Cracker House Hot Sauce - Fire

Before getting the two bottles of Cracker House hot sauces to review, I had never heard of the company or their sauces. Now with that being said, that doesn’t mean that they don’t make a good hot sauce.

Usually hot sauces that have pepper blends in them have great tastes and a good deal of heat. Of course this also depends on the types of peppers that are blended into the sauce. This sauce blends Datil and Jalapeño peppers. These two specific chile peppers are definitely on the lower end of the heat scale. I’m sort of curious as to why they are so far down on the ingredient list. That and to make this hot sauce ‘hotter’ than their ‘medium’ version of this sauce it seems Cracker House Sauces have decided to give the heat a little boost using oleo resin capsicum. I’m normally not a fan of extract based sauces. It isn’t really the extreme heat factor that deters me, it’s more the metallic/chemical taste that using extract in a sauce does to kill the flavor for me. But since it’s also so far down the list of ingredients I won’t hash my bets just yet. That and I happened to be personally in the mood for something HOT! So this was the perfect opportunity to give this sauce a try. You can purchase the FIRE sauce and the MEDIUM sauce by phone, fax, or US Mail from the Cracker House website. No online shopping carts that I could find.

http://crackerhousesauces.com/?page_id=6

Looks like a 2 bottle minimum, but you get a sweet deal on a case for just $38 bucks!

First impression: Looking at the sauce through the glass bottle, it looks rather unassuming. It’s got that ‘glistening’ appearance through the woozy. Which I find is somewhat common among hot sauces. I then take a further look at the list of ingredients. It’s a long one for sure with a few items listed that I prefer not be there. But each manufacturer is going to use what suits their production needs best.

Ingredients: tomato concentrate made from red ripe tomatoes, fresh red & green tomatoes, sugar, fresh onions, distilled vinegar, green bell peppers, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, fresh Datil & Jalapeño peppers, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, garlic, salt, spice, black pepper, onion powder, oleo resin capsicum & natural flavorings.

Whew! That certainly was a mouthful. With all this going on here there has to be a good depth of flavor with this sauce. Of course I have to slam the use of HFCS and CS. In my opinion these items should be totally removed from the food supply. It’s used in almost all types of food that is mass produced. So when I see small manufacturers that use this stuff I have to say YUCK! Take it away! Lol It’s used in everything else and damn near every single sauce and salad dressing you can buy in a food store chain will have loads of HFCS. Not to mention the drinks, sodas, breads, you name it! Gosh I can’t stand this stuff! Just the fact that it causes your liver to go into overdrive to try and process this stuff is a good enough reason to avoid it at all costs. Looks like it’s going to be a real ‘sweet’ sauce with all those sugars used in there – sugar, brown sugar, HFCS, and CS. But in an effort to ‘take one for the team’ I will consume this sauce and give it a fair review!

Appearance/Smell/Taste: As I remove the cap and take a hearty sniff, sniff. My nose is first greeted by the pleasant sweet overall smell. Boy I knew this one was going to be sweet. I just hope that it isn’t too sweet to turn me off of the flavor. I’m getting a mixture of sweet with peppers and hints of vinegar and the oleo resin. Like I was saying the flavor that oleo resin usually turns me off of these types of sauces, but honestly this one doesn’t have that strong scent of oleo resin. It appears to be just a touch in the waaaaaay back. Once on the tasting spoon Cracker House Fire hot sauce is a gelatinous slurry of a sauce. It rounds out well on the spoon without being too runny. So from the picture you can see that it pretty much stayed put on the spoon. It’s a nice red color with lots of specks of what is probably black pepper and all those veggies milled up together. Hoisting the spoon to my lips to get the first taste I am greeted with a sweet sort of tomatoey flavor. The blend of the peppers used (both sweet and hot) come together nicely. This is a sauce with a well rounded flavor. So far so good Cracker House! And at the end I get that added kick of the oleo resin. And to my surprise the oleo resin capsicum flavor isn’t overpowering at all! Don’t get me wrong this isn’t a sauce that would rank in the ‘extreme heat’ category. In fact it isn’t even close. But, to ‘Joe Sixpack’ who wants something that is just a touch hotter without the ‘extreme heat’ range, this would be a great sauce to choose. I decided that I was in the mood for some quesadillas! Since I had a bunch of whole wheat flatbreads left, this was just what I was going to make!

Prepared meal: Roasted Onion Salsa Quesadilla!

If you’ve ever seen the movie Napoleon Dynamite, then you know the line about quesadillas! Lol What a funny ass movie! I must say that I’ve seen it about 3-4 times and it’s still funny with each veiwing. Kind of like the Mel Brooks movie, Space Balls. Which I’ve seen dozens of times and still crack up at the humor in that film! Don’t even get me started with Blazing Saddles! Ok, yeah I was making quesadillas. All you need for this is a flat bread of your choice, some salsa, and some cheese of your choice. I chose to use my Roasted Onion Salsa (I love cooking with it and I also have a healthy supply too!), a whole wheat flat bread, and a mixture of some queso blanco cheese and sharp cheddar! YUM! What a perfect food to use hot sauce on top of! Here goes.

Complement to meal: As I finish off these in the pan I allowed the quesadilla to cool for about 3 minutes until I sliced it with a pizza cutter. I then added a generous helping of Cracker House Fire hot sauce onto my first quesadilla. WHEW! After adding at least a 1/3^rd of the bottle I dig in. I really do like the flavor of this sauce on the Roasted Onion Salsa quesadilla! The sweetness goes along great with the smoky flavor of the salsa.

As I get about half way through my first quesadilla the heat from the sauce and the serranos in the salsa is starting to make me sweat! But like I was saying earlier, I was really in the mood for something with some extra heat to it. And Cracker House has delivered as I was hoping. I then make a 2^nd quesadilla and add another 1/3^rd of the bottle. So after I consume about 2/3^rd of the bottle of Cracker House Fire hot sauce, the sweat is glistening nicely all over my face and head. I’m actually starting to get a nice endorphine rush. I do like this hot sauce, but I really wish the HFCS and CS would be eliminated. I’d like to hear from the manufacturer if they read this as to why they chose to add these items to this sauce. –Lars-

Initial impression: 8/10
Ingredient quality/content: 6/10
Flavor/texture/smell: 9/10
Heat: 7/10
Overall: 7.5/10

Crackerhouse sauces, Inc.
PO Box 1066
Palatka Florida 321778
386-328-2780
crackerhousesauces.com