First Impression: How appropriate that I was reading Chile Pepper Magazine on the toilet the other day, as I find that more often than not it is my fascination with chile peppers that lands me there in the first place. Imagine reading a crime novel when you are on death row. Anyway, I was reading an article in this past October’s issue about the South Carolina Lowcountry where they dedicated a paragraph to Pawleys Island, and thought, hey, I’ve got their sauce! According to the official Pawleys Island website, the island is 4 miles long and 1 house wide; in other words, tiny. I am surprised they have a native hot sauce outfit at all with Wild Rooster, let alone a “Zesty Destination” restaurant in the Fish Camp Bar. The motto of Pawleys Island is “Arrogantly Shabby.” I am immediately jealous, as I wish I had thought of that first as my own motto. So I guess I’m “Just Shabby.”

Ingredients: Aged Cayenne Peppers, Vinegar, Salt, Habanero Peppers. No MSGs

Appearance: Liquidy, Sunburn flows fast, thankfully there is a–do we call these nipples?– nipple at the top, or one would dump the contents all over the place with one shake. A not so uncommon red-orange color, which is solid throughout; no chunks or floating debris of any kind.

Smell: It smells like vinegar, cayenne, and, and shoot…it smell’s like Frank’s Red Hot!

Taste: Sunburn tastes a lot like Frank’s or many other cayenne-heavy, vinegar-based, smooth-flowing sauces. I have a real cheap one called Louisiana Supreme that also comes to mind. I really cannot discern the habaneros in this one. All this aside, it’s good enough. I call this and ones like it a “utility sauce.” Sunburn is so generic that it’s actually quite versatile. Sometimes even us hot sauce freaks just want to relax a little. I am not always in the mood for out-of-control heat, super-pungent flavor, or distinctive gimmicks. Sometimes I just want shake a few drops of a tame sauce on an even tamer soup. If I were to put, say, that Scorch stuff on every egg, every casserole, every ice cream sundae, I would need a lifetime subscription to Chile Pepper, Fiery Foods, Gastrointestinal Assault Weekly, etc. just to sate my ever-expanding bathroom literary needs. Sometimes one needs a break from all the madness. In this sense, Sunburn can do it for you, though I’m sure a trip to Pawleys Island wouldn’t be half bad either.

Heat: It is not hot, nor does it necessarily claim to be. There are many degrees of sunburn, I suppose, and it’s not like they are calling it Skin Cancer. “It’ll heat your meat,” eh? Well, let’s put it to the test…

Overall: With a statement like “Made from the finest of Southern Scratch” on the bottle, I think Sunburn embodies the island motto quite well: Arrogantly Shabby. If I may once again quote the Pawleys Island website, the sauce, like the island, espouses “simple virtues and a lack of pretense.” A roommate summed it up differently: “I’ve had this sauce before.” Lately though, I’ve been thinking that being a full-fledged chilehead is more about finding crafty ways to play the sauce you are dealt than stumbling upon the perfect sauce for one’s own personal tastes. So what I did with this one was a bit over the top, but I think it’s a good example of how creativity can make delicious use out of even the most run-of-the-mill sauces. I wanted something that could burst at the seams with flavor, independent of the spicy lift offered up by the sauce, and I think it worked. So without further ado, I present to you:

Spicy Apple Malted Pork Chops with Mushroom Onion Glaze:

Pour about 12 oz. of malt liquor into a small deep dish cooking tray

Slice up an apple and float the slices in your malt liquor

Lay a few pork chops on top of that

Dump generous amounts of Pawleys Island Sunburn all over food

Sautee onions and mushrooms in butter until brown, adding salt and pepper to taste

Put onion mushroom mixture on top of chops

Roast for about ½ hour at about 360

Eat! And if you bought the full 40, looks like you have another 28 oz. to wash it down!

Contact:
Wild Rooster Sauces, LLC
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
800-380-1775
www.wildroostersauces.com