Gindo's Nashville Hot Pickle Hot Sauce Review

Gindo’s Nashville Hot Pickle

Note: This is the 700th overall post for this here blog.

I’m not really the hugest fan of dill in hot sauces. I definitely like dill as a flavoring and have made many a dill dip and, as a kid, used to chew on the herb raw during the summer months, but I find that I like it only in fairly specific areas. One of the major areas of interest to me with hot sauces is pairing them to foods and when you have a fairly strong herb presence, such as dill, in a hot sauce, that also needs to be paired, in addition to all the other components. So, for all that, traditionally I have found hot sauces using dill to be a bit limited in where I like it. But, like with many other ingredients, put it in the hands of a master and things change. I won’t go so far as to say I’m a believer now, but my eyes are much more open to the light now...

I think in concept that this is a brilliant marriage of flavors. Nashville Hot I’ve had in many ways, or at least in many ways of people calling it that, but heavy Cayenne will generally have my interest and the highly flexible nature of that pepper goes a long way in forgiving tinkering. I should now note that there is no Cayenne, or at least none listed, in this sauce. Also, pickle sauces...so these tie in with my earlier comments on dill and a lot of them seem like nothing more than pureed pickle, to which I always wonder, what’s the point? Why am I buying a liquefied version of that? I can just make that my damn self, but pickle was one of the hotter trends for a while and thanks to places like Popeye’s, I can see more of a value in pickles than previously. Altogether, merging those two flavors, which should be complementary, makes a degree of sense.

But, as I said, leave it to Gindo’s to blow my mind, which this sauce instantly did. Analysis is one thing, but having your head exploded via taste buds is always a welcome experience. Here we have perhaps the ultimate version of what this union could be. This is a medium thick, gorgeous-looking sauce, using at least some of the Gindo’s base that shows up in a lot of the limited run sauces. Habanero is as hot as the peppers go, so this has a nice degree of heat, but nothing challenging. I had to check the ingredients to be sure, but there are no pickles here, just an expert use of fresh dill to create one of the more brilliant and comprehensive taste adventures I think I’ve run across in a while. 

It also sort of defies pigeon-holing. I’ve tried it on a lot of things. Some I expected it to be good and it was, but in other arenas, I was less sure and the results were sometimes good and the sometimes clashy with other strong flavors. That is, I suppose, the blessing and curse of dill, but it was absolutely a joy and great fun to experiment. This joins the Deane’s crossover sauce in the list of me wishing I had gotten multiple bottles, but if you can get a hold of this gem and like pickle-flavored products, this is an absolute must.

Bottom line: Another frankly genius and often surprising elixir from one of the greatest talents we have in the hot sauce world.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 9
            Flexibility: 7
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 7