[mcgsxr]

I am interested to hear what you boys favour, when it comes time to spice it up.

One I have recently discoverd, that really floats my boat, is called Nando's Peri Peri - I like the Hot - http://www.nandoscanada.com/retail-peri.php

I like some flavour with heat, not just heat - I am not a fan of wing hot sauce - too vinegar for me.  I am also not a wasabi or horseradish fan - too nasal.

I like chili's, and I like a sauce with heat plus flavour.

What do y'all recommend?

[IronLion]

I'm a huge fan of hot sauces, though I always find myself coming back to good old Tabasco in the end.  A good one that I tried not too long ago was made by Pain is Good, link below.  The thing I like about Tabasco is the flavor, and also that its so low in sodium.  Most hot sauces, while good, are like sprinkling liquid salt on your food.  I use it in such high amounts for flavor and heat that low salt is a big plus for me.  Half the time though I find myself just sprinkling ground cayenne on top of my food...

http://www.painisgood.com/pain.asp?sizzle=195

[mcgsxr]

Good point about the salt content, I will review what is in the Peri Peri.

I am a big fan of cayenne on steak too - I love a cajun style (at least, that is what I am calling it, way up here near Toronto) where I salt, pepper, and cayenne the steak - then do Chicago style (sometimes referred to as Philli but I believe that is more formally black and blue - charred exterior, very rare interior, whereas I am after a medium interior with charred exterior) and add the Peri Peri when on the plate.

I find Tobasco good, but about as vinegar as I will go - just my taste buds, others might not "see" that flavour in that sauce.

[Thebiker]

www.asskickin.com

These folks range from hot but tasty to full insane inferno.  They offer at least 6 different hot sauces as well as salsa and marinades.  They also have recipes, of which my favorite it their "Ass Kickin' Corn Bread".  It comes out moist, flavorful with an pleasant bite.  Damn, now I have to make some when I get home and a pot of chili.

Try it, you'll like it 

I just went out to their web site, the original Ass Kickin Corn Bread recipe is not there .  I hope I still have it at home.  I originally got it off a bottle of Ass Kickin Hot Sauce.  Now I have to dig for it.

Walt

[bummrush]

I know a lot of people make their own,but for something from a chain,Chipotles hot sauce is incredibly flavorful.

[some young guy]

I also use a lot of Tabasco while cooking. I use it to finish soups and to add a little heat to salad dressings. Tabasco is also a favorite around here for marinating chicken. I literally bathe the chicken in it over night, then put it on the BBQ. When I really want to turn it up, I use Inner Beauty! It's really good and really HOT



This stuff is seriously hot, but also has some nice fruit to it. Aparently, it's no longer being made though... 

I use to order a lot of stuff from these guys, but it's been a while.

http://www.mohotta.com/category/s

[PhilNYC]

Not quite a traditional hot sauce used in western BBQ, but I really do like this Thai chili sauce:

http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/sriracha.htm

[DaveC113]

Dave's Private Reserve Insanity Sauce:

http://www.bigdaddyff.com/dagoinsaprre.html

Nothing compares...  its expensive, but one bottle will last you for a LONG time. The flavor is exceptional too. Years ago, a local restaurant had the yr. 2000 edition, I bought a 2001 (which wasn't quite as good, but even hotter), and its about time for a new bottle.

Use extreme caution. At the restuarant, I put about 2 drops on a chicken wing, another guy put a big dab on one bite of his food... I warned him, but he looked at me like I was a big pu$$y and ate it. It took him about a half hour to recover, he almost puked. 

[some young guy]

Not quite a traditional hot sauce used in western BBQ, but I really do like this Thai chili sauce:

http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/sriracha.htm

It's good on frys too!

Use extreme caution. At the restuarant, I put about 2 drops on a chicken wing, another guy put a big dab on one bite of his food... I warned him, but he looked at me like I was a big pu$y and ate it. It took him about a half hour to recover, he almost puked. 

Yeah, I gotta have some of that! 

[art]

Oh, boy, a thread about something that I know something about. But I have to be brief, as I have appointments to keep.

Someone who used to work here (and please don't ask why it is "used to") is from Trinidad. At one time, we looked into this business as an alternative revenue stream.

The one that we liked the best was called.............not surprisingly.............Trinidad Habanero Hot Sauce. Made by some outfit in Jacksonville. Very tasty, and an authentic recreation of what he grew up eating. Although he had no idea what the secret island spices where. (His dad may have, never found out.)

Anyway, seeing someone post a picture of "The Rooster", as it is called, reminds me of the day above-mentioned schmuck used an entire small size bottle of that as a pizza sauce.

Another time, he bought one of the "Dave's Inanity" formulations. He put one drop of that into a pot of spaghetti sauce.

He had to pour the entire pot down the drain. That is how hot that stuff is. All heat, and zilch flavour.

We used to go to Dave De Witt's Spicy Foods convention. At one of those, you-know-who tried a "Dave's knock-off", on a chip. Before he could warn me on how vile it was, I had managed to swallow mine. As did someone we were traveling with. None of us ate dinner that night. Years of ingesting really hot peppers was insufficient preparation for that assault.

The next morning, we returned to the booth were they were selling that vile crap. The weaselly little  salesman was going on to some unsuspecting dupe on how great it was.............full of flavour..........repeat sales.............blah, blah.

So, the antagonistic little creep that I am, I get in the guy's face. and go: "If this crap is so full of flavour, then why don't I see you eating it?"

Stunned, he paused, and started back into his canned delivery.

"Look, pal, I have had chemotherapy more pleasant than this crap."

Having >6' tall dudes on either side of me, he was really starting to stammer now. One of them looked down on him, and said, quite forcefully: "He's right."

Moral of the story: there is real hot sauce, and then there is stuff that isn't worth the effort. May be good to impress your old college roommates, but other than that..............

Pat

[mattyturner]

I don't like it super hot. My current fav is Cholula hot sauce. It's finding it's way onto a lot of my meals!

[IronLion]

Art, I learned a long time ago about the difference you're talking about between hot sauces, and from the same sauce you're referring to, that Dave's Insanity or whatever.  Put a drop of it a long time ago on a tortilla chip expecting to be ready for whatever it could throw at me, it tasted like basically nothing, but the heat factor was so unpleasant, annoyingly so, it took me several glasses of water just to get back to somewhat normal.  Avoid that stuff like the plague.  Thats what I like so much about Tabasco, I already have sort of a thing for sour vinegar based BBQ sauces so the Tabasco fits in, has a perfect kick in my opinion when used liberally and great flavor for me.

[accent]

  The Rooster sauce, Siracha?  is the bomb. I started putting a little in catsup and my little one has now developed a taste for spice.
   As for myself I will try anything that has Scotch Bonnet peppers in it, its a cousin to the Habanero with a much sweeter burn although the heat factor is no less.

[mgalusha]

A couple of years ago on vacation we ate a diner that had something called Danny Cash's Bottled Up Anger. I picked up a bottle just because I liked the name. It turned out to be some of the most enjoyable hot sauce I've had. I've bought 1/2 dozen bottles since then. They rate the heat as 7 of 10 but I'd give it more like a 5.5 or 6. Nice but not wreck your ass hot.

Bottled Up Anger

Also, nice folks to deal with. 

[djbnh]

Not quite a traditional hot sauce used in western BBQ, but I really do like this Thai chili sauce:

http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/sriracha.htm

That is good stuff, I use quite a bit of it.

I also like their chili garlic sauce, which also gets a lot of play at the house on pot stickers, in various marinade, in cold Thai beef salad, etc: http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/garlic.htm

[craig223]

I like Cholulas among the store purchased varieties.  I usually make my own from vinegar and cayenne peppers.  Let it age about 3 months.  You can heat it up by breaking the peppers open.  I never use any salt or preservatives of any kind.  This makes a wonderful pepper vinegar for greens and salad dressings.

You can also place the peppers in a basket and dry them on your kitchen counter.  Then toss them in the blender. 

My wife and I grow most of our spices in a small corner of the garden.

Craig

[ohenry]

Iguana Dueces Bold Gold Habanero Sauce.  It has lots of spicy flavor as well as some heat.
"A classic Bajan-style recipe with mustard, onion, garlic, cucumber, cumin & other spices..."

I like some of their other sauces too:
http://www.halfmoonbaytrading.com/products/indiv.cfm?session=HMB-836579-29800739-20080616053716&group=1030

[pbrstreetgang]

Believe, it or not I prefer Louisiana brand more than anything I have ever used

[spudco]

For a mild sause, the Cholulas sauces are nice.

For spicer - We love Hot Sauce From Hell - made with Habeneros but very edible.  The best sauce I've found for my tastes.

[Turnandcough]

I don't really go for all the "anal insanity" hot sauces out there. To me they're more of a novelty than a quality product. Some of the names are hilarious but I can't help picture some bearded slob mixing it "out back" in a rusted drum.
I think Cholula's and Picantro(can't find it anymore) are pretty decent well balanced sauces. You can use them liberally to add flavor and some heat without burning a hole in your stomach lining. For asian I like Sriracha or Sambal.
If I'm in the mood for some real heat I like Matouk's Calypso. It's kind of fruity but make no mistake it's lethal. I ended up with some prostate problems after overdoing it on some bhajis. I now tone it down with a sweet tamarind based sauce for a more reasonable treat.