For my first review, I won’t be tackling a knock you socks off, tear your ass up sauce. I will be going on about Duck Butter hot sauce – one of my personal favorites and a standard on my table.

For the longest time Tabasco was my go to sauce. Sure, sometimes I grabbed something a lot hotter, but it was the T that rode in my wife’s purse and was put on everything. I just loved that vinegary bite that added just a little heat. but I knew there was something else out there that was a little more refined, a little more grown up, a little more not so “eeh”. My dad had a buddy who had all kinds of stuff for me to try, but they we’re all in the Ultimate Insanity realm, which I liked but I was looking for something for my day to day use.

Then I traveled to Austin with my wife and walked into the Tears of Joy hot shop and found it. I bought 75 dollars worth of sauces that day and loved most of them, especially the Marie Sharp’s Belizean Heat and Mama Africa’s Zulu Habanero Sauce. But one alone stood out, The Original Duck Butter Sauce. I put this stuff on everything, I cooked with it, dipped with it, I made friends try it….hell if my wife would have let me I would have slept with it in the bed (luckily she travels a lot). It became my go to sauce and I happily placed Ol’ Big T in the cupboard. He still has his place, just not as my main man.

First a pic…

I like the label – a little campy but nothing that would turn me off from buying the sauce.

And now the ingredients:

Louisiana hot peppers, water, vinegar, salt, spices, sugar, dehydrated onions and garlic, xanthan gum added – Nothing too weird there.

When you first open the bottle, there is a very pleasant, smoky smell. Since it doesn’t list exactly which “Louisiana Peppers” it uses, I can’t really judge if they are well represented. However, I do taste Tabasco peppers and the smell is reminiscent of Chipotles. The vinegar isn’t overpowering and there is a hint of garlic and lemon in the background.

Here it is on a plate by itself and some on a wheat cracker with smoked trout dip. As you can see it’s fairly thick and sticks to food quite well. (Sorry about the blurriness, my camera is a little tired from the beach). You can see lots of pepper pieces and seeds floating around. On its own, it’s kind of tart with a good flavor of garlic first and then the peppers second. The heat builds in the back of your throat but never gets too hot. With the trout dip and other food, the tartness disappears completely and you just get the flavor of the pepper up in the front. One funny thing is that it seems a little bit hotter on food.

Overall, it’s not the sauce for an extreme chilihead looking for a big burn, but rather for someone who wants to add great flavor and nice heat to what they are eating. I like to use it as a sauce when I grill wings; the grilling really rounds out the flavor of the sauce. Barring Chinese food and really light tasting fishes, I think the sauce is good on just about anything from Mexican to pasta dishes, but it really shines on grilled meats and in heavy stews and soups.

Packaging/label: 7/10 (if anyone asks nicely I’ll put in the comments what Duck Butter is.)

Aroma: 6/10

Taste: 8/10

Heat: 5/10

Overall: 7/10 for a review but 11/10 for my personal tastes.

Lost Creek Ranch
P.O. Box 123
Alba, Texas 75410
United States
Phone: (903) 765-3137