Are you an up and coming hot sauce maker? Do you have a few sauces that you think can use some spicing up in the branding department? If so let us know as we have a great opportunity here.

We have just been notified that a professional Graphic Designer is willing to give their services for free to a hot sauce maker if you give them creative reign over the branding of your product. So if you need some help and have a few products you would like branded (or re-branded) let us know!

Here are the questions:
1. What’s your company name?
2. Do you have a logo?
3. Would you be willing to edit your logo if necessary?
4. How would you want to come across as a company?
5. How many products do you have so far and what kind?

Please use the contact form below to send in your information and responses to the questions below. The designer will be choosing from the responses within a few weeks. Once chosen, the designer will work with you to create logos, labels, letterhead ect…

It’s actually a little chilly here in Texas and that means it’s time to make some chili! After going through all the Christmas goodies we received, I decided that I wanted to try another Cincinnati Chili recipe . The feedback from the previous two recipes (Round 1 & Round 2) was terrific and I decided to use a combination of all the recipes left in the comments and some of the tips as well. The resulting recipe goes like this:

Ingredients:
• 1 med. white onion - chopped
• 6 cloves garlic - minced
• 2.5lbs ground beef
• 1 can (14oz.) low sodium beef broth
• 1 can (6oz.) tomato paste
• 1 can (8oz.) tomato sauce
• 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground allspice
• 1 tsp. ground tumeric
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. ground cardamon
• 2 bay leaves (Turkish)
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 6 tbsps. chili powder
• 2 tbsps. worchestershire
• 4 cups water
• Salt (to taste)

Raw meat soup: not looking good yet.

Directions: Begin to bring water to a boil. When just warm, start adding the beef. Crumble with your hands to a fine consistency. Bring meat soup to a boil and then reduce heat to medium low.

Add everything else to the pot

Add remaining ingredients - garlic, onions and all of the seasonings and stir. Let simmer for 3-4 hours on med low heat.

After stirring in everything, looking better - smelling great.

After 4 hours of simmering

After cooking for a few hours, you end up with a house that smells delicious and a pot of chili that looks like the Exxon Valdez crash landed in it. But according to those that responded to the first few recipes I posted, that’s how it’s supposed to look like. My cardiologist is going to yell at me for this one.

On spaghetti

Close up

Overall - This isn’t your typical chili and it’s definitely an acquired taste - but I like it. It’s like a funky meat sauce for your noodles. I think with this version I may have put in too much unsweetened chocolate - something wasn’t quite right. It was delicious, but not what I remembered from recipe2 Round 1 & Round 2. Oh well, back to the chili drawing board…

Doctor Craig’s Say Ahhhh Caribbean Hot Sauce

First impression: I tend to really like sauces labeled Caribbean hot sauce, I have found most sauces labeled Caribbean have more of a fresh peppers taste to them, often scotch bonnets which I love, reading the ingredients I see one ingredient that would make me put it back on the shelf if I was in a store, pineapple. I don’t like sweet sauces and it’s a safe bet if it says pineapple it is going to be sweet. The consistency doesn’t look to bad, I like my sauces a little on the thin side, and the label is just a very simple one nothing special there. From the looks of the bottle and ingredients I probably wouldn’t of bought it myself.

First smell/taste: I opened it up and smelled it, and got a strong sweetness, I can already tell this is not going to be my favorite. The sweet smell is no doubt from the pineapple, and I also smelled a tough of vinegar and garlic. I decided to cook some chicken cordon bleu. When my meal came out of the oven I put a generous helping on it right down the middle and it spread across the chicken and dripped of the sides just enough that I had an even coating of sauce and a little extra to rub each bite in. I love chicken cordon bleu and despite my low first impression of the sauce I couldn’t wait to dig in! I cut off a piece, rubbed it through the extra sauce and it was sweet, that’s all I can really say. I’m sensitive to sweets, if I’m in the mood for something sweet I have a diet coke. The first half piece of chicken was ok and actually tasted decent, on top of the ingredients you get in the smell I also tasted the onion, allspice, and a pepper that must be the chili pepper because its not fruity enough to be habanero’s. By the time I finished my first piece of chicken the sweetness was to much for me, and I was craving some heat that this sauce don’t have. By the end of the second piece I a little overwhelmed from to much sweetness. Keep in mind that a candy bar will do the same thing to me I really don’t like sweets. I’m stressing how much I dislike sweets because although I’m sure this sauce will taste sweet to anyone, you might like it more than I did if you enjoy sweet sauces. this is one thing I’m very picky about.

Recommendations: although I didn’t like this sauce, I still have a recommendation for it. it reminded me of Blair’s sweet death. If you like Blair’s sweet death I recommend this one to you!

Taste: 4.9/10 that’s based on the first bite I took before the sweetness was to much for me, and I was focusing on the flavor instead of just focusing on the one thing I didn’t like. I also want to note that the sweetness to it, is kind of a syrupy sweetness.

Heat: 1.5/10 if there is any heat here it was overpowered by the sweetness and lost in the mix.

Smell: 2/10

Overall: 2/10 I wont finish this bottle and definitely wouldn’t buy it again. Keep watch for my review on Doctor Craig’s Cajun hot sauce though!

Contact:
MFD. by Bobbees Bottling
Louisburg, N.C. 27549
www.doctorcraigs.com

Houston Hot Sauce Festival Dates…

9th Annual Houston Hot Sauce Festival
September 20 & 21, 2008
Sat. 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. / Sun. Noon – 5 p.m.
Houston Farm and Ranch Club
(Just off Hwy 6 – 1.5 miles North of I10)

The “Biggest Bubba / Crazy Texan’s” hottest hot sauce buying, rockin,’ dustiest, festival on the Gulf Coast is in the works. The 9th Annual Houston Hot Sauce Festival will be held the 3rd weekend in September 2008. Exhibitor information will be available in January. As always, returning vendors receive first right of refusal for “same space” before we start moving vendors around and adding new. The deadline for same space will be March 1st . We have about a 95% return rate… For new vendors – this isn’t a bad thing. We always have some vendors who just want to move space, some are just slower getting there money in. And, always, 1 or 2 that just disappear. There’s always some juggling. We’re working on Sponsors and such right now. For information on booth space or Sponsorship please email carolfmhou@comcast.net.

This recipe comes from the mother in-law who happens to be a gourmet cook in her own right. Last year for the Chirstmas holiday, she prepared this delicious short rib recipe and this year Laura decided to give it a whirl. Now please bear in mind that the recipe that we used has been tried and adjusted as needed and is not quite the same as the original.

Ingredients:
Seasonings:
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chile powder
1/2 tsp ground coriander

Meat:
8 - 3 inch long meaty beef short ribs

Sauce:
2 Tbs olive oil
1 1/2 cup chopped white onion
6 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 14oz. can low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 1/2 Tbs canned chipotle chiles, seeded & diced

Directions:
Add/mix seasonings. Generously season all the sides of the ribs (roll ribs in seasoning). Put ribs in an air tight tupperware container and refrigerate overnight.**Seasoning recipe can be doubled as needed.

Throw oil into LeCreuset pan (large dutch oven). Fry the seasoned ribs in olive oil until browned on all sides. Transfer ribs to plate.

Reduce heat to medium. Add onions & garlic to pot. Cook until transparent. The add broth and bring to a boil. Add tomatoes, lime juice & chipotles. Let simmer until sauce becomes slightly gooey. Return ribs to pot, cover with sauce and put entire dutch oven into the oven for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees.

Not very pretty straight out of the oven, but the smell is delicious!

Serving:
To serve, remove bones from the ribs - they will most likely have become separated from the meat while in the oven. Serve the ribs over a serving of garlic mashed potatoes and cover with some of the sauce from the pan.

The final dish won’t be so spicy that you can’t serve to your holiday guests, but it will be spicy enough to make your tastebuds notice. The ribs come out of the oven so tender that you can cut them with a fork and the chunky sauce makes the best topping. The original recipe can be found here - it calls for a ton of cilantro and a green chile sauce to finish instead of the red sauce from the pot. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Merry Christmas to all the chileheads out there! May your holidays be fiery and your New Year spicy! Laura & I found this chile pepper wreath at the 2007 Houston Hot Sauce festival, made by The Wreath Store. Check out their chile pepper wreaths here and keep in mind that they will cusomize any wreath to match your color choices & preferences. Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas Eve Everyone! Like most folks in suburbia the first thing I did this morning was go shopping for some last minute stocking stuffers. And on my way home, I stopped and picked up some breakfast burritos. When I got home, I proceeded to go through the sauce selection on hand and I decided to go with 2 hot sauces From Hell. I figured that the 2 burritos would be a nice testing ground for the two sauces.

At first glance, the ingredients on each of the sauces are merely listed as “Peppers & Distilled Vinegar”. In fact, without the little stickers on the bottles, folks wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two sauces except for the colors. The green hot sauce seemed like a good one to start with, so I cracked that bottle open first.

Holy freakshow nipple. Maybe I need to get out a bit more, but I’ve never seen a nipple like that on a hot sauce before. I had to resort to the jaws of life to get the stopper out and finally get to the hot sauce. Finally, out poured the sauce. The green sauce smells exactly of green habaneros - of the fresh from the field variety. Consistency is good - not too runny and it certainly sticks well to the food.

Taste & Heat wise - there’s nothing like a kick in the throat first thing in the morning. Wow - for a green sauce, this one almost laid me out. Definitely the hottest green sauce I’ve ever encountered. The dominate flavor of the sauce is most definitely the green habaneros - but those with a discerning chilehead palette can pick out the fruity fatali once the heat dies down. This sauce would really go great with a mean gumbo or stew.

Now, onto the red version of the From Hell Hot Sauces. This one contains “Scotch Bonnet & Congo Peppers”. What’s a congo pepper you ask? Well it’s what they call Habaneros in Trinidad.

Ever had a hot sauce hiss at you? Well, that’s exactly what this one did to me this morning. It hissed as I unscrewed the cap. Then with some bubbles and hissing, the sauce started to attack. It creeped through the stopper and gave me an ominous wink.

I decided that I didn’t want a case of Christmas Botulism and didn’t try the red version of the sauce on the second burrito. But I did give it a taste from the finger and after the heat subsided, I had flash backs to a few of the less then tasty sauces from the Open Fields Fresh from the Fields category.

While I didn’t dive into the red sauce with as much gusto as the green, I wouldn’t write From Hell ‘Red’ off completely. The green was good enough to win me over and I fully understand small companies learning the ins and outs of bottling. From Hell has created a nice line up of pepper sauces that really emphasize the pepper. I would love to try a different bottle of the red sauce - preferably one that doesn’t hiss. And I will be finishing up the green version of the sauce in a few days, Christmas leftovers don’t stand a chance!

From Hell Hot Sauce
Land & Sea Enterprises LLC
Marlboro, NY 12542

Okay, as far as gimmick labels go this one catches my attention more than flames shooting out someones rear. The voodoo theme is well represented, a couple skeletons dancing above a floor of flames, a skull and cross bones and some flaming habaneros in front of a burlap sack pattern. My favorite part is the phrase “shake to wake”. The label also states “sweet …with the heat”. The side of the bottle urges you to “let VooDoo Magic cast it’s spell on you”. “Made with the fiery, slow burning heat of the habanero pepper. This sauce is sure to ignite your soul. VooDoo Magic is also an excellent marinade or dipping sauce for beef, pork, seafood or chicken (or alligator)!”

Ingredients: orange juice concentrate, brown sugar, habanero pepper, vinegar, soy sauce, allspice, thyme, garlic, salt, cornstarch

When I opened this and smelled it It smelled just like Worcestershire sauce. I was intrigued, I tasted it on a spoon, followed by several tortilla chips. The first thing I taste is the brown sugar, then allspice, thyme, and maybe a hint of garlic. There is a hint of the orange but if you didn’t read it as an ingredient you probably wouldn’t pick it out. The flavor of the habanero and the vinegar are undetectable. As for heat I would give this a 4.5-5 and like most sweet sauces the heat comes on after the sweet. If you don’t like allspice or thyme then you won’t enjoy this sauce as they are very big players in the overall flavor. The consistency of this sauce is like syrup.

What would I eat it on? The possibilities began to run through my head, potstickers, panko breaded shrimp, over salmon then lightly smoked, halibut, marinade for beef,…

In the end I decided to pan fry some lemon peppered mahi mahi in a little butter and olive oil. I served this with some wild and long grain rice and fried calamari. I cut the calamari steaks into 3/4″ strips and breaded them in panko. A quick dip into the deep fryer and onto the plate.

I used VooDoo magic to flavor my rice and dipped both the calamari and the mahi mahi in it. This was a very good choice for seafood and rice. I wish I had held out until I could get some gator. I bet this would also make a kick butt jerky marinade.

This is a sauce that I will definitely buy. Next time I will not be sharing with my oldest son. He can buy his own bottle.

The magic was gone the next day, it mysteriously vanished while I was eating a bowl of rice for lunch.

When I typed in their web address it only brings up a blank page. I emailed them, but no response. I guess I won’t be able to provide you with pricing, but even more tragic, how will I get more?

Ahrunsfamous.com
P.O. Box 582
Crystal Lake, IL 60039-0582
alan_collins@ahrunsfamous.com

Warning: This is a fairly long review - if you can’t wait until the end to find out what the sauce is, just skip to the end here.

First Impression: Reviewer #1: First of all, I’m Brendan, and I was reviewer 1 for the review of sauce #102. “Hi Brendan!” I decided to come forward with my story to end the speculation, end the constant personal torment I’ve been living with over this, and help others who have also struggled with anonymous hot sauce reviewing to reclaim our lives. The hot sauce community can and must heal together over the deep wounds that anonymous reviewing has inflicted. Or we can continue doing anonymous reviews; that would be funny too.

Appearance: Reviewer #1: This sauce is a little darker than brick red, with a pretty smooth texture that holds together soundly. Once thinned out on a plate, small chunks reveal themselves. Then there are microscopic dots of matter that are a slightly darker color than the sauce itself. It runs slowly, like, like a- oh I don’t know, a slow dog. Are you bored yet? Okay, fine, I thinned it out even more and thought it would make an interesting wall paper design, and now I’m thinking that some lucky entrepreneur who is reading this is going to steal my idea and come out with an entire line of hot sauce-inspired paints and wallpapers.

Reviewer #2: Brick red, presumably a tomato base, with visible flecks of dried red chile, some spices (maybe cayenne and others), and seeds. Has somewhat of a “gritty” look to it. 8/10

Reviewer #3: Deep, crimson red spotted with pieces of red chile (looks like the skins), and what looks like garlic powder or small rehydrated pieces. Actually, a very nice sauce to look at, but nothing that suggests the wheel has been reinvented. 8 out of 10.

Consistency: Reviewer #2: More thin than thick. Would coat something. Meant to be splashed on your food. “Pleasantly gritty”. You can actually bite into some of the spices and ground chiles. 8/10

Reviewer #3: Like ketchup was blended with vinegar-thick enough to control from the woozy bottle mouth, but not too thick to cover the target food. 8/10

Smell: Reviewer #1: Well, first, I’ll tell you about a peculiar thing I heard when I opened the bottle. It was ever so faint at first, but when I put my ear up to the opening, I’ll be damned if there wasn’t an entire mariachi band in there! Seriously, is Taco Bell bottling their Fire Sauce now? This sauce is Mexican to max! Or perhaps Mexican-American. Or maybe just what one American associates with Mexican food. I’m assuming that that very distinct smell that reminds me of tacos is chili powder, although part of me wants to say curry is in there too. Or maybe chili powder is kind of like the Mexican culinary equivalent to curry. It smells and looks a lot like Tapatio, which I have right here as well.

Reviewer #2: Initial nose of vinegar and hints of a blend of spices common to “chili powder”, i.e. cayenne, cumin. Maybe a hint of smoke, suggestive of Ancho or Chipotle in the batch. 7/10

Reviewer #3: Vinegar, garlic, onion, and some cayenne-type chile. Nothing in itself over-powering nor exciting. Reminds me of a Taco Bell sauce. 4/10

Taste: Reviewer #1: Once again, I’m going with “solid taco accoutrement”. Or any Mexican-type food, for that matter. It’s sweet, with some tang after a few seconds. The chili powder or curry (whatever that is) is clearly if the defining ingredient of this sauce, although I’m going to say some garlic is in there as well, and allow for the possibility of a fruit of some sort, pineapple maybe. Real Taco Bell Fire Sauce is on my good side, especially now with those wise-cracking little packets, and this sauce does taste a lot like it in my opinion. However, I think this sauce tastes fresher, and magnifies the distinguishing flavors more effectively. Although I’m sure one could probably find some other things to do with it, I may just have to bite the bullet and call this a “specific application sauce” for Mexican dishes, with the caveat that almost all hot sauces work well on pizza and eggs. But you all know that.

Reviewer #2: Tasting by itself, an expert balance of vinegar, sweet, salt and heat, followed by a slightly smoky aftertaste. Poured on top of my chili-mac, it was the perfect complement. Even with all I have going on in my chili recipe, this sauce added another dimension. Somehow it made it taste richer. 9/10

Reviewer #3: By itself this sauce was vinegar and garlic with an almost chemical flavor to it, kind of like they went overboard on the preservatives. But on food, for example flank steak tacos (I was inspired) the rest of the flavors came out, and the heat was more “there”. Garlic developed more with the heat of the target foods it was applied too (especially eggs, scrambled or fried). 5/10

Heat: Reviewer #1: Yeah, mild. A very dull, middle of the tongue sensation that never gets out of hand, never even comes close. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with mild, and on tacos, for some reason I don’t usually want it crazy hot. In fact, the only issue I ever had with Taco Bell’s Fire Sauce (I swear this is the last time I mention them) is that they call it “Fire Sauce,” when there is really no heat to scream about.

Reviewer #2: Initially burns the roof of the mouth, then all around the mouth. In sufficient quantity, it produces a good sweat on the skull and forehead, and a runny nose. This was labeled mild, but I peg it more medium – a 6/10 on the HSB scale. In some ways, behaves like cayenne, but in other ways, has a quicker effect like some other pepper is predominant.

Reviewer #3: Initially there wasn’t detectable heat, but the more and more I had right out of the bottle the more the heat was actually building. On food the heat was also more pronounced, and, strangely, lingered. Again, it reminded me of Taco Bell.

Chipotle Tacos

Chili Mac

Skirt Steak Tacos

Overall: Reviewer #1: Good. It will definitely be my go-to sauce for Mexican food, as friendly as the sombrero-ed Tapatio man appears (watch this is Tapatio). I don’t really know what they could change. The sauce has a very clear vision, Mexico, and I think it accomplished what it had set out to do. I bought some Chipotle to put it on for dinner, and it was very good, not to mention classier and tastier than Taco Bell (oops, I did it again). Chipotle (the restaurant chain) is actually a relatively new thing here in New York, and everyone is pretty crazy about it. I think it’s overpriced, but clean and well-managed. However, this is neither here nor there. Enjoy your food, and if it’s Mexican, enjoy this sauce on it.

Reviewer #2: I would buy this by the gallon to add tang, spice and a richer flavor to chili, soups, stews, bloodys, scrambled eggs, you name it. 8.5/10

Reviewer #3: This is not a sauce I would buy. It’s not a terrible sauce, don’t get me wrong. It’s just too much like a sauce you would find at a fast food place, like Taco Bell or Wendy’s: Hot for the Non-hot Crowd, but nothing really to offer the rest of us. 5.2/10.

Curious to know what sauce it is? Information on the sauce is available below the fold (more…)

Also, as I mentioned on the phone, we’re recognizing Jungle Jims International Market as one of two Gourmet News Retail Leadership Award winners for 2007. Each year we present the award to a specialty retailer for achievements occurred during the year. This year, when our staff and members of our parent company United Publications was reviewing the year’s stories, we were all impressed with the size and the scope of the Weekend of Fire.

Stu Hirsch, one of our reporters and a self-described chilehead, was very impressed with the event< -the organization, the attention to detail of the staff. And it's worth noting the exhibitors couldn't say enough nice things about Jungle Jims and the event itself.

So for us, recognizing Jungle Jims as the Gourmet News Retail Leadership Winner of 2007 was a slam dunk!

Anna Wolfe
Editor
Gourmet News
106 Lafayette Street
Yarmouth ME 04096
207.846.0600 ext. 232
awolfe@gourmetnews.com

You can download the entire PDF of the article featured in Gourmet News here (PDF).

Congrats Bret & JJ’s!!!