Posted January 24, 2006 by Adam in Makers

Review: Peppermaster Jerk Curry

Master! Master! Peppermaster. That’s a bold statement. It’s Canadian, eh? When this itsy-bitsy jar showed up on my front porch, a feeling of trepidation crawled down my spine. Why is jar so small? Does it whup that much ass? Will I burn my mouth just by looking at it too long? Good things in small packages? Terrorists?

The real reason I felt so much trepidation is because the jar looks like something you might get at a Texas roadside gift shop along with the inevitable jalapeno jelly and chili mix. You know the kind. It usually has some caricature of Billy Bob the cowhand with flames coming out of this mouth and droplets of sweat shaking out from his face. You know the one.

That picture there is one I crafted with my very poor shot of the jar. I didn’t realize until days after I threw away the empty jar, that I had taken a picture of the FRENCH! side of the label. Wait, isn’t this product Canadian? It can’t be French … they couldn’t handle this heat.

Au Poivron Jerk means Jerk Curry. This Peppermaster blends is a curry-based jerk grilling slather. That’s it, end of list. And what a good slather it is. As is par with the course, I tested this jerk slather on some grilled chicken breasts. It’s one of my favorite ways to try grilling sauces. It’s easy and usually comes out tasting pretty good.

The Peppermaster brushed well onto the chicken. It wasn’t too thick, so the sauce didn’t goop up on the grill grates, nor was it too thin and slide off the chicken to die a horrible death on the holy fires below. The smell was a wonderful blend of jerk spices with a hint, nay, an afterthought of curry. Goldilocks could say the consistency was juuuusst right.

The Heat: This stuff is hot. Just hot. I would rate it B+ on heat. For us chileheads, it’s just hot. It’s a good heat, a dry heat. It’s a heat that slowly fills your mouth up and gives a pleasant capsaicin buzz by the time that last bit of chicken is done.

My father, who did eagerly try the jerked chicken, had to take a few breathers during the meal and exclaim, “Oh man, this is hot!” Heh. He once taught me all I knew about spicy foods, and now the student has become the master.

I could find nothing wrong with this sauce other than the fact that there was so little. The tiny jar this sauce came in only was able to cover about 3 large chicken breasts. I think that was being pretty skimpy.

After doing an exhaustive search on Peppermaster, I couldn’t figure out if the Jerk Curry was available in any size other than micro. If they did bottle it in larger jars (and get a better label) I could see this one sellling big, and I could see myself buying a lot of it.

Heat Rating: 5 out of 10 chiles.
Overall: Two thumbs up.