The fellow that invented this is a gazillioniare.
Posted on 12/15/2012 6:51:23 AM PST by PJ-Comix
In April research firm IBISWorld declared manufacturing of the spicy condiment to be one of the 10 fastest-growing industries in the U.S., with average company revenue jumping 9.3 percent per year over the last decade.
Even though the segment is small—roughly 5,500 people employed by 218 sauce companies, an industry valued at $1 billion—it packs an entrepreneurial punch.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
LOL—there are hot sauces out there that make Tabasco seem like ketchup . . . that being said, Tabasco is fine stuff (the original).
Yeah, there are sauces out there hotter than Tabasco but are they BETTER?
/johnny
Almost everything is better than Tabasco. Tabasco is just hot and watery. Red Hot, in contrast, is thick and flavorful.
Incidentally I don't think this is a novel development. Last time I was in New Orleans, about ten years ago, there was a kiosk down by that beignoir & coffee place, with whole shelves full of little bottles of different sauces.
/johnny
In fact, Tobasco has been playing “catch up” trying to keep up with all the wonderful hot sauces on the market.
Now they make chili garlic, chipotle, buffalo wing, etc etc etc
They seem to go for the hotter the better so it kills the taste of whatever your eating. No, there is nothing BETTER than Tobasco. I even make my own, but only for single dishes ( one for venison, one for fish, and one taste for veggies)).
BTW, there is a strange notion that South Americans love hot spicey sauces. Not true. Mexicans and Central Americans down to about Guatemala love spicey foods but south of that...absolutely not. My wife is from Venezuela and none of her relatives and it turn out, almost nobody, in the surrounding countries like hot food at all. One time my wife actually took a bite of slightly spicey fried chicken and was instantly revolted. Also she can’t understand when I say I live to feel the heat in my ears and chest.
In a Bloody Mary? Probably not. In other applications? Definitely yes.
Arguing about the "better" hot sauce is like arguing about the "better" sportscar. Wouldn't you rather have a dozen in the garage?
Sriracha is awesome.
I just came in 3rd place in a chili cook off this week.
What did #1 and #2 have that I was missing?
Sriracha
Nothing is better in a bowl of Pho Tai Nam
At a certain point the hotness of a sauce can really mess with your insides. I don’t like waking up in the middle of the night with acid reflux in my throat.
Just hot enough and with the best taste I've ever experienced in a hot sauce. It was introduced about 1995, during the last heyday of the hot sauce revolution.
The salsa, reintroduced recently, just isn't the same thing.
Some, like siracha, are finished off with plenty of garlic ~ everything is pureed in ~ it's not just a chopped pepper with vinegar.
So, what's the deal with Anaheim peppers? First, they have a shorter growing season so you could probably grow them in upstate NY ~ and second, they have a very high capsaicin count. Third, they puree well ~ outside tissues and all.
SE Asians are appreciative of the high quality of Huy Fong ~ which I am not advertising, and this one has expanded well beyond the days when it was whipped up in the restaurant kitchen. I know some Malaysian guys who seriously looked into IMPORTING Huy Fong brand from California to Thailand and Malaysia ~ the very heart of the ancient spice trade.
Answer ~ yes, folks there love it, no; no, they have nothing like it even though the product was invented there, and you wouldn't believe how high the tariffs were!!!!
Living in Silicon Valley, my kids grew up eating Thai, Viet Namese, Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In high school, they’d let out a yell “Weak Sauce!!” for something lame — used to crack me up. They all really like spicy foods.
Yes, they were still there when we were in NO last year. I wanted to buy one of each, but the bottles were small & they were at least $7.50 each.
I recently tried Van Roehling Chipotle sauce & it’s excellent:
http://marketplace.theblaze.com/van-roehling-sauces-rubs-home
The bizarrely hot ones are really more of a novelty, something you’d try on a dare. They’re not particularly edible or useful.
That said, I enjoy the variety that has come into existence over the past decade or so. There are old standards that have withstood the test of time such as McIlhenny Tabasco.
Then, there are regional and even local favorites, some just as old. There’s a widely distributed, inexpensive Louisiana hot sauce that relies much more upon cayenne, sort of a sweeter, “mmmmm” kind of heat that I love, named Crystal.
The local fave is more vinegary hot and works well with wings or even vegetables, shines as a table condiment. That would be Texas Pete. Above and beyond the regular red sauce, they have bottled, pickled hot peppers in vinegar, used almost exclusively on collards and other cooked greens. Delicious, just enough bite and just enough tart to counterbalance collards which are a little sweet for a green when cooked in the traditional southern manner.
I’m under the impression that most places have their own, online sales have broadened availability and interest.
Texas Pete is the winner in my book.
That is amazing, given that it takes months to go through a bottle of it. I can go through a regular sized bottle of Tabasco in a couple weeks. And then I have to buy more. Sriracha takes much much longer. (It is really good , though.)
I love Pho. We had that for Thanksgiving over there.
/johnny
I’ve worked and traveled in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Ecuador — what you say is true about South American cuisine. My favorite in Chile was Locos Mayo — Cocina Típica Chilena.
Ah, the ubiquitous “rooster sauce” in Thai and Vietnamese places.
I put it on the side to control the burn, lol. It can get away with you, even if you’re an old hand with hot sauces.
jRANDOM, y’know what’s good mixed with scrambled eggs?
Kimchee, the spicy Korean cabbage . You need no further spice or heat with kimchee.
(Of course, I’m talking about S. Korea. In North Korea the equivalent is weeds from the nearest abandoned lot)
There are different hot sauces for different foods. Tabasco is good, but I like the green Tabasco better. I have good old Louisiana Hot sauce for Cajun foods, I make fresh salsa with Jalapeno juice for Mexican food.
I have the rooster sauce for Aisian cooking, Chile paste with garlic, Green and Red Thai Curry paste, and recently found out how to make that killer hot table sauce for Indian curries.
The best flavored hot sauce is Habernero based, but you better be careful with it....
DO NOT SLURP YOUR SOUP!
/johnny
Franks is my #2 next to Texas Pete’s.
I’ve been using El-Yucateco lately both Red and Green. It’s a habanero sauce, tasty and a lot of fun. After about a minute your pores open up and let loose like a good workout.
I like flavorful hot sauces but the ones that are in a competition to be the “hottest” are awful. Tabbasco is good stuff. I like Lousiana too.
I would suck a used Q tip dipped in that LOL
I go through sriracha like crazy.
I go though Crystal pretty quick too.
I don’t eat hot sauce, it burns me all the way through, if you get my meaning. But there are some shops in New Orleans that have dozens and dozens of brands of hot sauce. I think maybe you buy them for the funny labels and not actually to eat. My favorite doesn’t have a name just a picture on the bottle of a guy with his mouth wide open like he is screaming. Too funny.
Very true. One of my final papers in culinary school was about the use of peppers. Upshot of the paper was I could tailor design a sauce that hit whatever target you wanted. Back of the throat burn? Got it. Up front burn nosehair? No problem. Something even and balanced all the way down (but not out)? Got that, too.
/johnny
I like Anaheim peppers a lot. Cook them on the grill and Grill / Smoke some chicken breast with bacon and cheese, slice open the pepper and use it as a bed for the chicken bacon cheese. Verryyy tasty.
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
Good healthy shot of sriracha, dab of hoisin, add the jalapenos, herbs, sprouts, squeeze of lime...
Roll eyes back into the brain pan, put yer face in the bowl and ruin your shirt LOL
My throat isn’t the problem. What get’s me is the last chain in the digestive process the next day. You should follow the hot stuff with Ice cream. The next day you say “Come on Ice Cream”.
I love sriracha but we eat red or green chile on pretty much everything.
Yes I’ve done Chrystal. Very Very good.
Oh yeah, we can’t forget about the effects of Chinese mustard and Wasabi.
How about a hot sauce with a little of the above “stimulants” thrown in?
Yep, 20+ years ago, a friend took me to a specialty food shop to peruse the large selection. Probably huge now. At the time, I was looking for the highest Scoville number.
Once you realize that killing/numbing the taste buds is self-defeating, a more balanced approach is better appreciated.
Yes, “rooster sauce”
They were surprised when I pulled out my own personal chop sticks.
/johnny
Some Chinese places offer a side of what looks very much like dried red pepper flakes in olive oil, don’t know the proper name of it but there’s more to it than that, the peppers may have been dried but they’re still sort of meaty, garlic is involved too. Love it, whatever it is. “Pepper oil” is all I know, and they know what I mean so it works, lol.
Jalapenos do that, Haberneros don't. But if you make your own, you must dilute the Habernero, unless you're a masochist.
Don't get the juice in your eyes or under your fingernails.
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