Bottom Line: Frank’s RedHot is an old favorite and a standout among the Louisiana-style hot sauces, and the Xtra Hot has a nice kick.
There are lot’s of Louisiana-style hot sauces out there (including one called . . . . well . . . Louisiana Hot Sauce), so you may wonder just which one to pick when confronted with so many choices on the store shelves. The fact is that you can’t go too wrong as all of these offer a similar combination of red...
Bottom Line: This hot sauce/salsa hybrid delivers a tangy kick that is quite tasty and addictive.
Rustlin’ Rob’s Gourmet Foods in Fredericksburg, Texas is a Mecca for hot sauce lovers and you can sample almost every item they have for sale (and I explore that establishment in more detail here). I make a trip there once or twice a year, and when I am in town I make sure I stock on two of their own sauces that I can only buy at that location....
Bottom Line: Zaaschila Salsa Guacamole & Habanero is a tasty and spicy sauce that can prove quite versatile.
Heat Level: Hot
There are lots of hot sauces and salsas on the store shelves these days, and it’s usually hard to decide which new ones to give a try (I often grab whatever is on sale). I stumbled upon this particular sauce in Arlan’s in Hempstead, TX (a place where I have found several spicy treasures), and decided to give it a...
According to Sontava! (the exclamation mark is part of the name), their products are not just sauces, but accents. And thick ones at that. They take pride in the fact that their sauces are made from just a handful of natural ingredients, and they should. This is definitely one of the better habanero sauces out there and one that I usually have at the ready in the pantry. The extra hot version of their habanero sauce contains fresh habanero...
Rustlin' Rob’s, located in Fredericksburg Texas, is Mecca for lovers of spicy foods, and they offer a wide variety of sauces, salsas, spices, rubs, and more (watch for an upcoming post about the store). They have more than just one sauce that I purchase every time I am in town, but out of all of them the Jolokia Hot Sauce counts as my favorite and try to always have a bottle in the cabinet. This sauce is a blend of all-natural ingredients that...
I stumbled upon this Italian hot sauce about a year and a half ago while wandering through Trader Joe’s. Since then, I have been hooked on it and have to have a jar ready to go at all times, making this the second of two go-to hot sauces I get from TJ’s (more on the other one in an upcoming post). The sauce is made from Calabrian chili peppers “sourced from a trusted pepper cultivator in Calabria, Italy” according to the website. Those...
Okay, if you are ready to put on your big boy pants and up your hot sauce game to the major leagues, this is the one I recommend. Dave's Insanity Sauce is among the original of the insane sauces (thus the name) and is still one of the best. It contains a blend of chilis, tomato paste, and spices, but the key ingredient here is the capsaicin extract. That’s what packs the punch and makes this one of the hottest sauces widely available. It has...
This tasty sauce has been around for a while (it started in 1971) and is quite well-known, for good reason. It packs some heat, but it won’t send the average mortal screaming from the room, and it also brings plenty of flavor. You will often see it in Mexican restaurants, but it works with many different dishes as well. Heat-wise, Tapatio comes in around 3,000 Scoville Units which is enough to give a bit of a kick without scorching the senses....
I am combining these two together because they are basically the same sauce, just different consistencies and maybe slightly different heat levels. Sriracha Sauce from Huy Fong Foods has become almost as ubiquitous and Tabasco these days, and you are seeing it added to everything in restaurants and in recipes. The sauce originated in Thailand and is allegedly named after the Si Racha, but the Huy Fong version is made right here in the U S of A...
If you are like me, you have a jar (or more) of salsa in the closet at all times. And even though I regularly make my own salsa, I’ve got some of the bottled stuff around just as a backup (in Texas, you can be fined if you do not have salsa and/or hot sauce in the house. I also have concealed carry license for hot sauce). And when I do have a bottle of picante occupying a place on the can closet shelf, more often than not it’s the one made...
