Frank's Red Hot Xtra Hot Sauce Review

Frank's Red Hot Xtra Hot Sauce

Note: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtIsFcLSnQs

Like Tabasco Original, it's hard for me to hate on Frank's too much because it's been around for a century, it means a lot to the industry as a whole, and it's a gateway to being a chilehead for a lot of folks. Like the Original Texas Pete, I also did a mini-review of the Frank's Original, which I have not particularly found enjoyable ever. I kind of hate the advertising, the "I put that S*#@ on everything," implying the vulgarity of putting "that shit" as in that sauce on everything, but treading a thin line because tying your product to the idea of putting actual shit on everything is probably beyond a bit unsound. I presume them to mean it as "I put that sauce on everything" but I suppose they feel a need to be cutesy with it and that's the kind of dull-minded, pedestrian nonsense that works well for whom they're trying to target. 

The idea that Frank's was the original sauce for the original Buffalo Wings in their first genesis ever is really doing a lot of work. It is likely also a false idea, but I'm not going to debate that. I will note that in the later 70s, the sauce was sold and became the commercial behemoth it is today. It is another of the actual national hot sauces out there and like nearly all of the rest of those, it is towards the lower end of the quality scale. It always has had a sort of innate "cheapness" in taste to me. but given that it's mass-produced by French's, I suppose that stands to reason. Still, for a lot of people, there is enough here to like that it catapults them into an exploration of what else is out there and as an industry-supporting chilehead, I respect that.

Unlike Texas Pete Original, this one does not have a very good-tasting base sauce. They clearly mean it to do double duty as a wing sauce, so it is a bit smoother and creamier than most Louisiana-style sauces tend to be. This may lend it to a wider variety of food types, in addition to cutting down the runniness somewhat. In the case of the Texas Pete Hotter (which is also reviewed here), they took a pretty solid base sauce and wrecked it entirely with the addition of extract, in the quest for greater "heat." Here, the difference, while present is somewhat minimized comparatively. The flavor of the Original Frank's Red Hot is a lot more present and intact, though there is still the noxious and bitter accompaniment of the extract. This sauce is also notably less hot than the Texas Pete Hotter, particularly if you compare both "extra hot" versions with their base originals. Also, like the Texas Pete Hotter, this one is more difficult to find, but, given the ubiquitous nature of Frank's Red Hot in general, it was much easier to find than the Texas Pete Hotter.

I honestly did not go into this expecting much. I'm familiar with Frank's Red Hot, as a lot of restaurants use it for the standard of their wing sauces. Despite me not being fond of it, it is a relatively innocuous, inoffensive sauce. Here, we have a sauce that is on the border of being too bitter to be of much use. Flavor, again, is sacrificed in the chase for heat and what is left is a sauce that combines the usual "cheap" flavor with the edgy bitterness of extract, but with very little heat rendered for all that. I'm still on the fence about whether or not I will finish the bottle. I suppose probably not, but there is a solid 12 ounces in this bottle, so I may keep playing around with it for a while to see if it works well on anything. I don't find usage of it as broad as they portray in commercials (they try really hard to sell it as an "everyday" sauce, but I don't find Louisiana style in general to be fitting for that and certainly not a poor example like Frank's) and generally just keep it for things that I would normally use a Louisiana-style on. With this, I have to restrict it further to only stronger tasting things, in the hope that the bitterness of the extract will be hopefully blunted.

Bottom line: Possibly the most famous hot sauce line nationally, if you like the Original Red Hot and feel like that hot sauce could use a little more actual "hot," this is maybe worth a go, but what modest flavor there is in that Original Red Hot is reduced in the quest for heat, of which only a moderate amount is actually delivered.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 2
            Flexibility: 2
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 3