[jasonsRX7]

I've always liked hot sauce but I've become an addict over the years. I live in an area without much variety in the stores so in order to get my gourmet sauces, I either have to go for a drive or order online, so I'm looking for some suggestions.

Stuff like Texas Pete or Tobasco doesn't count, I'm talking about the stuff where a few drops will light up a pot of chili. My standard hot sauce is Spontaneous Combustion. I like it because it has a good flavor and isn't too hot to eat for lunch on a work day, and I can put it directly on fries or a burger.

The hottest sauce I've ever had was Dave's Insanity Reserve 1998 Limited Edition. The bottle is hand signed and it came in a wooden coffin wrapped in caution tape. I ate a few drops on some potato chips and my mouth was on fire for a while.

Anyone else have an addiction to hot sauce, and if so, what are your favorites?

[E's Lil Theorem]

I wouldn't say that I'm addicted, but my favorite is Tapatio:



Not too spicy that you can't taste the food, not too light that it doesn't add fire. Just about right for me.

In terms of spicy food overall, my last roommate used to add cayenne pepper to pretty much everything he cooked. Everything was really spicy. It was great

[smacintush]

I'm addicted to anything hot, but I don't have a favorite sauce. I've always got 6 or 8 different types around the house and love them all.

[ThinkInsane]

I've been using Dave's Gourmet Insanity Sauce for years, it's my favorite of all the sauces I've tried (and there have been many).



I also use Pure Cap in recipes, but use with caution. There's a joint in the Adirondacks that makes sauce just as hot as Dave's, and the guy that makes it told me he uses ten drops of Pure Cap to make 5 gallons of sauce. I just add one drop to a big pot of chili, and every one whines that it's too hot. Pack of little girls, I swear! *shakes head in disgust*

[rickey939]

[jasonsRX7]

Originally Posted by ThinkInsane

I've been using Dave's Gourmet Insanity Sauce for years, it's my favorite of all the sauces I've tried (and there have been many).

Dave's is great stuff. Hotter than Spontaneous Combustion, but not so hot that you need to stay home after you eat (if you know what I mean). The Blaire's death sauces are supposed to be pretty good, but I haven't tried any yet.

I've read some reviews online and I've never tried it but they say that Da Bomb Final Answer is one of the hottest sauces ever. It was created to one up Dave's Insanity. It's probably too hot to taste good, but I've been thinking about trying some just for the hell of it.

1.5 million scoville units according to the site I got the image from. I think Dave's is around 800k.


And here's a $200 bottle of pure capsicum. 16 million scoville units.

[tooki]

You mean pure capsaicin? (Capsicum means "chile", as in the plant pod.)

And you can't buy pure capsaicin -- it's literally dangerous and requires handling in a filtered room in full body gear. Too-high concentrations of it can't even be sold as sauces. They must be sold as "food additives".

From http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/capsaicin.asp:

Pure capsaicin is so powerful that chemists who handle the crystalline powder must work in a filtered "tox room" in full body protection. The suit has a closed hood to prevent inhaling the powder. Said pharmaceutical chemist Lloyd Matheson of the University of Iowa, who once inhaled some capsaicin accidentally: "It’s not toxic, but you wish you were dead if you inhale it." "One milligram of pure capsaicin placed on your hand would feel like a red-hot poker and would surely blister the skin," said capsaicin expert Marlin Bensinger.

tooki

[jasonsRX7]

Originally Posted by tooki

You mean pure capsaicin? (Capsicum means "chile", as in the plant pod.)

And you can't buy pure capsaicin -- it's literally dangerous and requires handling in a filtered room in full body gear. Too-high concentrations of it can't even be sold as sauces. They must be sold as "food additives".

From http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/capsaicin.asp:

tooki

Yes I meant capsaicin, but they do at least advertise that they sell it.
http://www.hotsauce.com/detail.aspx?ID=638

Is that not the real stuff? Not that I'd have a reason to try it anyway.

[saddino]

My current favorite is Datl Do-It Devil Drops.



Passion fruit, lime juice, mango and lots of datil peppers. Yummy and frickin hot. Great over anything.

[jasonsRX7]

Originally Posted by saddino

My current favorite is Datl Do-It Devil Drops.

Passion fruit, lime juice, mango and lots of datil peppers. Yummy and frickin hot. Great over anything.

That sounds really good. It's going in my list of sauces to try. Sweat N Spice rates it slightly less hot than Spontaneous Combustion, but it probably has more noticeable flavor. I bet it's good on chicken, or mixed in a chili cheese dip.

[euchomai]

This one is great, I really like the carrot based sauce. Here is a list of the ingredients...

Carrots, habanero peppers, water, distilled vinegar, minced garlic, garlic puree, salt, mustard seed, onion powder, olive oil, lime juice concentrate, lemon juice concentrate, tumeric and spices.

[cjrivera]

Quick, shameless plug for my buddy's online hot sauce store...

www.imsauced.com




...now back to the topic.



Some really good stuff.

[jasonsRX7]

Originally Posted by cjrivera

Quick, shameless plug for my buddy's online hot sauce store...

www.imsauced.com

Your buddy has a good site. I'll order from him after a few more sauce suggestions. I've got some Dave's, the Rhino, and the Batch #34 in my cart now. I don't think he has the Devil Drops tho.

[The Mick]

Hottest stuff I ever had was Dave's Ultimate Insanity sauce. I got some in a tiny plastic cup to go with my burrito from a local place. Now I like hot food and I can use the typical hot sauces like they're nothing. So I thought I'd take a sample before I drowned my burrito with it.

Normally you would sample this incredibly hot sauce by dipping the end of a toothpick in it, I did not know that at the time. Like an idiot, I dragged my fork through it and stuck it in my mouth. After a few seconds I didn't notice much, so I did it again. BIG MISTAKE.

OH. MY. GOD.

I've never been in that much pain in my life. I could not stop crying and my nose was gushing snot for 15 minutes solid. I did not taste even one bite of that burrito. Buyer beware.

[wdlove]

I like spices, just prefer it on the mild side. That way it adds to the taste of the food.

[Stradlater]

[ReggieX]

My usual poison, Blair's Original Death Sauce:



And when I'm in a retro mood, Apple's:

[OreoCookie]

I bought some hot sauces while being in the States, the hottest one I got was Mad Dog Inferno. My mom accidentally got a tiny, tiny bit on her hand, rubbed something out of her eyes and then licked it off She felt it 5-6 hours later

Personally, I don't like the ones which are too hot -- they don't have any other flavor anymore. I love stuff like wasabi, chilipotle, habaneros, hmmm. I remember a honey hot sauce which was very tasty, then another one with whiskey.

Now, I'll open a can of hot peppers from Mexico and enjoy hmmm.

[scaught]

i like this one:


its a nice habanero based sauce. hot, but not too hot. hits my hot sauce comfort zone perfectly.

others that i like, too:



cholula is good. and i REALLY like the chipotle pepper tabasco. that ones really good. smokey. tasty.

[scaught]

alright. weird question:

does anyone else hiccup when they eat hot food?

[OreoCookie]

I also had a bottle of that Melinda hot sauce … 

[Eug Wanker]

Personally, I think most of the gimmick hot sauces taste like crap. Yeah, they're hot, but they're short on flavour.

Some of the mom&pop Caribbean restaurants locally make MUCH more flavourful sauces. They aren't always as hot, but they actually add to taste of the food. So we tend to buy those instead.

[jasonsRX7]

There's gimmick sauces like Da Bomb that are just made to be as hot as possible, and then there's gourmet sauces like Dave's that are made to be extremely hot and still add flavor. Like The Mick found out, Dave's is excruciatingly hot if you're not used to it, but once you can handle sauces like that, you can appreciate their flavor more.

[ShotgunEd]

My fav is who dares burns. Its made from habanero chillis and burns like fire.



I like to spice up food with small dried chillis sometimes as well, adding a bird eye chilli to most things will spice it up so much my friends can't eat the food, even though i think its just mild.

Theres a site that sells capsaisin in vegetable oil, i'd like to get a bottle of that.

http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/itemli...1,1&findclas=1

[Thorin]

Originally Posted by scaught

alright. weird question:

does anyone else hiccup when they eat hot food?

My Dad used to eat a lot of hot indian food (still eats it, just not as much as he used to). He can handle things pretty frickin hot, but when he gets past a certain point he starts to hiccup. It's pretty funny

[scaught]

Originally Posted by Thorin

My Dad used to eat a lot of hot indian food (still eats it, just not as much as he used to). He can handle things pretty frickin hot, but when he gets past a certain point he starts to hiccup. It's pretty funny

my hiccup point is probably "low" in comparison to most. and certain sources of spicyness seem to make me hiccup more than others (which might be more spicy).

its weird.

[Mark Larr]

I make my own every summer.

I grow tobasco and habenero peppers to make my sauces with.

I love to make a good carrot based sauce and as many turnips and mustards consumed down here, just plain old pepper sauce is king. The carrot based sauce goes great on raw oysters or boiled crawfish.

[NYK Ace]

being from buffalo, i suppose im a tad bit biased

[milhous]

i live for hot sauce and peppers. that's why i'll never get tired of eating hot and spicey foods. it's a korean thing i guess.

[Fyre4ce]

Let me start off by saying that I love spicy food. Most people I know consider me to have an unnatural tolerance to spice. Most "regular" spicy foods (like "Hot" Tostitos salsa) don't even faze me - I barely notice it. When I go out to eat ethnic food, I love to order it hot if there's the option.

But, I do think there's line of reason that many hot sauces cross. There's a certain ratio of heat to flavor that, if you're above, there's really no point. I mean, if you're only able to add one spoonfull of a given hot sauce to a pot of chile before it becomes inedible, why bother? There's no way you're going to taste any bit of the sauce's "flavor". You might as well have added a drop of that "Pure Cap" stuff. For me, that line is very roughly located around the level of Tabasco. I have eaten much hotter - and I probably will again - but it is more enjoyable for me to eat food that is richly flavored AND hot than one that simply knocks me on my ass.

Anyone ever been to Park City? There is a great Thai restaurant on Main St. called Bangkok Thai. I ordered one of their vegetarian dishes and had it prepared "traditional" (their second-hottest offering). It was delicious! I was sweating and my nose was a bit runny but that's just about prefect for me. I could have easily tolerated the hottest preparation but I don't think it would have made the dinner more enjoyable.

[)\/(aelstrom]

I grow my own habaneros in my back yard. Very prolific plants. Extremely bitter.

My personal favourite is tapatio, with Spont. Combustion tailing in @ 2nd. I just do not have the constitiution for it yet.

yet.

-)\/(

[JoshuaZ]

Man, hot sauce is hard to find in Japan. The Japanese don't like it too much.

I wish I could find Tacos here.

[OreoCookie]

Wasabi is decently hot, but has a lot of flavor … if you want more spice, try Korean. There are plenty of Korean places in Japan

[lurkalot]

... but not impossible. There is a Mexican restaurant, "Otis", in downtown Hiroshima (中区加古町1-20) and for cooking at home, some ingredients for soft or hard tacos can be bought in some shops here. Pickled Jalapenos for example since we're talking spices. Don't know about Fukuyama and I've never seen any of the sauces mentioned in this thread before. Except Tabasco.

The shop we use in the local shopping mall also sells Malaysian, Thai or Indonesian hot spices such as a couple of sambal flavors.

[MaxPower]

Originally Posted by ReggieX

... And when I'm in a retro mood, Apple's:

I have to laugh at that. That joke was 9 years in the making!

[Shaddim]

Not the hottest of sauces, but very flavorful.

[jasonsRX7]

Originally Posted by MacNStein

Not the hottest of sauces, but very flavorful.

Yeah, I like the Scorned Woman cheese twists.