Great Review! John.

sounds like a winner… but seriously, with that name and label, I wouldn’t notice it.

As balanced as a two legged tripod…HA!

Great line.

Good review.

Down with Vinegar sauces!

clint on 6/12/2006 at 6:36 pm said:

As balanced as a two legged tripod…HA!

Great line.

Good review.

Down with Vinegar sauces!

I will admit that vinegar based sauces AKA Lousianna style are not what I use on a regular basis, but they still hold a place in my heart. There are some GREAT applications for a vinegar based sauce out there that a lot of people forget about. Granted, some vinegar sauce are not as good as others, but don’t knock on all of them becuase they’re common and some may not be the best out there. Try some on meatloaf (which I’m having tonight, and the combination of meat loaf and a good vinegar sauce rocks my world!)

On a side note, thank you Nick for putting my name in red in the commenters list. Its appreciated.

clint on 6/12/2006 at 6:36 pm said:

As balanced as a two legged tripod…HA!

Great line.

Good review.

Down with Vinegar sauces!

Clint, I’m sure glad you got the Just Damn Good Habanero to review instead of the Devil’s Drool in which Anthony enjoyed so much for a vinegar based sauce!! I’ll have to get ya some to try and see what ya think about it!! Nick enjoyed the Devil’s Drool also.

-Scotty

Scotty B’s Hot Sauces on 6/12/2006 at 10:33 pm said:

Clint, I’m sure glad you got the Just Damn Good Habanero to review instead of the Devil’s Drool in which Anthony enjoyed so much for a vinegar based sauce!! I’ll have to get ya some to try and see what ya think about it!! Nick enjoyed the Devil’s Drool also.

-Scotty

Scotty, I got a chance to taste your Devil’s Drool at Joe & Linda’s yesterday, I have bottles of Shakey Jakes as well. There is a world of difference in the consistency. I made the remark that your’s is NOT the Southern Style Vinegar Sauce you put on the label. It is quite thick in comparison, and way hotter than I expected. Good Job on the DD, and for what Shakey is trying to do here, he accomplishes pretty well. If a Tabasco type is what he’s trying to do, he got it pretty dead on.

Ryan@angrypepper on 6/12/2006 at 9:37 pm said:

I will admit that vinegar based sauces AKA Lousianna style are not what I use on a regular basis, but they still hold a place in my heart. There are some GREAT applications for a vinegar based sauce out there that a lot of people forget about. Granted, some vinegar sauce are not as good as others, but don’t knock on all of them becuase they’re common and some may not be the best out there. Try some on meatloaf (which I’m having tonight, and the combination of meat loaf and a good vinegar sauce rocks my world!)

I agree with you on that Ryan, seems when I was growing up and still to this day, Tabasco seems to be on most restaurant tables. Difference is now days my heat tolerance is alot higher and I pour the Tabasco on so heavy that everyone else at the table can smell it, they look at me like i’m crazy, but I still enjoy it just as much as ever.

MR on 6/12/2006 at 11:55 pm said:

I agree with you on that Ryan, seems when I was growing up and still to this day, Tabasco seems to be on most restaurant tables. Difference is now days my heat tolerance is alot higher and I pour the Tabasco on so heavy that everyone else at the table can smell it, they look at me like i’m crazy, but I still enjoy it just as much as ever.

Same here. Grew up on Tabasco and Chilula. The problem these days is that in order to get a decent amount of heat out of tabasco, I have to poor on so much that the flavor drowns out whatever it is I’m eating. Of course these days, you can get a vinegar based sauce that packs more heat, which is good, but the mild stuff like tabasco is still good for flavoring, especially in cooking. Have to do that here at home since the kids don’t have the tollerance for heat that the Mrs. and I do, and I more so than she.

CaJohn on 6/12/2006 at 11:37 pm said:

Scotty, I got a chance to taste your Devil’s Drool at Joe & Linda’s yesterday, I have bottles of Shakey Jakes as well. There is a world of difference in the consistency. I made the remark that your’s is NOT the Southern Style Vinegar Sauce you put on the label. It is quite thick in comparison, and way hotter than I expected. Good Job on the DD, and for what Shakey is trying to do here, he accomplishes pretty well. If a Tabasco type is what he’s trying to do, he got it pretty dead on.

Well thanks much for the Kudos on the Devil’s Drool Cajohn. The sauce is thicker than most but it is still fashioned after the southern style sauces by terms of ingredients. Like Anthony said; I just made it my own

-Scotty

CaJohn on 6/12/2006 at 11:37 pm said:

Scotty, I got a chance to taste your Devil’s Drool at Joe & Linda’s yesterday, I have bottles of Shakey Jakes as well. There is a world of difference in the consistency. I made the remark that your’s is NOT the Southern Style Vinegar Sauce you put on the label. It is quite thick in comparison, and way hotter than I expected. Good Job on the DD, and for what Shakey is trying to do here, he accomplishes pretty well. If a Tabasco type is what he’s trying to do, he got it pretty dead on.

CaJohn, I agree with your comment that when Shakey Jake’s is compared to Tabasco and Frank’s, it’s doing pretty well.

My only issue is that for my taste, that’s setting the bar too low. I’d say that Defcon 3 can be used comparably to Frank’s, but it is vastly superior, so much so that mentioning them in the same breath is a shame. And Gordon is doing great, great things with Capitol Punishment in a more traditional (but a slight bit thicker) southern vingar sauce in Garbanero, and that is simply a delight. I still have to try Scotty B’s offerings, but those sound great, too.

So, I certainly don’t condemn vinegar sauces (even though they aren’t my favorite) - and there are more than a few incredible versions on the market, which are culinary dreams. I’d really like to see more makers pushing thing to the extraordinary, not repeating the ordinary.

BTW, that’s one main reason why I’ve liked every sauce of yours that I have tried - innovative, exceptional flavors, and balanced.

Of course, innovation usually comes with a higher price point. I guess $1 a bottle vs. $4-$5 a bottle might make a big deal to some folks, especially those buying in bulk for restaurants who can get vats of the cheap stuff for next to nothing.

I just looked at the site…….. pretty cheesy site.
remember, eye+shakey jakes=mouth.

Nate#2 on 6/14/2006 at 10:12 am said:

I just looked at the site…….. pretty cheesy site.
remember, eye+shakey jakes=mouth.

Maybe it means if you see it, you must eat it?

Re: I certainly don’t condemn vinegar sauces (even though they aren’t my favorite) - and there are more than a few incredible versions on the market, which are culinary dreams.

Gotta agree with you there, one of the best vinegar sauces being Blairs’ Original Death Sauce. It’s only topped by his American Hot sauce, in my opinion, because it’s milder I love a good vinegar sauce.

Re: innovation usually comes with a higher price point. I guess $1 a bottle vs. $4-$5 a bottle might make a big deal to some folks, especially those buying in bulk for restaurants who can get vats of the cheap stuff for next to nothing.

It’s not really the innovation you’re paying for John. It’s the chiles. It’s all about the chiles when it comes down to it. “Next to nothing” is what you’re getting in the cheap sauces- 8% chiles and 92% vinegar. Marginally flavored vinegars dominate the market but they should be known for what they are- vinegar with some chiles added. The expensive ones (like mine & CaJohns) are 85% (or more) chiles to 15% (or less) vinegar. *That’s* the price point

Caveat less I be misunderstoon again

Blairs’ Death only barely qualifies as a ‘vinegar sauce’, and by no means can be considered one of the ‘cheap ones’, only getting that designation from me because of the pronounced vinegar tang, which is a prominent note in it. It was more pronounced in his earlier version, which I liked even better

We use a tad of vinegar in ours as well. Strange thing is is that you really don’t know it’s there until you heat it up. Granted we make the Buffalo Style wing sauce, which inherantly has vinegar in it, but I think our use of dairy product quells the pungentness of it. For us, the vinegar is not just there for the taste, but more for the shelf life only, and there is actually very little of it. Just enough to bring to that happy place on the Ph scale.

DEFCON Creator on 6/14/2006 at 12:54 pm said:

We use a tad of vinegar in ours as well. Strange thing is is that you really don’t know it’s there until you heat it up. Granted we make the Buffalo Style wing sauce, which inherantly has vinegar in it, but I think our use of dairy product quells the pungentness of it. For us, the vinegar is not just there for the taste, but more for the shelf life only, and there is actually very little of it. Just enough to bring to that happy place on the Ph scale.

Lemon and/or sweet will also knock off the ‘tang’ associated with a vinegar. Using for the pH value is why *everyone* uses it. The best non-preservative preservative there is

DC,

I noticed that in our sauces. The first time I had the #3, I spun some chicken in it so it ended up being warm, and the vinegar was the first thing that hit me. It blended into the background nicely with subsequent tastes. But when I had the #3 cold, I didn’t get any vinegar at all. I thought it was just my imagination, but I guess there’s something to it.

John S. on 6/14/2006 at 4:45 pm said:

DC,

I noticed that in our sauces. The first time I had the #3, I spun some chicken in it so it ended up being warm, and the vinegar was the first thing that hit me. It blended into the background nicely with subsequent tastes. But when I had the #3 cold, I didn’t get any vinegar at all. I thought it was just my imagination, but I guess there’s something to it.

Thanks John, it actually took us some time to be able to do it that way. We have many people who use the #3 as a dipping sauce for chips, Hell, one guy uses it for fondue (thumbs up for creativity), and many have told us they don’t taste the vinegar (perhaps not the fondue guy), but thanks for solidfying my point. I don’t necessarily HATE vinegar sauces, but stuff like Tabasco and the such are nothing but vinegar water, which is kinda gross.

Eight years and my only negative feed back. Oh well, sorry I can’t change the sauce ( too many satisfied customers to keep happy). As for the labels, those same happy customers have asked me not to change them and they do pay the bills. The web site is just a draft. On to better things. Hey Cajohn & Jim, hope things have been good for you since the Hot Luck. keep things hot and fun.

Shakey,

Sorry I had to be the first. Thanks for the classy feedback; I’m glad to hear you’re sauces are doing well. It is certainly true that one person’s opinion doesn’t speak for the rest of the world.

Anyhow, if there’s anything good I can offer, it’d be to get your final website up as quickly as possible. I can’t overemphasize how important a good website is to me as a consumer.

shakey jake on 6/18/2006 at 7:38 am said:

Eight years and my only negative feed back. Oh well, sorry I can’t change the sauce ( too many satisfied customers to keep happy). As for the labels, those same happy customers have asked me not to change them and they do pay the bills. The web site is just a draft. On to better things. Hey Cajohn & Jim, hope things have been good for you since the Hot Luck. keep things hot and fun.

Just shows there is a strong market for all types of sauces, glad its going good for you Shakey

I agree to alot of the comments posted here. I love a good vinegar based sauce. I just wonder how many of these sauce are cider vinegar based as opposed to white vinegar. I grew up on a farm with a German grandmother, we put cider vinegar in everything. It enhances flavor without be overpowering. Does anyone know of any reasons that cider vinegar could not be used in hot sauce production?

HI Shakey! Well enough I guess

Cheffy- several folks do use cider vinegar. I know that CaJohn has a couple (or at least used to when I made them for him) and cider viengar (along with red wine vinegar) were two of the more popular ‘custom order’ mashes that I did. So- yup, they’re out there. No reason other than cost!

I tried all of Shatey Jakes sauces at the NCSC Rib Cookoff and they were the best I’ve ever had!

Thanks for the kodos on my sauce, glad you like them. I plan to be at next years Rock & Ribs, hope to see you ther. Stop by a holler at me when your at the event. Again thanks.