? That’s pretty awesome.
I wonder what an Habenero has.
September 15th, 2010 at 10:32 am
[...] and have no problems eating a whole raw habanero. I have also eaten plenty of ghost pepper infused hot sauces, BBQ sauces, salsas, and even wings but this was the hottest I’ve felt. Woo boy. They were [...]