Ryan’s Hot Sauce Collection

Coming off his high from winning the cutting room floor contest, Ryan was kind enough to send us his entry to the contest and images of his collection. I think it was the pink helmet that sealed the deal for him 🙂

I want to start off by thanking you for not only giving all of us chiliheads a shot at “The Cutting Room Floor”, but more so for making the most kick ass sauces and reserves around. With that said, onto part 1.

I typically use your sauces any way I can. I put it straight on anything that’s not sweet (or that has a brown gravy), mix with mayonnaise, ranch dressing, ketchup, soups, gumbo, and jambalaya. Once in a while I bring out the 3 AM to really kick things up a notch and watch my friends and family cry when I coax them into trying it. My alternate use is (please don’t let the ASPCA read this) cat repellant.

As for Part 2…I have attached pictures of my small and modest collection, but I love it anyway and it will continue to grow. My collection consists primarily Blair’s products, my favorite being my 6 AM. I love the color combination, the fact that it is the hottest LIQUID chili product out there, the over all look (as with all the reserves) and the fact that it’s the last of the AM line. The rest of my collection is made up of various hot sauces that I come across that I think look cool, taste good, or are just given to me. I also have 1 of only 2 bottles of my own recipe.

I have been collecting for a year now. I have always loved hot food, particularly hot sauce. Years ago I had a subscription to Maxim Magazine. Therein was an article about the “Hardest” things in various categories. Featured as the hardest hot sauce was none other than the 3 AM. After seeing the picture of it and reading the article, I decided that I must have one. Unfortunately, I was not internet savvy at the time and I could not find a any place that carried it. after a while I kinda gave up my search, but always kept it in the back of my mind.

Forward 3-4 years later, I got married, moved to a town on the Oregon coast. There I Helped open the first Starbucks on the Oregon coast where came upon a girl with valuable information. We got to talking about our previous work experience and she told me that she used to work at a small shop called “Hot Stuff”, a seller of all things hot and spicy. Her telling me this sparked my memory, so I told her about this hot sauce that I always wanted but could never find. I described it to her and she told me that they had it, and others like it. I went there and felt like I had found the Holy Grail. I picked it up, took it home and showed my wife. She was not thrilled that I had spent $40 on a hot sauce, but was glad I had found something to make me happy as we did not have much money at the time and never spent any money on myself. I then went on a search for the rest of the AM line and discovered the beauty of Ebay.

To shorten an already long story, in June of 05 we moved back to my home town of Portland, OR, have a better job now and can afford to splurge a little bit on my hobby. My collection is just starting to take off and I hope to see it grow very rapidly. My friends and family all think I’m crazy when I tell them how hot some of this stuff is in comparison to Tobasco. I’ve managed to get my one of my brothers to try three drops of 3 AM in tomato soup, which he succeeded in finishing, and my other to try Sudden Death on some Chinese pork (I had to do it 5 times before he would) and declared that he would never do it again. My son and I will once in a while do a sampling of what I have in the cupboard, and just last night got him to try a drop of sudden death. Turns out my son is more of man than my older brother.

Just for shits and giggles I wanted to share this picture with you. This is the pumpkin I carved this last Halloween. These days, so many people take the easy way out by purchasing ceramic/electric pumpkins, use stencils, etc… I on the on the other like to keep things real and unique. Each year I look for inspiration to create my personal masterpiece (I carve 4 every year for my entire family). This time around I got frustrated and went to get a snack. After grabbing a cold slice of pizza I headed for the cupboard (can’t have pizza the way it is) and there I found my inspiration…a Blair’s Death Sauce Skull! After closely examining the skull, I tried my best to replicate it on the pumpkin. I hope that I did it justice, and that you enjoy the pictures.