Before I get too far into the review I want to let everyone know what my experience with jerk sauce is. Walkerswood and the product I am reviewing right now. When I first tried walkerswood jerk seasoning it wasn’t really my favorite although I liked trying something new. I was excited to try this so that I could compare it to the walkerswood and get a better idea of whether or not I like jerk sauces. The label is not bad, but not really anything that makes me want to buy it either, and the sauce itself is a thick greenish brown color that looks almost gritty with all the spices in it (don’t worry its not). The smell was similar to the other jerk seasoning that I had which is sweet. Both in the smell and taste (straight from the bottle) the first thing I notice is the molasses (even though it’s only an ingredient in another ingredient and probably don’t have a lot in it), ginger, and brown sugar, it has almost a nutmeg type of flavor to it. All the ingredients are well blended and I actually really liked the flavor of it, but it’s not something that I would think to match up with chicken, or really anything. I guess the point is that it’s different and you have to be willing to try something new if you have never had a jerk seasoning before. The instructions say to marinade over night and then grill or cook as usual. I know that traditional jerk cooking is done by method of smoking so that’s what I did.

The chicken turned out great, I expected it to be dry having never smoked anything other than jerky but it wasn’t at all. The flavor on the chicken wasn’t very strong, I tasted mostly the smokiness and the Flaming Joes was more of a background flavor that gave it a little sweetness after every bite that was a lot better than if the chicken was just flavored with the seasoning alone. The next day (today) I decided to follow the directions on the bottle and cook chicken as usual. I got plenty of chicken when I marinated it for the smoker to do a couple pieces in the oven also, and even though they marinated a day longer than the first the flavor wasn’t powerful but it did taste like the jerk seasoning and nothing else, which is what I tasted straight from the bottle and thought “its good but I wouldn’t want it with chicken”. If you do decide to try this product do it the way it’s meant to be done and smoke it, it takes awhile (about an hour and a half) but it’s worth it. all in all I would give the sauce a 5/10 because it wasn’t so good that I will buy it again but I will definitely experiment with other jerk seasonings and similar products, it was better in my opinion than walkerswood which I have heard from so many people is the best of the best when it comes to jerk sauces. The heat on this one is mild, in the oven I couldn’t taste any heat at all, but the smoked pieces built up more towards the end, I don’t know why that is but it’s one more reason to smoke it rather than to bake it. One last thing that I am yet to try is putting it on some vegetables which are recommended on the bottle. When I tasted it straight and thought that it wouldn’t really be the best with chicken, vegetables are what I would of thought to put it on instead so that should turn out good. To finish out the review I want to note that even though I would only give the product I 5/10 that could just be because jerk seasoning aren’t my cup of tea. If you like jerk seasonings it is worth buying a bottle to judge for yourself.

Ingredients: key lime juice, soybean oil, soy sauce, green onion, Worcestershire sauce (vinegar, water, corn syrup, salt, molasses, carmel color, spices, garlic, natural flavorings, anchovies, tamarind, dextrin, and sulfating agents), ginger, habanero pepper, brown sugar, garlic, cilantro, chili powder, spices, xanthan gum, guar gum, sodium alginate.

Bottled by Taste Buds, llc Benton, AR 72015
www.flamingjoes.com

At the request of several readers, we’re bringing back the off topic thread. You can use and abuse this thread as needed or feel free to go into the forums and cause mayhem there.

Question of the Day: Can Spicy Foods Kill You?
Discussion Starter from Mental Floss

I’m learning how to cook, which has been an adventure. The other night, after an encounter with some particularly spicy Italian sausage combined with even spicier barbecue sauce, my roommates and I found ourselves wondering if eating spicy foods could kill you. I mean, it can certainly cause intense pain and chest tightness; so can too much spicy food kill you?

Well, according to everything I could find on the internet, probably not. I could only dig up a few cases where pepper killed and none of them were typical. In one, a four-year-old with pica (a penchant for eating things that aren’t necessarily nutritious) breathed pepper in and experienced respiratory failure. This medical study documents eight known cases of pepper deaths, seven of them homicides. Other research has shown that in high doses, consuming pepper can be lethal, but even I don’t put enough pepper in our food to qualify as a lethal dose. Even spice allergies are generally mild. In fact, spiciness is pretty tame; it doesn’t even kill your taste buds, since it registers in the pain sensors on our tongue. Spicy food doesn’t even cause ulcers, as we used to think, but it actually can help secrete new stomach lining and help treat them.

Pepper spray is a different beast, though. It’s not meant to be lethal (it’s often hailed as the best non-deadly defense weapon), but it can be in extreme cases. Earlier this month, a Bel Air man died after police used pepper spray to restrain him after he threatened to kill his family. However, examiners said the effects of the pepper spray were exacerbated by his 550-pound girth and high stress, which led to breathing problems and made the pepper spray lethal. Also, asthmatics and people with intense allergies can experience respiratory problems from pepper spray, which can sometimes result in death.

Overall, though, it looks like spiciness may do more good than harm. They may not kill people, but new research shows that they can help kill cancer cells. Spices can also help kill bacteria and prevent food from spoiling, which explains why some ancient cultures were so fond of piling on the pepper (I’m looking at you, Thailand). All in all, it looks like we ought to rethink the names of the world’s hottest peppers – Bih Jolokia, which translates to “poison chili pepper” and Bhut Jolokia, which means “ghost chili pepper.” Still, with an astronomic 855,000 and 1,001,304 Scoville units respectively (compared to 30,000 for cayenne and 300,000 for the habanero), it doesn’t sound like anything I’ll be using for salsa anytime soon.