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
Chilehead Comments:
Posted by: Walker - Categories: Hot Sauce Reviews, Reviews
Permalink: Review: Duck Butter Hot Sauce
One year ago: Review: Cry Baby Hot Sauce
Two years ago: Ike's Famous Crabcakes
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23 Comments »
I love smoky flavored hot sauce, and I imagine it was pretty good on that smoked trout dip.
It’s the xanthan gum that really expresses the flavor. I think…
Buddah on 8/28/2007 at 7:46 am said:
Nice 1st review Travis. You made me interested in trying it. It seems though it is just another Louisiana pepper sauce, so I am wondering if this is usually your favorite kind when you sample at a hot sauce store? When I eat at a Cajun Restaurant it is usually the only kind of hot sauce you will find. I always found Red Devil to be my favorite of the Louisiana hot sauce variety. I usually don’t experiment with this type anymore because the flavors are usually pretty close. Yet I am always willing to try another persons recommendation.
So will u “please” explain what “duck butter” is?
duck butter
the only other time i used the term duck butter was when i was the superintendent during construction of a golf course in north scottssdale, az. we were installing the irrigation mainlines and had to lube up the rubber gasket connections with lube to fit together. we called it duck butter. only way i have ever heard the term. looked like halfway dried bacon grease. i am sure chiliheaded can send you a pic of that if you want and wes too. afterall, he is a chef.
Buddah on 8/28/2007 at 7:46 am said:
Nice 1st review Travis. You made me interested in trying it. It seems though it is just another Louisiana pepper sauce, so I am wondering if this is usually your favorite kind when you sample at a hot sauce store? When I eat at a Cajun Restaurant it is usually the only kind of hot sauce you will find. I always found Red Devil to be my favorite of the Louisiana hot sauce variety. I usually don’t experiment with this type anymore because the flavors are usually pretty close. Yet I am always willing to try another persons recommendation.
So will u “please” explain what “duck butter” is?
My grandmother used to call the crusty stuff that you around your eyes after a long deep sleep duck butter.
So far our choices are industrial-strength gasket lube or eye boogers. Please, tell us a nice story about what it is!!!
ok, since you guys asked nicely…well, i don’t know of it 1st hand, but a guy who is from deep S.C. that works at a store near my office told me the old timers there had a saying. “that’s slicker than duck butter”. i’m going to stop there cause it seems that the butter is what happens to all those nice fishies they eat after few hours …and you can step in.
and Extra P. you fool, you had it on the trout dip. you came in to my office for some 5 mins before i took the pictures.
I just did a Google search for “Duck Butter.” I am not at all inclined to share the results of that search with you….
scott on 8/28/2007 at 3:54 pm said:
I just did a Google search for “Duck Butter.” I am not at all inclined to share the results of that search with you….
Thanks for sharing
scott on 8/28/2007 at 3:54 pm said:
I just did a Google search for “Duck Butter.” I am not at all inclined to share the results of that search with you….
“TAINT” what I expected! 
DK on 8/28/2007 at 4:14 pm said:
“TAINT” what I expected!
LOL!!!! Thats what I said.
HOLY MOLY! I don’t think I can ever try this hot sauce after all. LOL
Whao, whao, whao, everyone, I didn’t mean to put a damper on the sauce review. But the suspense was killing me on the Duck Butter thing….Sorry
too late Scott
Whatever you do, don’t do a Google image search for “plunger”. 
Ugh - do the makers of the sauce know what Duck Butter can be referred to?
Travis not bad…not bad at all
Extra P. on 8/28/2007 at 8:29 am said:
I love smoky flavored hot sauce, and I imagine it was pretty good on that smoked trout dip.
It’s the xanthan gum that really expresses the flavor. I think…
E.P., send me an email with yer shippin’ addy, and I’ll send you something that I think you’ll enjoy. Click on my name to get my email address. TC
i just googled duck butter, and i was expecting something bad but not that!!!!
Justin on 8/28/2007 at 11:07 pm said:
i just googled duck butter, and i was expecting something bad but not that!!!!
Googling is a lot harder than people think.
wait till my next review….Donkey’s 5th Leg Hab Sauce.
Are these products available internationally ? Some might be - like the Nando’s - I’ve seen them, but many of the other might only be available in a certain geographical area ?
[...] friend Walker has started reviewing for The Hot Sauce Blog. His first assignment was Duck Butter sauce. This is tangentially related to sports because of…. [...]
I bought a bottle of the sauce on a trip tp Alba, Texas, visiting family and friends. I purchased it off of a gas station counter in Alba. To my surprise it is my favorite sauce now. I live in Ohio and now have to have someone ship me some soon. It says on the back “May be too spicy for children or yankees” This Yankee happens to be adjusted just fine. Good Review.
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Nice 1st review Travis. You made me interested in trying it. It seems though it is just another Louisiana pepper sauce, so I am wondering if this is usually your favorite kind when you sample at a hot sauce store? When I eat at a Cajun Restaurant it is usually the only kind of hot sauce you will find. I always found Red Devil to be my favorite of the Louisiana hot sauce variety. I usually don’t experiment with this type anymore because the flavors are usually pretty close. Yet I am always willing to try another persons recommendation.
So will u “please” explain what “duck butter” is?