Marcel de Wit, a chef by trade, his wife Connie and brother Alex run The Chilli Factory in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Note the Australian spelling of chilli, with two L’s. Living in that part of the world afforded the de Wits the opportunity to travel to parts of Southeast Asia that many consider the world’s “cradle of capsicum”, where they discovered the pleasures of hot chillis. Now it is their livelihood, and my first taste of their product line would indicate they are very good at it.

Ingredients: Tomato, onion, carrot,” chilli”, vinegar, sugar, herbs and spices.

I usually like to decide what I’m putting my sauce on before I review it, based on its appearance in the bottle and my “gut feel”. The label offered some possibilities, saying it was a great condiment for any BBQ or as a dip, or to try it with pasta (?!!). But this one looked so much like a salsa, I decided to just use the good old roasted corn tortilla chips.

First Impression – To begin my organoleptic examination, I opened the jar. I took a whiff – it smelled like salsa, somewhat “tomatoey”. I poured it out on a plate – it looked like salsa. Before the chip test, I took several spoonfuls to see if it would behave like salsa. It had the texture all right – with nice small chunks of the onion, tomato, and whole basil leaves, stem and all, plus flakes and seeds of whatever secret chilli they put in there. So the look and the texture passed the test – rustic and pleasing.

Flavors -when you taste Outback Storm, you have (I timed it!) about 4 seconds to figure out the flavors before…wham!…the chillis start doing their job. More about that in a second…well, 4 seconds. I like the flavor a lot. Tomatoes predominate. I guess to compliment the basil, they have used Roma tomatoes in this relish. That’s a great choice because when they are treated right, Romas taste wonderfully fruity in a sauce, a salsa, or a relish. The way to bring that fruitiness out is to have just the right amount of sugar in the batch – not too little, not too much. Marcel got it right – sweet like a ripe plum tomato – that’s my first taste, along with a pleasant garlic flavor.

Now to the wham! Consider this: in Southeast Australia, they have been making great wines for generations, but only in the last 10 or so years have the wines in this region really caught on with Americans. Why? The Aussies understand the needs of the “me generation” of wine drinkers. That’s why they began to produce and export more “fruit forward” wines – those that have almost exaggerated flavor characteristics that are most pleasing to wine drinkers who are looking for instant gratification.

So, too, has The Chilli Factory done it with this “fire forward” relish! No waiting. The heat starts…tick, tick, tick, tick…NOW! It burns first your lips, next the interior of your mouth from top to bottom, then the top of your tongue, and the back of your throat (the latter lasting a mercifully brief period of time). But the mouth burn sticks with you, even after a swig of a cold liquid. Mind you, it’s a tolerable and, for me, altogether pleasant attack on the mouth. I know not from where the chillis come, but the activity of my various sweat points (in this case, eye sockets, side of nose, top of forehead at the hairline and back of skull) would indicate that the variety comes from one of the exotic Asian ports of call the de Wits visited in years past.

So, do use this like a salsa, but don’t limit yourself. Use it as a true condiment, maybe in the same way you would spoon Sambal on your Satay or other grilled meats on a stick. The company website suggests you dip it along with sour cream and that’s a fine idea too. This relish would surely perk up that ubiquitous 7-layer Mexican party dip. You know the one – you invite 10 couples over and tell them to bring an appetizer, and 9 of them show up with that mess! Well, keep a few jars of Outback Storm around, just in case that happens!

SUMMARY:
Initial impression: 6.5/10
Ingredient quality/content: 8.5/10
Flavor/texture/smell: 8/10
Heat: 5.5/10
Overall: 7.5/10

The Chili Factory
1 Ironbark Rd
Morisset NSW 2264
Australia

PIERCE’S PITT BAR-B-QUE SAUCE

On the outskirts of historic Williamsburg Virginia lies a vast and heavily guarded tract of U.S. Government land know as Camp Peary. Some years ago, following the Cold War, it was revealed that the camp was a training school for the CIA, as it remains to this day. People say that what a person learns here, they will take to their grave.

Less than a mile from the gates of the camp is a place called Pierce’s Pitt Bar-B-Que. The bright orange and yellow neon bands inside the dining room are a beacon for passing truckers and tourists on I-64. Inside this little place, the family of the late Julius C. (Doc) Pierce guards the recipe for his Bar-B-Que sauce with the same zeal as their secretive neighbors. Rightfully so. Doc’s sauce is something special.

It’s all about flavor and balance. It meets my personal test using the following convention for BBQ sauce evaluation; S³ + F + H = N. Translated, you must have complimentary components of Sweet, Sour and Spice (S³) plus a discernable flavor of the predominant fruit or vegetable (F), plus heat (H) to produce Nirvana (N) in a Bar-B-Que sauce.

Now, when you see Ketchup as the predominant ingredient on the label, just hang in there – have faith!

Ingredients: “tomato ketchup (tomato concentrate, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, spice, onion powder, natural flavoring), distilled vinegar, sugar and our own secret spices.”

The secret in Pierce’s lies in a perfect balance between the sweet and sour, a few distinctive spices, and a choice of capsicum that produces a consistent, albeit mild, burn.

The sweetness of the ketchup seems to have been tamed by adding additional vinegar, suggesting this is a Carolina-style sauce, but it’s so much more!

The spice that jumps all over your tongue is cinnamon. Again, have faith and don’t be put off at the thought that this sauce is going to taste like the pecan roll you had for breakfast. In the same way that the flavor of cinnamon put Cincinnati on the world map of chili, Doc’s family recipe puts Williamsburg, VA (and Flat Creek, TN, from whence the original recipe came) on the BBQ sauce map.

Now, to the heat. A close examination of the sauce reveals flecks of black pepper and the flakes and seeds of crushed, dried red peppers. My guess is that it’s an Asian variety. The black pepper produces the instant gratification of a constant tingle on the edges of your tongue, while the red pepper warms your face over time. By the time you finish your cue, you have developed the characteristic line of perspiration along both sides of your nose. All-in-all, if you seek a discernable, but not overpowering burn in your BBQ sauce, Pierce’s should be on your shelf. I give it a 5 on the HSB Heat Scale, but a 10+ on the enjoyment scale.

This is a sauce to be poured without restraint on your cue, or meatloaf, or your beans. And don’t forget to pour a puddle on the side to dip the hushpuppies and fries.

For more information, directions and ordering information, go to www.pierces.com

HSB Readers – Please welcome Steve M to the HSB reviewer ranks. Steve is one of the many new reviewers added to the HSB recently (those intros are coming soon) and we’re excited to add his kitchen skills to the mix. Please give Steve a warm HSB welcome! More about Steve here and his first HSB review can be found here.

I’m SteveM and it’s a thrill to be joining the reviewers at HSB! I’m writing to you from just outside the nation’s Capitol in Northern Virginia. I’m a self-taught cook and wine enthusiast, but the thing that really gets me going is a good hot sauce.

Mind you, I wasn’t born with a hot pepper in my mouth. In fact, my first experience with the capsicum as a youngster was not unlike someone being attacked by a pack of wild dogs and fearing them for the rest of their life. As a teenager, I inadvertently ate a whole piri-piri that was hidden inside a sardine. I swore off anything hot for the next 15 years. But when I moved to Virginia from my home town of Boston in 1984, I worked with a guy from Texas who introduced me to hot sauces. Twenty or so years later, my annual hot sauce consumption quite likely generates enough endorphins to power a small city.

My taste in hot sauces generally runs more in the direction of enjoying the flavors, rather than striving for such a degree of olfactory punishment that the subtleties are lost in the blast of heat. That orientation toward flavor will hopefully be reflected in my reviews. That’s not to say that I can’t take the hot stuff, and I look forward to tasting whatever Nick wants to throw at me.

I am constantly looking for the best pairings of food and wine. Similarly, I like certain types of hot sauces with certain types of foods, but I’m always willing to break with convention and try some outlandish combination. Variety truly is the spice of life and I try to practice that every time I fire it up in the kitchen. Look for some of my recipes in future reviews.

Well, it’s back to the tasting room. I’m hot to get started!

Warmly,

SteveM