Danny Cash Ghost (Dirt) Rider Hot Sauce Review

Danny Cash's Ghost Rider Jolokia Ghost Chile Hot Sauce

UPDATE: Support video available here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpwfGISWh3E

This is one that's been hanging around the on deck shelf a while, a good long while, long enough that the sauce has gotten a label refresh and name change to "Dirt Rider," prompted, no doubt, by an objection from someone at Marvel over the usage of flamey motorcycles along with the name usage of "Ghost Rider." Dirt Rider also seems to have a couple of variations, as a sauce, so this won't strictly cover that side of things, although one of these is an item for item duplication of this Ghost Rider sauce.

That fun aside, this is rated at 18/10 on the bottle, which is overstating it a bit more than a tad and is also pegged as extremely hot. Any of the peppers that formerly held the Guinness SHU record provide ample snort and the Jolokias that make up this sauce leave little doubt of that. Still, this sauce is also a strong indicator that the vaunted Ghost peppers can also be flavorful. This is quite a good tasting sauce, by itself and when it can be left to shine as a composite sauce. Let me expand on that a bit.

Some sauces, such as the Louisiana style, are very aggressive in their vinegar-forwardness and so they do a good job of standing up when used with food. The vinegar will temper over-rich cream sauces nicely, while hopefully some nice heat comes behind to kick the food enjoyment. You get some blend, but the sauce is mostly still detectable...in the right amounts. This facet can turn against you and overpower (and potentially wreck) the food. Other sauces will want to blend in much more considerably, notably the Mexican style sauces, changing the composite flavor less notably, but driving the heat up somewhat. For this one, it's one of the few where the sauce by itself is pretty tasty and works well with things like chicken strips or pizza, which tend not to detract from the sauce during the initial bite, rather mixing in the mouth during chewing, but mixed into things, such as macaroni and cheese, the vinegar vanishes, along with most of the pepper subtleties, leaving a very solid heat, but also a lot of the bitterness that seems to accompany most of the superhots. This obviously renders its usefulness down somewhat.

I had hopes of using it in place of a Louisiana-style, given that it comes with a pretty nifty restrictor cap, but this one is much more finicky than I had initially realized. It definitely is one that does well, perhaps great, even, on the "right" foods or setting, but get it away from that and you wind up wishing you had something else.

Bottom line: The sauce by itself is another well-blended Cash *ahem* marvel, but in practical use, it has fairly narrow applications (though it does outstanding with those) and outside of those, tends towards bitter. It also does pack a solid wallop, so probably best reserved for chileheads.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 7
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 5
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 7