Ingredients: Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato paste), onion, high fructose corn syrup, green pepper, vinegar, canola oil, celery, salt, sugar, molasses, garlic, cayenne pepper, spices, natural hickory smoke flavor, food starch-modified, black pepper.

Packaging: E.W.’s Creole All Purpose Sauce comes in a straight sided 9-oz jar with gold cap, and a smiling photo of Chef EW on the front. A no-nonsense presentation, for a no-pretentions sauce. On the back of the label is the standard nutritional printout as well as the claim “Delicious as a Salsa/Marinade”.

E.W.’s Creole sauce is a chunky orange/brown concoction. Medium-sized lumps of vegetables are evident throughout. The aroma is low-key hickory with subtle honey-notes.

Flavor-wise, EW’s is simply a delight. I found this sauce to be smoky, subtly sweet, and mellow. The vegetables are generously proportioned and well cooked - not too crunchy, but in no way soggy. The label claims that this sauce can be used as a salsa, and I wholeheartedly endorse that notion. Perfect proportions of smoke and sweetness means that you can confidently dunk chips, nachos, chicken fingers, heck you’ll probably end up dunking YOUR fingers… It’s flavor stands alone. Looking at an open jar, I find myself fighting the urge to eat the remainder with my spoon.

For all it’s depth, E.W.’s Creole is not a very hot sauce. Despite the word “Hot” on the label, the cayenne pepper only provides a momentary tingle on the lips. EW sells a “Spicy Hot XX” version of its Creole sauce that figures to provide more punch to those of you who are so inclined.

E.W. has a winner here. I’m hard pressed to think of a food that wouldn’t taste better with a little (or a lot) of this sauce spooned onto it. While I didn’t get a chance to try it as a marinade, I imagine that it would work splendedly with grilled chicken. Stacked high on a cheeseburger, E.W.’s was a smoky treat.

I also drizzled it over pizza, which greatly enhanced an otherwise mundane experience.

Packaging 6/10
Appearance 9/10
Aroma 8/10
Taste 9/10
Heat 2/10

Overall 9/10 - Superb!

http://www.ewcreolefood.com

Ingredients: Vinegar, “Hapanero” pepper, mustard, onion, garlic, salt, tumeric, paprika, sorbic acid.

Oh man, where do I even begin with this one? “You Lousy Bastard” (YLB) Hot Sauce certainly knows how to make a first impression. Some hot sauces present themselves like a dapper, well groomed gentleman in a tuxedo. Showing up on your doorstep in a chauffeur driven limousine, shoes shined and smelling of expensive after-shave. YLB arrives unshaven and on foot, in a grease smeared white-tanktop, smoking a cheap stogie. The artwork on the bottle is amateurish, and the key ingredient is misspelled, but it’s all in good fun as YLB’s fiery tongue is planted firmly in it’s cheek. Included with the packaging is a colorful plastic “high-heel” key-chain. My daughter got a “kick” out of that…

Text from the bottle:
“Everyone’s met this person at SOMETIME in their life! And you know, we all know one! The Lousy Bastard that cut you off this morning, your Lousy Bastard boss, or the Lousy Bastard you married that you caught screwing your teenage babysitter! Forget the Lousy Rotten Bastard! Turn up some heat of your own & ENJOY!”

YLB is a lovely yellow sauce of medium consistency, laced with gorgeous chunks of habanero pepper and spices. This sauce LOOKS hot. The aroma is just about what you’d figure based on the ingredient list. Heavy on the mustard and heavy on the habs. There’s nothing half-throttle about this sauce. A good long snort from YLB and stuffy sinus cavities are a thing of the past.

Pass me a cloth for my foreheadThe flavor of YLB does not disappoint. I love spicy mustard with Bratwurst, typically favoring the horseradish/dijon variety, and YLB delivers the mustard in spades. Heat-wise, YLB is something of a flame-thrower! Easily the hottest sauce I’ve reviewed for the Hot Sauce Blog, YLB’s Habaneros are ready to party. It’s suprising that their flavor doesn’t get overwhelmed by the mustard. My wife cut the sauce 50/50 with regular mustard, but I enjoyed it just fine as is. Mustard. Heat. Does it get any better? Pass me a cloth for my forehead.

Now there’s always the question of useability. When a sauce uses a strong flavorful backbone like mustard, there’s the unspoken knowledge that it won’t “go” with everything. Some folks don’t favor the taste of mustard on spaghetti or chili, for instance. Find the right food, however, and you’ve got yourself a winner.

“You Lousy Bastard” surprised me. The bottle’s gimmicky artwork had me expecting a pedestrian, rubber-stamped effort. Instead I found a sauce that was unique, refined, and tasty. I’ll use this sauce wherever I would normally use mustard. Recommended.

Packaging 6/10
Appearance 8/10
Aroma 8.5/10
Taste 8.5/10
Heat 7.5/10

Overall 7.7/10

Mary’s Gourmet Foods, Inc.
PO Box 1843
El Prado, NM 87529
877-776-2171

Ingredients: Jalapeño Peppers, Tomatillo, Onions, Vinegar, Garlic, Cilantro, Spices, Salt, Xanthan Gum. (All natural, no preservatives.)

Packaging: Green Scream comes in an attractive, colorful bottle complete with a professionally designed mascot (by Dave Kellett, the artist also responsible for the online comic “Sheldon“.) The back of the label states: “We use only the finest green jalapeño peppers in this gourmet blend of peppers & spices to ensure our great customers get the best hot sauce possible.”

Poured from the bottle, this sauce is smooth and green, with small flecks of spice throughout. Just a nice, jalapeño green, not the artificial, fluorescent tinge you sometimes see in other sauces.

The aroma comes through with heady notes of cumin and pepper - a real pavlovian saliva starter.

The flavor backs this up. Given the cumin backbone, this is a sauce that would work well with tacos, burritos, or other standard “mexican” fare. It’d work well jazzing up a bowl of lax chili. Straight-up on the tongue, the vinegar and garlic notes come through a bit more. No real taste of vegetative jalapeño (the primary ingredient).

Although emblazoned with flames on the label, this is a relatively mild sauce. I plowed through half a bottle in one sitting, and was left with pleasant warmth and a mild rush of scalp perspiration. Mission accomplished, I’d say!

Green Scream is the real deal. While it won’t “work” with everything, on the foods it agrees with, it’s a very pleasant sauce.

Packaging 8/10
Appearance 8/10
Aroma 8/10
Taste 8/10
Heat 4/10

Overall 8/10

Monty’s Gourmet Foods L.L.C
516 N Main Ottawa, KS 66067-1923 USA
TOLL FREE 877-274-7428

Ingredients: Chili Peppers, water, sugar, garlic, salt distilled vinegar, sugar, garlic, honey, red tabasco peppers, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate and sodium bisulfate (as preservatives.)

Packaging: Original Pit Bull comes in the standard 5 oz bottle with a black and white label with red accents.

Back Label: “Get bitten by the Pit Bull Hot Sauce!!! It’s all about Flavor…and not just Burn! It starts out sweet…and then…Bites back Hot. Add a delicious Bite to ALL your favorite Recipes. One taste and you will agree… Original Pit Bull Hot Sauce… the Sweet Sauce that BITES YOU BACK!”

Color: Red, with a few visible pepper seeds.

Smell: Taking my first whiff of Pit Bull (…that doesn’t sound right…) gave me the impression of a rich, garlicky Buffalo-Wing sauce. Nice vinegar bite - very appealing.

Consistency/Texture: This is a finely pureed sauce, very smooth but not at all runny.

Taste: My first thought as I tasted a spoonful of this sauce was… “I recognize this flavor… I’ve tasted this somewhere before.” It took me a while to place, but eventually I remembered the name… “Sriracha“. It’s a little sweeter than the popular Thai delicacy, and I actually found myself enjoying the texture much more. To me, Sriracha seems a bit grainy, whereas Pit Bull is pureed so smoothly that it goes down more like ketchup.

Heat: Taken alone, Pit Bull delivers a decent bite. The heat doesn’t linger for long though, and when eaten with food the spiciness tends to fade into the background a bit. I rate Pit Bull at 4 on a heat scale of 1 to 10.

Overall Impressions: I’m going to come right out and say it… I loved this sauce. My wife also really liked it, and she can be a bit picky when it comes to spicy food. We found that it went well with hamburgers, chicken, and Bratwurst…adding a pleasant garlicky-hot punch without overpowering the food. It was so good and versitile, I mopped up every last bit with my french fries. This one gets an instant promotion to my stable of regular sauces.

Pit Bull Hot Sauces
Bay Shore, LI, N.Y.
Established in 2002.
Owned and operated by Manny Ortiz, Lisa Anziano, Harlee and Syd the Pit Bull
Telephone 631-666-7462 - FAX 631-666-7462

Tags: Hot Sauce

Palmetto Pepper Potions
Molten Golden
“South Carolina Hot Sauce!”

Website: http://www.pepperpotions.com

Ingredients: Mangoes yellow mustard (disilled vinegar, mustard seed, salt, tumeric, spices), red habanero peppers, distilled vinegar, brown sugar, seasonings, spices, citric acid, xanthan gum, kosher salt.

Packaging: Palmetto Pepper Potions’ Molten Golden comes in an attractive, colorful 5.7 oz flask with a white cap.

Back Label: “A Caribbean treasure bursting with fresh mangoes, cumin, and curry in a mustard brew. Great on chicken, beef, barbecue, ham, sausage, hot dogs, burgers, seafood, vegetables, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, pasta salad and sandwiches.”

The story: “Abundance was the mother of invention. Palmetto Pepper Potions hot sauces began the year we landscaped with chile pepper plants. A friend had planted too many hot peppers and offered to share. We eagerly planted them all over our yard, along the driveway and among the wildflowers. We experimented with peppers, herbs, seasonal fruits, and fresh vegetables to create a rainbow of vibrant, fresh-tasting sauces. Friends, family, our favorite bands, and a surprising number of strangers clamored for more.”

Color: Orange, with darker specks of seasoning.

Smell: Buttery, cumin scent, with a hint of citrus. Vinegar is non-descript.

Consistency: Medium consistency, pours readily.

Taste: Palmetto Pepper Potion’s “Molten Golden” is a sauce that defies easy description. Off of the spoon, you get sweetness balanced by the tartness of fruit. These sensations are followed immediately by a smooth - almost creamy - cumin wave. Molten Golden worked surprisingly well with every food I tried it with. Eggs, chicken, meatloaf, even french-fries. Normally when trying a new sauce, I’ll pour a portion on the side of my plate and dip things in as I go along. After a moment or two with Molten Golden, I was pouring it liberally over my food - it’s just that tasty.

Texture: Smooth, with the occasional bit of vegetable or pepper seed.

Heat: A good solid punch, the habaneros come through nicely. On a heat scale of 1 to 10, I rate Molten Golden a 5.

Overall Impressions: I initially had my doubts about this one. I wondered if the initial citrus tang would overwhelm the experience and reduce this sauce to a niche player…something that only really worked well with particular kinds of food. Those concerns were soon dispelled, as Molten Golden’s flavor proved to be a wonderful compliment to anything and everything I threw at it. The heat delivered by this sauce is moderate, and entirely complementary. I’m still trying to figure out just what it is that gives this sauce it’s creamy, buttery flavor, it’s sublime and addictive!

I’ll definitely be buying this sauce again, and in the end that’s the highest bit of praise I can think of. Good stuff.

Palmetto Pepper Potions, LLC
P.O. Box 6126
Forest Acres, South Carolina 29260

phone/fax: (803) 782-8020

Previous Reviews:
- Molten Golden
- Daily Red Hot Sauce
- Larynx Lava
- Larynx Lava II

Front Label:
Red Chile Ketchup
“Refrigerate after opening”
www.bitandspur.com

Ingredients: Fire Roasted Tomatoes, Smoked Chilies, Sugar, Vinegar, Salt, Seasonings.

Packaging: Bit & Spur’s Red Chile Ketchup comes in a low key clear glass bottle with a white cap. The front is adorned with a small black and tan label. There is no back label.

Color: Orange/Red color with dark specks floating around.

Smell: Surprisingly, Red Chile Ketchup smells like nothing so much as spaghetti sauce. No real hints of smoked peppers, no vinegar burst…nothing but tomato and Italian seasonings. I have to admit that I was a taken aback, given the name and ingredient list. I was expecting more of a smokey, chipotle experience.

Consistency: This was a thick sauce, not unlike a well blended salsa. On a tilted paper plate there was a good amount of runoff, but also a substantial quantity of thicker stuff.

Taste: Tasting a tablespoonful, the spaghetti sauce impression continues. This is definitely a mild, mild sauce, and if I were served this on a plate of pasta and told it was homemade, I’d probably not bat an eye. Over the course of the next few days I tested Red Chile Ketchup a variety of foods, including a barbecued cheeseburger, fish, and a grilled chicken breast. On one item after another and the flavor vanished. I dumped more and more of the sauce on to my food, attempting to get enough on there to simply taste it, but always seemed to come up empty. As a condiment, I’m afraid Red Chile Ketchup isn’t bringing much to the table.

Texture: Smooth-to-lumpy. Some vegetable crunch when eaten straight up, but nothing noticeable when used on food.

Heat: This is a profoundly mild sauce, probably one step above a green bell pepper. On a heat scale of 1 to 10, I rate Red Chile Ketchup 1.5.

Overall Impressions: This is the sort of sauce that has you reaching for something else within seconds of your first bite. The smell is pleasant, unique, and promising, but the seasonings simply don’t pack enough oral punch for you to be aware that a condiment is even being used. Someone could literally sneak this sauce on your burger without telling you and you’d probably not know it. It tastes nothing like ketchup, and that leads me to wonder why this name was chosen.

Ripping open my flame-red bag of Blair’s Death Rain BBQ Kettle Chips and settling down with a freshly grilled cheeseburger, I was more than ready for some flaming hot BBQ fun.

The smell of the chips right out of the bag was fairly non-descript. A brief wiff of BBQ seasoning, pleasant and not at all overpowering. As is the case with “kettle-style” chips, each chip was uniquely shaped and crunchy, and they were fresh and uniformly seasoned.

Covered in an eye-pleasing redish powder, they certainly looked the part. Biting down, I felt a splash of warmth and a quick dash of BBQ flavor. The warmth lingered as I progressed through the bag, mellow on the tongue, if a tad harsh on the back of my throat. The BBQ seasoning was definitely subdued, neither too sweet, nor too salty. The flavor was there and gone, and in no way overwhelmed the rest of my meal.

Billed as “medium” in temperature, Blair’s BBQ chips come as advertised. A good mellow snack that shouldn’t frighten those members of your family who typically run in fear of the hot stuff. I often find that when I’m eating “kettle-style” chips, I’ll run into overly hard, gnarled individuals. I don’t know if the quality control is better with Blair’s, but I really was impressed with the texture of these chips. Fresh and crispy, with no “jawbreakers”.

I’d have liked a bit more heat and BBQ flavor, but overall I’d have to say Blair’s got a winner here. Now somebody pass me another bag…

Front Label:

Uncle Dougie’s “World’s Most Dangerous” Barbecue Sauce
All Natural No Preservatives

Ingredients:

Tomato paste made from red, ripe tomatoes, red peppers, peppers, malt vinegar, vinegar, pure honey, salt, water, garlic, onion, natural spices and seasonings, brown sugar, xanthan gum, natural maple flavor, natural hickory smoke flavor.

Back label:
By experimenting on close friends and having a large supply of cold libations, it happened once again folks. I’ve developed the most incredible barbecue sauce you’ll ever eat! Uncle Dougie’s “World’s Most Dangerous” Barbecue Sauce has that special “kick” and taste sensation our fans have grown to love. But as we like to say, bre creative!… Try dipping your fries, coating your dog, and smothering your burger with Dougie’s. Use Uncle Dougie’s for all your barbecue needs - we’re sure you will be satisfied.

For a barbecue experience that will leave your taste buds screaming for more, marinade with Uncle Dougie’s “Chicago-style” chicken wing marinade before you barbecue. Now you’re cookin’!

For testing purposes, I decided to use this sauce on some chicken legs on the grill.

Packaging:
Uncle Dougie’s BBQ sauce comes in a hefty 18 oz clear bottle. The label is red and features a bevy of cartoon pigs and cows. There’s even a fire-breathing chicken on the front, and a miniature characture of “Uncle Dougie” on the back. Clearly this label is intended to be lighthearted and fun.

Color: Redish brown, with clearly visible seasonings.

Smell:
Mmmm, that’s the stuff. A deeply rich and smoky aroma that instantly made my mouth water. It has that certain something that shouts out “Barbecue!” Ok, now I’m getting hungry…

Consistency:
Thick and slow movin’, as expected. Placed on a spoon and tilted, this sauce wasn’t going anywhere fast. I do a lot of grilling, using rubs, sauces, and marinades. One of my pet peeves is a watery BBQ sauce that requires about a million coats to amount to anything. Looks like I won’t have any of those sorts of problems with Uncle Dougie’s.

Taste:
The looks and smell weren’t deceiving, this is a thick, sweet, smooth, and smokey sauce. I quickly ate 4 or 5 teaspoons full of the stuff before forcing myself to stop.

Texture:
Amidst the smooth base are chunks of vegetables - onions, peppers, and the like. Not chunky or crunchy, but still definitely there and noticable, these little bits seem to be bringing a lot of flavor to the party.

Heat:
Taken straight up, Uncle Dougie’s heat comes on pleasant and slow. Although the label touts the sauce as being the “World’s Most Dangerous”, the only thing truly dangerous about Uncle Dougie’s is that you may eat it all up straight from the bottle before you have a chance to use it on your food. It should be noted that the heat seemed to mellow on the grilled chicken legs that we prepared…so much so that we added extra sauce on our plates for dipping. On a heat scale of 1 to 10, I give Uncle Dougie’s a 3.

Overall Impressions:
After her first bite of chicken basted with Uncle Dougie’s, my wife said “this is a sauce that doesn’t lay down.” Uncle Dougie’s sauce is at once familiar and different. At it’s core there’s the typical BBQ flavor - smokey and sweet. However Dougie’s seemed more…rich, more smooth, more…refined. The spicy heat of the peppers lends an almost addicitve quality to the paste. I think this sauce would go splendidly on buffalo-style wings, bringing them to a heat level just to the other side of mild, with a much more complex flavor than the traditional vinegar, pepper, and garlic blend. Two thumbs up for Dougie from my wife and I. This one’s a winner.

A few days ago, our host Nick asked several of us to participate in a “group tasting” of 3 new hot sauces from “Csigi”. Instead of our regular review style, we were asked to simply rate the sauces on initial taste, heat, and flavor on food.

Csigi Jalapeno Sauce
Initial Taste – I chose the Jalapeno as the first sauce to try. Taken straight up from the bottle using a teaspoon, I found this sauce to be thin, salty, and “vinegary”. The experience was not unlike drinking dill pickle brine.
Heat – This is what I’d consider to be a mild sauce. A brief murmur of heat, then nothing. The heat was there and gone like a rumor.
Flavor on food – I tried each of the three sauces in this test on several meals; fish, a Philly cheesesteak sandwich, and homemade chicken burritos. The Csigi Jalapeno sauce disappeared into the flavors of whatever food I used it on. I found the flavor to be nondescript, and when I added more, the only note that came through was that of vinegar. This was my least favorite sauce of the three.

Csigi Capsaicin Carnivale
Initial Taste – Sweet, with a mild flavor of ground black pepper. Definitely some tomato vibes going on as well.
Heat – With a name like “Capsaicin Carnivale” I wasn’t surprised to find that this sauce was the hottest of the three. A nice medium burn, which came on slow and lingered.
Flavor on food – This sauce worked decently with the burritos and cheesesteak, but I didn’t really like it all that much with the fish. Probably a simple matter of the seasonings clashing between the two foods. The sauce is a bit sweeter and more tangy than I prefer, but not bad. I rank Capsaicin Carnivale above Csigi Jalapeno.

Csigi Salubrious Savina
Initial Taste – A nice big hit of Habanero flavor (and smell.) This one made my mouth water. Of the three, it’s the only one that I actually enjoyed eating straight from the bottle.
Heat – A notch below the Capsaicin Carnivale, this sauce is a mild-to-medium heat condiment.
Flavor on food – Overall, I feel that “Salubrious Savina” scored the best on the food test. The flavor of Habanero was prominant enough to stand up to whatever I threw at it, and the sauce offered up just enough heat to accent the meal. Not too much salt or vinegar, this is a sauce I would buy if I saw it on a shelf. For my money it’s clearly the best of the three Csigi sauces.

Front Label:
Purgatory Brand Pepper Sauce
Alligator Alley Asphalt
“Hotter ‘n Georgia Asphalt”

Ingredients: Black beans, cayenne, Thai and scotch bonnet peppers pureed with vinegar plus poppy seeds, key lime juice and a Yeehaw Junction of spices and salt.

Back label:
Serving Suggestions: A great table sauce for meats, seafood, or chicken. Adds an extra bit of zip to any dish. Spices up Barbecue sauce, backed beans, or chili. Mix one to one with melted butter or margarine for a terrific Buffalo wing sauce. Try adding curry powder or cumin and granulated garlic or substitute olive oil for the butter/margarine and add minced fresh garlic and oregano. Pour mixture over cooked wings and toss until wings are evenly coated with sauce. Please write for more free recipes or send us our favorite recipe using one of our pepper sauces. Be sure to try all of the PURGATORY brand pepper sauces. Each one is made with all natural ingredients with no preservatives and our famous “HEAVENLY FLAVOR - HELLISHLY HOT” ™ taste.

Editorial shorthand: Given the lengthy name, I’ll refer to Purgatory Brand Alligator Alley Asphalt as “PBAAA” throughout this review.

Packaging: The sauce arrived in a clear 5 ounce bottle with black, red, and yellow glossy label, and red cap. All in all the packaging presented an appealing, professional looking product.

Color: The sauce was brown, speckled with black dots (the poppy seeds). Spinning the bottle over in my hand, only one or two pepper seeds are visible.

Smell: The first thing I do when I open a new, untested bottle of hot sauce is to hold the thing under my nose and take a big deep whiff. PBAAA smells about like what you’d get if you bottled a bean burrito from (a certain unamed) fast food mexican restaurant, and spiked it with an extra dash of cumin. Quite “bean-ey”. Vinegar based sauces will often blast you with their vapors, but none of that here. The vinegar impact of this sauce seems very subdued.

Consistency: Next, I poured about a tablespoon of the sauce onto a paper plate and tilted it slightly. It ran, but rather slowly, so I’ll call it “medium-to-thick.” There were no chunks of vegetables visible, only the aforementioned poppy and rarer pepper seeds.

Taste: Pouring out another portion on a spoon, I took a taste. This is where the vinegar and salt made themselves known, but in no way did they overwhelm the bean base. I found the flavor to be quite pleasant, good enough in fact that I ate two more spoonfuls straight up. I’ve run across a few bean-based hot sauces before, and I’d have to rank PBAAA as among the best, flavor-wise. “Mellow” was the first word that came to mind.

Texture: As one might expect, the inclusion of poppy seeds results in a somewhat “gritty” feel when eating this sauce straight from the bottle. When taken with food, this perception disappears entirely.

Heat: The billing on the label touts PBAAA as “Heavenly Flavor - Hellishly Hot”. It certainly has a deep, rich, and unique flavor, but it falls well short on the heat claims. What heat it does have comes on slow and steady; warming rather than burning. The warmth lingers, building to its gentle peak before fading. Tabasco certainly isn’t all that hot, but it gives you what it’s got by stabbing at you in a short, sharp spikes. PBAAA never reaches the heat of Tabasco, but the journey is much more nuanced and pleasant. I’m rather surprised given the ingredient list that PBAAA isn’t hotter, but of course when it comes to heat, it isn’t the ingredient list - it’s the proportions. On a heat scale of 1 to 10, I give PBAAA a 3.

Overall Impressions: Purgatory Brand Alligator Alley Asphalt is what I like to call an “eating sauce.” Mild enough to be liberally poured over food, PBAAA is particularly well suited to Mexican dishes. I can see slathering this over fast food tacos and burritos in place of the little packets they give you. It’s ill suited for something like pizza or pasta, but would work well on grilled or baked chicken. This sauce would probably work quite well as a ketchup replacement on a hamburger. I’m not sure what the odd inclusion of poppy seeds brings to the table flavor wise, but in day to day use you’ll even never notice them.