Hook & Arrow Saucier Sauerkraut & Mustard Hot Sauce Review

 Hook & Arrow Saucier Sauerkraut & Mustard

Note: This sauce appears in Season 27 of The Hot Ones. 

I'll start this one off by noting out of the gate that I don't especially consider this a hot sauce, not really. Like some of the pickle sauces and a couple of the olive sauces I've reviewed elsewhere on this blog (TOC link at right >>), this one seems much more akin to something closer to a relish than an actual sauce. It's fine with me, as far as a condiment, as I do like me a good relish. However, I also like relishes generally in fairly specific situations, as I think they're inherently a bit limited in terms of application. 

So, as a condiment, this one has great flavor. I quite like what they've got going on here, in terms of actual taste, which also happily matches the name of the sauce, something manufacturers are often remiss with doing. We have essentially sort of pickled green Jalapenos and green Habaneros, along with an underlying base of sauerkraut, and a lot of mustard tones and notes from both the yellow and brown mustard seeds. As far as all that goes, it is well-designed and hits all the flavor marks wonderfully. But herein, we have a bit of a problem. This is a hot sauce blog and hot sauce has certain criteria. It's kind of like testing how good of an automobile a jet might make if we apply that criteria to something that does not fit the category. Sure, both are vehicles, in this case, both are condiments, but the similarities and intent of function vary somewhat drastically.

As with hot sauces, in looking at the components, certain things will tend to stand out, those being stronger-flavored elements like the sauerkraut and the mustard. Both of these are forceful enough in that they will need to be paired with whatever you're putting them on. This is where more tailored like relishes have their strong suit, as they can be more narrowly applied. With a hot sauce, the thought is that they will be used on more stuff, but that is less a consideration with relishes. There are some other elements in the mix as well, but I think we get into expectation a bit. Relishes are not expected to be used universally, whereas hot sauces somewhat are. 

Anyway, that aside, from a hot sauce perspective, there is at least a respectable amount of heat. It's only green Habs, so it's nothing overly challenging, but it will likely be more than normies are accustomed to or expecting from these food types. For me, there is not a huge variety of foods this will go on. It's quite pulpy and decently thick, so I do quite enjoy the mouth feel, but the expected crunch of the sauerkraut is not there, of course. The flavor I quite like, but part of me also looks at this and wonders if there is a need at all for this kind of thing. Hot mustards do exist, after all and to be upfront, were this not a part of The Hot Ones, it's very unlikely I would have gotten it. I guess this could cover several things at once to enhance, but it's pretty narrow as to where I would want to use this. 

Bottom line: As a hot sauce, I think this kind of fails, as reflected in the score, but as a condiment, I quite like the flavor. Consider it a slightly more liquified relish, with all the considerations that entails. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 10
            Flexibility: 1
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5

Overall: 4