Gindo’s x Deane’s Market & Deli Sun-Dried Tomato Hot Sauce Review

Gindo’s x Deane’s Market & Deli Sun-Dried Tomato

I am not at all familiar with Deane’s Market & Deli, but figured it was probably something in Illinois somewhere and, perhaps predictably, that is exactly what it is. I imagine this is perhaps in proximity to Gindo’s, as it appears to be more or less a local favorite and you know, those are great. I have a few of my own in relative vicinity, one of which has food that has appeared in a video or two and one that was the source for hot sauce in the area for quite some time in the pre-Roger of BYT days. My education did not stop there. In the ingredients is something called a Red Fish Pepper, something I’d never heard of nor seen or even seen used prior to this sauce. It appears to be mainly a red bell variant, but it’s kind of cool that it shows up here. 

For a company that primarily makes fairly boutique, chef-ish, one-off sauces, this is perhaps the creme de la creme of them all. What we have here is a carefully orchestrated sauce that would be and is absolute magic on sandwiches, which is perhaps the thing delis generally are known for best. The secret here is the kalamatas. It is the first flavor you get before the deep richness and impact of the sun-dried tomatoes comes in, itself followed by a lovely back end finish of appreciable, though modest, heat as a finish. This is from the Carolina Reaper powder, and bolstered a bit by the Thai peppers. I’m usually not a fan of powder usage in sauce, as I think it goes wrong way more than it goes right, but here, it is in the hands of a maestro, and it shows. The orchestration is fantastic and something I have seen very few sauces do, dancing across the palate with all the grace of your favorite ballerina.

It’s hard to imagine a more gourmet sauce than this, particularly representing some of the very best that delis can offer, all in one delectable sauce, and, of course, given my fondness for pickled olives generally, this speaks to me rather directly. Given those olives, however, it does limit flexibility somewhat, but it is a great trade-off to my mind and where it works, it works spectacularly. Obviously, your mileage may vary somewhat dependent on how much you like those, but if it’s anywhere near as much as me, you will have great fun playing around with it in a variety of settings and for me, this is another of those sauces that works exceedingly well with Italian food flavors generally.

Bottom line: Gindo’s has done it again, putting out yet another brilliant sauce that makes me strongly suspect that magic is afoot somewhere over there.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 10
            Flexibility: 8
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 7