Hog's Breath Red Hot Sauce Review

Hog's Breath Key West Red Hot Sauce

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voyy2IJj5pM

Hog's Breath, unknown to me at the time when I picked this up, is evidently a saloon in Key West, Florida. They have a fairly odd naming structure to their other sauces, with a hotter version (with different ingredients) evidently being named "Extra" and a Green version, which I presume is called Green. This one, the Red, is basically a straightforward Cayenne-based Louisiana style sauce. The ingredients are literally all that I think are necessary for that style of sauce, which is the peppers (or pepper mash), vinegar, salt. Very basic, sticking to fundamentals, but given that as the case, why did this take me so long (nearly 2/3 of the bottle) to get a handle on it? 

There is a world of differences in sauces, even with those 3 ingredients. These are the same ingredients, for example, in one of my all-time favorite sauces, Trappey's Red Devil, but that particular sauce is one the best-tasting of all Louisiana-styles and one of the best-tasting ever. Crystal also has those same 3 ingredients, but is abrasive enough that I wonder if I could de-grease my engine block with it. This sauce falls somewhere in between. It is fairly non-descript and I think that is part of the issue in that it wasn't really memorable enough to me for settle into a place immediately. As it stands now, it is a lot less harsh than the Crystal, but not anywhere near as palate-pleasing as, say, Louisiana Gold, let alone Red Devil. I am not a saucemaker and don't know specifically why this is the case, but I'd hazard a guess it comes down to both the batches and strains of pepper, as well as the actual cooking method.

The sauce itself is fairly straightforward, so I'd probably put it somewhere closer to the Gold than the Crystal, but somewhere between those two. As it is clearly meant to be a Louisiana-style sauce, there is also precious little heat to this, again, very consistent with the style, as is the watery consistency. It also does well on all the usual Louisiana-style applications. Given that this is my go-to style sauce, I tend to use it on nearly everything that does not have a distinctive flavor profile that I think would clash (so no Asian or Mexican foods) and it held up as expected.

Bottom line: Somewhat run-of-the-mill, but overall solid, example of the Louisiana-style sauce, more or less in the middle, with both better and worse examples out there, especially given the price here.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 7
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 5

Old Bay Hot Sauce Review

McCormick Old Bay Hot Sauce

UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyTS20i_5KE

I've been given to understand, from some of the other labels I've seen, that this is meant to be a Limited Edition type sauce, but my bottle has no such markings. Indeed, I think this would be a huge mistake for McCormick to not keep this out there. For me, and for many other chileheads, I imagine, this is a long time coming, one of those things that's such a natural one wonders why it took this long. The big question is whether or not alleviates the need for adding in a Louisiana style sauce to things flavored with the Old Bay powdered seasoning, which naturally this sauce is heavily based on and which I've spent a lot of time doing.

In one respect, to that last point, I have long come to terms with them being separate and having them that way allows me to modify the ratio as I wish on things like boils and so on. Here, it is combined for the user, which may or may not be a good thing. For me, it's fine, though I will note that overuse of this sauce generates the same problem as does the powder, which is a quite strong celery seed flavor coming through. This can be overly bitter in excessive and if it's not a flavor you enjoy, this sauce should probably be skipped. Like the Old Bay powder seasoning, it is quite prominent.

Heat-wise, given that this is essentially a modified Cayenne sauce, it is fairly minimal, about what you would anticipate from most Louisiana-style sauces. The genius of Old Bay is that it translates across two distinct regional cuisines styles, that of the Cajun/Louisiana as well as the upper East Coast. It is also a mass market sauce, so cost is generally pretty minimal, but I've oddly found that accessibility is quite streaky. 

What this really *ahem* boils down to is how much you eat the kind of things where this sauce would go. If you're a celery seed fan, rejoice, as you can make this a ubiquitous sauce. For me, I like Old Bay on seafood generally (a bowl of clam chowder or seafood chowder, for instance, is not complete without a healthy dose of both Old Bay AND a Louisiana-style sauce, as far as I'm concerned), but on very little else. I will try it out on my quarterly Wing Thing (on the FOH video series), but I disliked it on chicken strips, so I'm not expecting it to be a favorable experience. Even mac & cheese, which should be a pretty natural fit, was merely ok with the addition of this and that particular application is one of my diehards for a Louisiana-style.

Bottom line: If you're a fan of the Old Bay seasoning or the flavor of celery seed, this is a must. If you're like me and also like Old Bay in combination with a Louisiana-style sauce on seafood, worth a go. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 5

Bigfat's 6o8 Hot Sauce Review

Bigfat's 6o8 Pineapple Habanero Hot Sauce

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g82-a6dN2H8

Bigfat's was one of the bigger names back when I initially started the blog and I always sort of had them in the back of mind to get one of their sauces, but most of the sauces seemed to contain onions, the presence of which immediately ends any interest for me in a sauce. Of the ones I was curious about, I didn't often run across the sauce line in general and when I did, something else always seemed more interesting, so they got endlessly backburnered. Sadly, they also became one of the companies who wound up as casualties of 2020 and this will likely be both my first and last sampling of their wares. They were a large presence in this world I wound up spending a lot of time in and I do wish I had gotten to their stuff much sooner. There is a story floating around about their naming convention, which I do not now recall, but it is an "o" (letter o), not a zero in the name. I suppose the point is largely academic now, however.

That aside, what we have here is a very curious sauce. Normally, when I see these ingredients, I think it is wanting al pastor tacos or maybe carnitas, something Mexican-y along those lines, but no, this one has a target more in mind of Hawaiian food, given the creation of its formation in Hawaii. Indeed, the sauce oddly conflicts with cheese, which I don't remember seeing ever in Hawaiian food, so unless you eat tacos or carnitas without some sort of cheese presence, this sauce is not a great choice there. Given that it is meant for Hawaiian food, in my view, that also means it should do well on Asian dishes and it is nice there. If you do have it with carnitas, definitely the less items you have with the meat and sauce, the better.

There is a nice degree of heat here as well. It is perhaps on the mid to upper side for Habaneros, which I somehow forget a lot when eating it and am thus constantly pleasantly surprised. It's made also with pineapple juice, as opposed to pineapples proper, so it is a very loose and runny sauce. It occupies overall this sort of weird zone where I don't mind having it at hand for things like notching into Asian food, as it meshes nicely there, but I don't really eat Hawaiian food enough nor Mexican pork dishes. I probably would not have ultimately kept it on hand, but it does help me to understand why the company was such a big deal for so long.

Bottom line: One of the more curious fruit-based sauces I've had, from a now-defunct company. If you can find a bottle of it and you like the foods I mentioned here, definitely worth a pick up.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 3
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 5

Big Red's 3 Kings Hot Sauce Review

Big Red's Three (3) Kings Hot Sauce

UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=684j70NmBnM

As I've mentioned before, while I root for anyone out there trying to slug away at making hot sauces, if I am a fan of certain companies, this would definitely be one of though. I need to parse this a bit, though, as that like for the company doesn't always translate over into the sauces. This is the final one from a large haul of products from them that I picked up last year and it definitely was a matter of saving the hottest for last. 

Named 3 Kings due to the inclusion of the 3 last (and current) reigning record-holder for heat peppers, the venerable Ghost, the Scorpion, and the Carolina Reaper, this one is clearly meant to be punchy...and it definitely is, particularly for a non-extract sauce. This is somewhat reminiscent of the God's Wrath, in that we have another kitchen sink approach to this sauce, which seems to be a hallmark of all their sauces.

I go back and forth on this approach a bit. While God's Wrath (reviewed elsewhere on this blog) does a nice job of being accessible to things like Italian foods, this one strays from that a bit. It does not work overall quite as well as did the GW, but what it loses in terms of flexibility, it more than makes up for in heat. It is however, very nicely, a flavorful heat, not just a blast furnace. I was not able to pick out flavors of individual peppers, given the blend, but rather a very cohesive and somewhat unique whole. Not to worry, even with that step in heat, there is still a very solid amount of flexibility as well.

I don't really understand this approach, the whole "more is more," in terms of hot sauces generally, I guess, which tend to be very strongly flavored. Here, we have hibiscus. I'm curious to know if during testing, they tried it with and without hibiscus, as that tends to be a very subtle flavor note and one I can't detect here personally. The coffee extract I can kind of see, particularly if using tomato paste, let alone brown sugar and carrots also, to keep the sauce from getting too sweet, but with any conglomeration featuring this many ingredients, I always wonder if there was specific intent to all of those different ingredients and to what desired or intended effect. Most probably that would not be something that would be publicly shared, as I'm guessing these are going to be rather closely guarded secrets, but it is at least a strong source of curiosity for me. It's interesting to me how their sauces share so many similar ingredients, but are overall so radically different, and that is a mark of excellence and of a high degree of technical skill.  Of that, there is no question.

Bottom line: Hottest product from a very enjoyable company making very, very solid products, including this, which serves as another outstanding display of flexibility and tremendous flavor paired with very respectable heat. This is definitely one hot enough to restrict to chileheads, though, and now, for the third time in the blog (and second year in a row), I have 2 SOTY candidates from the same company.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 6
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 8
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 8

Texas Pete Hotter Hot Sauce Review

Texas Pete Hotter Hot Sauce

UPDATE: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzwwnwuTqg8

I've been having my eye out lately for the Texas Pete Sabor! (reviewed elsewhere on this blog), in order to pick it up opportunistically during regular shopping and thereby have it at hand to run it for the FOH video series (in an effort I'm internally calling past masters, which is entirely nonsensical, now that I think of it, but mnemonic devices and all). I have been entirely not successful in actually locating it, but did come across this, which I had in mind to do roughly when I started the blog and never quite got around to doing. 

I don't understand the fascination a lot of people seem to have with the Chick-Fil-A chain (yes, I've eaten there before - did for years when it was only in malls and one opened up down the street from where I lived and was accessible for a while before people glommed onto it) to the point where they will block traffic and wait 40+ minutes in a drive through line (fuck that, by the way - nothing there is that good). I do, however, believe that the strong presence of the Texas Pete sauce packets is a strong part of that. The chicken they do have seems almost tailor-made for the sauce, or possibly vice versa, and yes, I am saying a condiment is at least partially responsible for the rise of that particular chain, despite its odious politics (another reason I am loathe to visit the locations).

Texas Pete Original, which I think is in the sauces (may also be a custom blend, possibly), is an excellent version of the Louisiana-style. It is quite tasty and has the relative low heat of the majority of entries in that category. If there is one complaint one hears frequently, it is that those often vinegary concoctions are not really hot and people, particularly chileheads, could do with more heat. Thus, this entry (and a few others) in the more mainstream sauces, which ideally would have the same flavor but with more heat. The company insists this is 3X hotter than the regular version, which I will accept at face value.

I strongly suspect there is the presence of extract (Natural Flavor on the label) here driving this. It is hotter than the regular, to be sure, though it will not phase any chilehead, but it is an immediate, spiky mouth heat, which is very reminiscent of nearly every extract sauce I've had. This has also rather notably downgraded the flavor, though I should note it is also slightly less vinegary. It has taken a very solid Louisiana-style sauce and make it just more or less ok. Any element that detracts from the Cayenne pepper flavor in these style sauces is a decided negative for me and this sauce is a pity in that respect. I'm seeing a lot more extract usage in spicy items than I used to and I'm circling back to considering that usage a cheat. I understand why they do it, as it would be hard to justify changing over production of the regular (and much more in demand) sauces when you could just add extract, but this has again wound up with slightly higher heat at the cost of flavor rather than creating the best of both worlds effect they were hoping to do.

Bottom line: A slightly hotter, but far less tasty version of the ubiquitous Original sauce at a chicken chain and on regular shelves. For me, the sacrifice of flavor in service of heat is not a good bargain in this sauce. 

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 5

Lola's Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce Review

Lola's Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce

Update: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUPrTRp-Gb4

The literal last of the line I got (all what they had in the store - I think this is maybe half of what the company produces) finally gets a turn. As the name would suggest, it is also the hottest of the four, though that heat is exceedingly mild for chileheads. Like the other 3 variations, we have some similarities. This product also requires near-constant agitation, will separately nearly immediately, and is very garlic forward. Here, though, the Reapers are enough of a match, in terms of flavor, that the result comes across as a pretty ok Cajun sauce, with hints of the characteristic Reaper sweetness peeking through. It won't fool anyone into thinking it's a good version of that style and oversaucing is still not something you want to do, particularly, though this is more of a concession to flavor rather than heat. It is kind of a delicate balance, given the runniness of this sauce, but I probably will finish this out, even though I'm probably going to reserve it just as a ramen hot sauce. 

With Cajun sauces, as I'm not a huge fan of heavy garlic overtones in my hot sauce especially, I usually only use that where the flavors can mesh. Soups are especially good for this, sometimes on pizza, but where it stands alone, such as on chicken strips, or where the taste is not as dominant, like mac & cheese, I usually invariably prefer a Louisiana-style sauce. In fact, if I don't have an open bottle of a Louisiana-style at hand, I will make a special trip to go get one, which is not really the case for any other style of sauce, excepting the custom-blend I do for Mexican style (check the FOH video series, if you're interested in that). 

Bottom line: There is not much to say about this that I haven't already said in the other 3 sauces from this line, given the continuity between them, but this is the best of the lot in both flavor and heat, edging out the Ghost Pepper, and if you see them on a grocer's shelf and are interested, start with this one.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 6
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4

Overall: 4

Bootlikker Jack Hot Sauce Review

Bootlikker Jack Hot Sauce Review

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQoS19Vor58

Ok, so to start, I guess we should probably address the name. Despite its spelling, I presume the "bootlikker" part of this sauce to refer to the colloquialism that was an old cowboy term (boot liquor) for the liquor you would put in a flask before putting the flask in your boot, to carry with you wherever. Boot liquor itself also became, post cowboy times, a shortening of "bootleg" liquor, which was unlicensed liquor, moonshine,etc. I say despite the spelling, as it is far closer to "boot licker," which in common parlance would be a lapdog, ass-kisser, sycophant. Naming a hot sauce after that would be rather nonsensical...(also, if you're noticing the label is on the pictured bottle crookedly, that is true and not your eyes deceiving you).

As one might expect, this also has hard liquor in it, namely Jack Daniels whiskey. Now, as any good metalhead in the 80s would be, I am certainly no stranger to Jack Daniels. Being the flavor aficionado (and taste explorer in the years since) I am now, however, I will also say that no one was drinking Jack Daniels back then because they especially liked the taste. In fact, if anything, it was in spite of it. This was far more a trendy, cool thing, and the 80s metal bands did much to popularize not only the beverage, but the logo as well. 

That aside, I'm also no stranger to booze in hot sauces, though I also think they need to be handled delicately. If not, you will get a booze hit. I drink my hard liquor, when I drink it, neat, so no stranger to booze hits either, but, when indulging then, I'm expecting it. I am not really expecting it when using a food condiment and I always find it jarring. This one does a better job than the Swampdragon dreck I reviewed in January of this year, but it still finds its way to my palate here and there. 

The curious thing to me is that I keep finding a sort of cloying sweetness to this sauce, which is distracting at best. I don't see a sugar listed, so I find this somewhat confusing. The regular (not to be confused with the Original Bootlikker) hot sauce, listed here as the first ingredient. (which seems to be a fairly basic straightforward Cayenne-based Louisiana-style) seems pretty solid, but the addition of the Jack Daniels...suffice it to say that there's a reason why cooks tend to burn off the raw alcohol portion prior to serving, when they use it as an ingredient. Here, it is bottled. 

Given the Louisiana-style nature of this, you could reasonably use it wherever you would use that, but just more sparingly. Oversaucing with this will tend to wreck the food. There is precious little heat, given the two peppers are Cayenne and Jalapeno.Admittedly, I picked this up on a whim from the clearance bin, but even at that, I still am not finding much of value here.

Bottom line: If you're interested in the idea of hard liquor and hot sauce (and don't want to just mix at home), this one does handle it somewhat better than the Swampdragon, but there is little else to speak for it.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 0
            Flavor: 2
            Flexibility: 2
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0

Overall: 1

Da' Bomb Beyond Insanity Hot Sauce Review

Da' Bomb Beyond Insanity Hot Sauce

Note:  This sauce appeared in Seasons 2 - 21 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEFoZEtE0hk

This is another from Spicin' Foods, purveyors of the Pain lines (Pain [X]%, Pain Is Good) as well as various Da Bomb offerings. I don't recall this being the hottest of the Bomb line, but I've scrupulously avoided it, given the heavy dominance of extract, which I do not find to be a pleasant flavor. I have found precious few entries in any of their product line to be worthwhile, across all 3 of the ones I mentioned. The snack foods I've come across have been generally ok, but quite pedestrian. To be frank, I would not be bothering with this either, save for the sustained run it had across the various seasons of The Hot Ones. With this one sauce, I now have coverage in 13 of the 14 Hot Ones seasons, with only the current one (as of this writing) untouched. That is my sole motivation here.

This is not to say I haven't been testing it. Every sauce that comes across I absolutely give a fair shake and benefit of the doubt. This one, initially, I felt might have a good sauce in there trying to come out and maybe, just maybe, it was to try to coax it forth that Sean Evans kept it in the lineup on The Hot Ones, but no. That, I can say rather conclusively, is incorrect (more on this shortly). With the ingredients of Chipotle and Habanero, two sometimes great tastes that go great together, which have conspired to come up with some truly wonderful sauces elsewhere, there was a chance...

The problem here is that the vile taste of extract bitters out everything, leaving a noxious metallicky chemical flavor, which is pretty far from palatable. This is another sauce that ruins everything it touches, including the ingredients. The Chipotle, always an ingredient that must be used judiciously so the smoke doesn't become overwhelming, here is the other taste, though modified to be far more bitter than usual, that battles back and forth with the extract, leaving you the less than wonderful choice of either tasting metal shavings or ashes.  This ruins any food it happens to touch and this has been universal across all of them I've tried it on.

So...why the Sean Evans love? I'm going to play amateur theorist here for a moment, as this mannerism is exactly the sort of thing my best friend in high school used to do (though he would do it with rotgut liquor). The idea here is that you only eat it around other people and it's a weird sort of machismo/hazing thing. As I've mentioned, another friend and I used to keep around Dave's Insanity sauce for a similar purpose, which we would bust out for drunken party dares, etc. I think this is Evans moreso testing/tormenting his guests than because the sauce is great or flavorful or anything, as it is not. It is, indeed, entirely dreadful.

Bottom line: While (obviously) hot, this is also not a sauce that seems particularly meant for eating (se preceding paragraph) and definitely not for enjoying, despite the manufacturer calling it "delicious." I will be eating it two more times, ever, when I film the video and for the Q1 2021 Hot Ones wing homage and then I will be thankfully done. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 6
            Flavor: 0
            Flexibility: 0
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0

Overall: 2

Lola's Trinidad Scorpion Hot Sauce Review

Lola's Trinidad Scorpion Hot Sauce

I almost think that I might have a mislabeled bottle. The color, the flavor, the mostly absent heat-level, everything is nearly identical to the Original sauce. In fact, I strongly urge you to read that review first, as nearly everything in it applies here. We again have a hugely runny, rather constantly separating sauce, which requires endless agitation and is very garlic-forward, to the point where not much else reads through. Scorpions are one of the more flowery peppers and that flavor is often difficult to disguise. That is not a problem here, as it's mostly impossible to pick out any particular pepper flavor. There is a slight taste shift from the Original, as this one is somewhat more garlicky, but I suspect if you put them side by side, you'd be sorely pressed to correctly identify which was which. 

I did try this on a food I did not try the Original on, which was ramen noodles. Ramen is one of those things I keep at hand if there's not leftovers and I don't feel like cooking anything for lunch. It also tends to be a good way for me to use up stuff like Cajun sauces, which I don't normally use, but in which the greater complexity of ingredients seems to do well. It was tolerable there, but interestingly, it did not read as heat, particularly, but as garlic. Either something weird is going on or I got a mislabeled sauce, but I'm not impressed by this line enough to buy another bottle to try again and find out. Given that this one is not markedly different and is a near-clone of the Original (and I already have a backlog of FOH videos), I'm not going to be doing a video for this, either, but observe that the video for the Original sauce will suffice. Like the Original, it is doubtful I will be finishing this bottle, either.

Bottom line: Having eaten 3 of the 4 variations (Carolina Reaper is still left to do), I will say that if you're a chilehead, this can be safely avoided without missing anything. In terms of flavor, the only one worthwhile so far is the Ghost Pepper and there are a ton of much better Ghost Pepper sauces out there. This one is useful only for those who really like the concentrated garlic or like really garlic forward (and rather non-spicy) "hot" sauces.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 5
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2

Overall: 3

Pex Peppers Cosmic Peach Hot Sauce Review

Pex Peppers Cosmic Peach Hot Sauce

Note: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDJDtn0-OWQ

Pex is rapidly becoming one of the more impressive companies out there to me, with their ability to hit the fruit notes of their fruit-bases sauces quite astutely. They also do a very nice job of hitting some of the lesser known superhots and utilizing them exceedingly well. Already impressed with the use of the Fatalii and the 7 Pot Primo in prior sauces I've reviewed, I was excited for this, not so much for the use of orange Habanero, which won't ever ring bells for me, but for the peaches. Like Roger Damptz, who got me revved up for this sauce, I'm a bit on the fairly partial-to-peaches side of things myself.When I saw it had that magical combination of Habanero and honey, my excitement grew. Indeed, I had to kind of hide the bottle. thanks to the color of the sauce, which was so much beckoning peachy goodness, so I could hold off opening it until I cleared more fridge door space...

Once I got into it, I was initially much less happy. What I found was a sort of sweet-ish orange Habanero flavored, though a highly bitter one, with peach grace notes. I continued on through the neck, increasingly dismayed, I must say. We had some nice heat out of the gate, a rush not unlike the red Habanero El Yucateco, but the taste was not at all what I was expecting or hoping for.

I noticed that it liked to clog near the cap and also noted there were no emulsifiers or suspension agents in the sauce, so I think some major separation happened. After I got through the sauce in the neck of the bottle, I was able to get slammed with a much milder sauce and one far heavier on peach flavoring. Unfortunately, the streaky nature of this sauce persisted, though, with some bites being very peach heavy and other bites being a lot more bitter and Habanero-heavy. I've not been able to find a way to agitate this sufficiently to avoid this tendency, which is kind of a pity. This sauce, accordingly, ranges from one of the better peaches sauces I've had to a mostly just ok sweet-hot somewhat bitter Habanero, all within the same bottle, sometimes even within the same usage.

Heat-wise, this is solid, for a Habanero sauce. I suspect the heat and the frequently arising bitter nature will not appeal to many non-chileheads. Using it on an actual peach dish would probably help, but it also is capable of doing well on any of the lighter meats. Peach is not a flavor I generally find especially broad, so it's a bit limited in the places where it might work well. The sauce, when it is being peach forward, is, however, one of the very few that would work nicely in a dessert application and I have half a mind to try it on some peach cobbler...I may, in fact, even make the peach cobbler with the sauce itself...

Bottom line: While this is not consistently the sauce I built up in my head, I can see what they were going for and the strong potential this sauce has, if they're able to resolve the consistency issue. For chileheads with a peach penchant, this is definitely worth a go.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 5
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5

Overall: 5