Ladies and gentlemen of APS, I come before you to discuss a topic that is slightly more polarizing than politics, and slightly less polarizing than real, slow-cooked barbecue. Hot sauce.
I've been lurking here a while, with an occasional post here and there, and have come to appreciate the intelligence and opinionation (yes, an invented word) of this forum. I haven't had a lot of luck starting conversations which maintain themselves in the past on this board and others, so I'm giving it another shot. I figure the folks here have a wide variety of interests and opinions, and I'm hoping that this topic proves the rule, and not the exception, of freely exchanged discussion.
Where I'm originally from, we use hot sauce, but not as frequently as those in Louisiana, Texas, or the desert southwest. Where I live now, a lot of people consider ketchup to be spicy (I'm kidding, but only a little). What I'd like to know is this: what is the sauce, or are the sauces, that you use? Why? How do you use them? I'll offer my own opinions up to scrutiny and ridicule, just to (hopefully) get the convo started:
Tabasco--the venerable classic, this is the pepper sauce on which I cut my teeth. However, I've weened of late because I think its heat/flavor ratio is a bit high. Also, the boys at Avery Island have gone a bit crazy with the flanker flavors, IMO.
Frank's--the Buffalo Wings staple, I think this is a decent everyday hot sauce. I put it on lots of things, most frequently vegetables and bland starches (potatoes, rice, etc.). Good, but a bit too much vinegar for a truly exceptional experience.
Louisiana Brand--I've just recently been introduced to this--it's not in many stores up here--and think it's goodness in a bottle. Nice balance of heat and flavor, with more depth than Tabasco. I think it out-Tabascos Tabasco.
Chohula--this Mexican salsa picante is good, but a bit of a niche player in my rotation. I like it on eggs, eggs & chorhizo, Mexican food, and on the rim of the occasional Tecate can. Past that, I don't get into it much.
Sriacha--this is the hottest in my cupboard (probably mild to a lot of folks here, but to each his own). I like it on sandwiches, in soups, and in my Bloody Marys. Sometimes, I'll squeeze a bit into a omlet, and of course, put it on most Asian cuisines, especially Chinese takout in Minnesota that isn't nearly hot enough.
So what are your favorites? Why? Do you buy in the grocery store, shop in the specialty markets, maybe make your own? What say you, APS?
Caveat - While I like mildly-to-moderately spicy stuff, I don't use a whole lot of hot sauces myself. Having said that -
My stepson loves his Tabasco sauce, all the moreso since we discovered his mild sensitivity to tomatoes (forcing us to limit his ingestion of them to ~2 meals/week). He puts it on a lot of stuff.
While I was in the Navy, my buddy got all excited about a care package he got from his wife one deployment, which turned out to contain something called Dave's Insanity sauce. He got me to taste it - I touched the tip of my pinky to the tiny bit clinging to the cap, and tasted that. 2 seconds later, my mouth and throat were on fire, literally, I think. I'm not sure what kind of peppers were in it, but it was supposedly about as hot as you could get back then (about 1995?)
A quick web search shows that certain hot sauces and ingredients/additives available today are, apparently, significantly hotter than Dave's Insanity sauce. Dave's Insanity comes in at 180K Scoville units per it's Wiki entry, while some stuff today ranges from 500K up to 16 MILLION Scoville units
. No thank you.
