THE VIRTUES OF HOT SAUCE
THE VIRTUES OF HOT SAUCE
Hot sauce production is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. So it’s a hot sauce world! The hot sauce industry has never been hotter. A stroll down the condiment aisle reveals a dizzying array of bottles, and that’s before you consider online sources and specialty stores.
Ingredients
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Instructions
- Altogether, the category includes literally thousands of brands that generate well over $240 million in annual sales, not to mention countless websites, blogs, and competitions, where hot-sauce diehards fanatically debate which brand is best. That said, hot sauce isn’t just for chile heads: Even cooks who don’t crave spicy food should keep a bottle handy to give recipes a little kick.
- I like a hot sauce that packs more than just a fiery punch; I like heat, bright tanginess, and an all-around good chile flavor. And there are thousands of brands of hot sauce, made from a wide array of chiles, spanning a range of heat. The spiciness of a hot sauce is determined by the Scoville Heat Unit scale, measuring the levels of capsaicin, the chemical that lends chile peppers their hotness. This scale measures how many times an extract of the pepper must be diluted in sugar water before it is undetectable to a neutral taster. The pure chemical of capsaicin has a rating of 15,000,000, while sweet bell peppers are listed at zero.
- TABASCO: Founded in 1868, Based out of: Avery Island, Louisiana, Tabasco™ sauce is among the world's most popular hot sauces. It is a relatively mild hot sauce, with the original variety having a rating of 2,500-5,000 on the Scoville scale. Tabasco™ also puts out a number of other hot sauces, including a mild green version which has a rating of 600-1,200 Scoville Heat Units. Tabasco™ sauce has been produced since 1868, and has since become a world-wide phenomenon.
- TAPATIO: Founded in 1971, Based out of Vernon, California, "Tapatio" is a slang term for what people from Guadalajara are called. This one is more of a regional favorite -- people on the West Coast tend to favor Tapatio, and it has a slightly sweeter tang than most of the other hot sauces, which might be from the "spices" and "garlic" and "sodium benzoate" in the ingredients.
- LOUISIANA HOT SAUCE: Founded in 1928, Based out of: New Iberia, Louisiana, They claim to be one of "the very first commercially available Cajun food products" and the "first hot sauce to use the state's name.
- FRANK'S REDHOT: Founded in 1920, Based out of Springfield, Missouri, This sauce holds the illustrious title of being the main ingredient in the first buffalo wing sauce created in 1964 at the Anchor Bar and Grill in Buffalo.
- CHOLULA: The first entry into the US Market: 1989 Based out of: Chapala, Jalisco What do you get when you mix pequin and arbol peppers, salt, vinegar, and spices? It has a unique flavor from those pequin chiles, and it is truly loved by hot sauce aficionados.
- HUY FONG SRIRACHA: Founded in 1980, Based out of Los Angeles, California Some say that it has to be the rooster, but I like the Roland Brand version too. It’s the alarmingly red, garlicky love fire that you can put on everything, and the word is crazy about it. Jump on the bandwagon!
- So there you have it; Hot Sauce in a nutshell. Find your favorite! And, if you want to make your own killer Hot Sauce, check out this video from Tasting Table:
- Hot Sauce Info compiled from www.thrillist.com