Hot sauce is the ubiquitous condiment. One might use cayenne peppers while another gets spiked with garlic, but no matter your cuisine, culture, or country, some form of hot sauce is on almost every one's table come meal time. What’s on yours?
A few years ago, I made my own hot sauce from anaheim peppers grown in our garden. It was the bomb, almost literally. That was some sinus-clearing stuff, and excellent on scrambled eggs.
In terms of commercial brands, I’m afraid I’ve switched loyalties. I used to be a Tabasco girl, but then a roommate left a bottle of Sriracha after moving out and I’ve been hooked ever since. I really love its sweet heat and hit of garlic in almost any dish.
What about you?
Related: Can’t Take the Heat? How to Eat Spicy Foods
(Image: Flickr member stevendepolo licensed under Creative Commons)
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Oohhh, different favorites for different cuisines! I'm also a sriracha fan, but I think my overall favorite is Valentino. It's got a flavor that's not too smoky and it's one of the cheaper options too. My boyfriend is partial to his Challulah though :-)
Tabasco is my go to hot sauce. Like many but Tabasco is the one that I reach for the most. The reference sauce, the standard... Sriracha garlic stands out a little much for some dishes but is perfect for others, for example pho or sushi.
The best hot sauce, hands down, is Salsa Encino. It's one of the few I've found that's made from chiles de arbol, which gives it a very unique flavor. I've only found it in stores at Southern California Northgate Markets. We call it dirty sauce because it is sorta smoky hot flavor.. YUM on breakfast burritos!
Salsa Valentina - black label
I love Sriracha, but I'm an upstate New York girl at heart--Frank's Red Hot is my go-to.
I love Sriracha for most things, but for eggs or Mexican dishes, Tapatio is my hands-down favorite.
Siracha and Cholula... they both have a unique flavor.
Maria's XXXX! Yummy and hot.
I enjoy rooster sauce (Sriracha), but I use habanero-based sauces on more often & on more foods. 2 of my favorites are 'Smack My Ass & Call Me Sally' & 'Asbirin'. I have a bottle of Blair's After Death sauce that I really like the taste of as well, but it brings too much heat to use more than sparingly.
Valentina... either label but I prefer the milder yellow label. It's an actual a saucy hot sauce that isn't runny like so many other hot sauces. Got hooked on it in Mexico while eating it on, of all things, my popcorn!
Louisiana Gold is a great all-purpose hot sauce. It's similar in heat to Tabasco but has a much, much better flavor. I like Dave's Insanity when I want to add heat (it's so strong that a few drops in a whole pot of chili will be quite noticeable), but it doesn't add enough flavor on its own. The whole Goya Salsita line is quite nice, particularly the Smoky Ancho and Arbol-Lime. And I keep a jar of pureed chipotles en adobo in the fridge to spoon into my food as-is.
I love them all, but for really hot stuff, I second the commenter who mentioned After Death sauce. That brand has a whole continuum of sauces, and a friend said it only took three drops of the hotter Sudden Death to heat an entire pot of chili!
I grew up not too too far from Avery Island where Tabasco is made but hate Tabasco. The taste, the heat. All of it. I recently got hooked on Siracha though.
Cholula all the way for me, especially on pizza and eggs!
If I'm at a restaurant and, thus, only have an option to get large, commercial hot sauces, I'll usually ask for Texas Pete or Cholula.
However, in my house, where I can control what I eat, I prefer the Trader Joe's brand hot sauce.
Miss Anna's Habanero Pepper Sauce is the perfect compliment to pork.
I love hot sauce on everything. Sriracha is my standard for all but Mexican food. In the States, I use Valentino, but in Mexico, I use El Pato or Tapatio. Something about the smell of Tabasco (the vinegar?) makes me sick to my stomach. I cannot eat a table where people have put it on their food. I start gagging.
Tapatio is my favorite straight up hot sauce, but for some flavor, I really love a DC local brand called Uncle Brutha's. Best ever.
Tapatio! And chiu chow oil <3
Siracha or Cholula!
Sriracha for sure! Any hot sauce will do in a pinch, though - even the "Ass In The Tub" variety. Just give me spicy sauce!
Pepper Plant Hot Sauce out of the Monterey/Salinas area. Delicous stuff!
My former roommate left his collection of hot sauces in our fridge but my good-tos are still always Sriracha and Tapatio.
Gotta have a selection! Crystal, Trappey's, Louisiana, Frank's, Tapatio, Cholula, Melinda's, Sriracha, and Tabasco are kicking around my kitchen now. Can't find the sambal at the moment but it's here somewhere.
Heat and spice fiends should keep a can of Tony Chachere's around too, also peppers in vinegar, which is especially good in soups or on beans.
http://mybrands.com/Product.aspx?pid=253
I keep Valentino (black bottle in the left of the picture at the top of the post) and Frank's original, along with several different kinds of salsa, on hand at all times. I had Sriracha but man after a long time in the fridge that stuff gets unbelievably hot, to the point where I can hardly stand to use it (whereas I can douse food with it at restaurants and I'm fine). I have used Crystal in the past but that was because the ex liked it better than Frank's. My girlfriend now doesn't really do spicy food so I get to do things my way hehe.
Tapatio, bar none. I find myself using it from breakfast (Ketchup + Tap on hash browns) to lunch (adds flavor to the blandest leftover) to dinner. Speaking of my hash browns, I can't tell you how lovely Ketchup + Tap goes with french fries. Amazing stuff.
I love sriracha as well as the Huy Fong garlic chili sauce for a lot of applications.
Tapatio is probably my standard hot sauce that I use the most.
I like Chipotle Tabasco a lot, plus my wife actually enjoys it.
I also like plain tabasco.
My favorite (in small doses) is the El Yucateco Maya Kutbil-IK XXX habanero sauce. Soooo good.
Tapatio, tapatio, tapatio.
My favorite is this habanero pepper sauce called El Yucateo, comes in green and red, and has a delicious flavor and serious kick.
another upstate native - franks. but i love sambal olek and sriracha, just for differnt uses.
I love the smokiness of Cholula and the vinegar bite of Crystal. Crystal gets more play on buffalo wings and Cajun foods, and Cholula goes on everything else that needs some spiciness.
Whenever I visit the Detroit area I have to stop by The Flytrap in Ferndale, MI for a great "blunch" and a few bottles of their house hot sauce: Swat Sauce...my hands-down favorite.
Chipotle Tabasco, Cholula, Mad Dog (hot and holy hot tasty), Aardvark, Burn Baby Burn, Sriracha, Trader Joes Hot Sauce
I received a bottle of Williams-Sonoma Hot Wing Sauce a while back and I love using it on everything. Never actually made hot wings with it, but I particularly love it on eggs, hash browns, and fried rice.
I like Bone Suckin' Habanero Sauce - it's kinda somewhere in between hot sauce and barbecue sauce. But it's got a nice fiery kick to it.
Though I've always loved Scorned Woman hot sauce too. Both for the name and for the taste.
I'm addicted to that Vietnamese Chili Garlic Sauce made by Huy Fong Foods, Inc.. I put it on practically anything.
Frank's Red Hot Hot Sauce.
Grace's Jamaican Hot Pepper Sauce... hot damn.
Tapatio hands down. I buy it in the big bottles and refill the one in the fridge. I eat it on way too many things!
Without question it is Clancy's Fancy. So much good stuff in that sauce. Honey, Olive Oil, ginger, cayenne, freakiiiiin..... you name it. Clancy's fancy on a scrambled egg on toast. Simple. Delicious.
Do.
Want.
Now.
Gotta go with the Tapatio crowd, I buy it by the quart. I do have maybe twenty other varieties for other applications, though. Local hot sauces ate what I buy when we go on vacation!
We are a "wide selection of hot sauces" household too-- my go-to is Texas Pete , my fiance is a Tabasco guy, I prefer Frank's when I'm making wings, and we probably go through a bottle of Sriracha in a month.
I'm honestly surprised to see so little Texas Pete love so far, though!
Franks Red Hot or Cholula for me.
Tabasco green jalapeno sauce!! Perfect for eggs, rice, tacos, etc. Cholula is nice for a stronger/smokier flavor...but oh man do I love the green Tabasco.
Has anyone mentioned Bufalo Chipotle hot sauce yet? That's one of the many kinds we keep in the fridge (and use frequently). Sriracha, tapatio, sambal, and franks are others that get heavy rotation... other obscure or 'single purpose' sauces are in there, too.
Plus we make liberal use of the cayenne pepper when we want heat without sauciness.
Love this post!
I love hot sauce and it is something I throw into my suitcase when returning from travels to Mexico and South America only if I kept all the bottles over the years.
I buy frequently Cholula hot sauce original.
I'm with gah - bufalo chipotle is my favorite. We also couldn't live without old fashioned tabasco, frank's red hot and sriracha - every once in a while I pick up something different and try it out.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot sauce... It's made here in Portland, and is my standard go-to hot sauce. It's very spicy, but the flavor is beyond awesome. We've done a few tastings (6+ sauces against each other), and Aardvark always comes out on top.
For Asian dishes, I go for Sriracha, and I love Tiger sauce on tuna sandwiches (really, it's fantastic!). I can only use the vinegar-heavy sauces (Tabasco) for southern food, which I rarely cook.
You can order Secret Aardvark online, too!
El Pato and Sriracha, all the time!
devlyn, my boyfriend used Secret Aardvark on his Amish breakfast sandwich in Philly! I remember that label, boy was it spicy! And delicious too.
My favorite was actually a kind bought at a street stand in downtown Asheville, NC. I wish I could remember the name - this guy grew, smoked, mixed, and bottled all of his four varieties of hot sauce, and the one I bought was a sort of chipotle-style one. It was so good; I could just smell this stuff and my mouth would start watering. Sadly, I ran out and I can't find his website again. It was something like balzama or balsama.com...
Otherwise, I just tend to use my giant bottle of Sriracha.
TAPATIO !!!!! Oh man its soooo good.
My absolute favorite is Melinda's, but I also like green Tabasco on some things.
I grew up on Cajun Chef, so that's the house sauce. Never cared much for Tabasco - tastes one dimensional to me.
The hot sauce that I eat most is Trappy's Red Devil(the boyfriend is siracha and a locally made mango/habanero).
I was introduced to Trappy's Red Devil by some gals at work. One of them had gotten some fried chicken from Time Out Foods here in Omaha. So tasty...a life-threatening heart attack in the making. I had never had it with the hot sauce but once they shared I can't stop thinking about it. And now I put Red Devil on everything. Fried green tomatoes, collards, tuna, eggs...not super spicy just so so so tasty and a little bit of vinegar.
Texas Pete is my all-purpose hot sauce. I have a bottle of red Tabasco for when I am in the mood, but now I am kinda craving the green sauce. I use Sriracha on anything asian, and hot dogs. I'm sad to say I haven't experimented much out of those 4. I just really love the flavor of Texas Pete.
I live in North Carolina, the even have Texas Pete in middle school lunch rooms. I could I not love it?
*How could I not love it?
I guess I got a little too excited while nerding out over hot sauce.
Bring on the Aardvark! I moved to Portland recently and discovered the Secret Aardvark at a local breakfast joint. Now I'm addicted, but I also like Tapatio and rooster sauce. Can't stand Tabasco though.
I have several on hand for whatever mood strikes me!
Sriracha, Tabasco, Tapatio and two types of Golden Toad (habanero and chipotle) are what I have in the house at the moment. Golden Toad is great stuff! I discovered it at the Fiery Foods Show last year. If you can't find it you can order it online. It's so worth it! I actually drive 20 minutes to the nearest store that has it.
Cholula because it's so much fun to say. Cholulaahh!
Tabasco, still.
Cap Jempol sambal or Kokita's sambal terasi or Kokita sambal blacan. Indonesian's hot sauce.
I still like tabasco on my scrambled eggs though, it gives that necessary sour and lil' kick to the breakfast.
You just can't beat Sriracha!!
Cholulah is great if you're escaping the heat but still want flavor.
Man, I just can't get into Tabasco or Cholulah. I can put some in chili, but I prefer Dave's Insanity Sauce for that.
My everyday hot sauce, though, is Melinda's XXX. Lots of flavor for tacos and the like. Or you can go with the non-XXX versions and be more liberal with the application.
My very favorite, though, was one I discovered in Portland, OR called Secret Aardvark. I brought half a dozen bottles back to the Midwest, and we ran through them in a few short months. My only recourse now is to order a case at a time!
After visiting an AMAZING hot sauce store in St. Charles, MO I discovered Scorned Woman hot sauce and am now hooked. Luckily it's also avail on amazon b/c we've burned through 2 bottles since late summer.
Valentina all over everything. I go through a litre bottle every couple of months.
Siracha, Chili Oil, and simple sliced chilis in fish sauce (fish sauce is not what it sounds or tastes like - it has a salty flavor like soy sauce but is lighter in taste.)
I guess I'm not hot sauce expert because I just tend to use Texas Pete. Although from the looks of it, I should try Tapatio. I hate Tabasco. Sriracha is sooo good though, I just wish I knew what to put it on other than in spicy mayo!
Texas Pete and Crystal have too much vinegar for my taste. Tabasco is pretty good if cooking for company. I enjoy it so much I sometimes take tablespoon as a treat and pick-me-up.
When I want to kick it up a notch, I have previously preferred Blair's Death line of sauces, but have been playing XXXRatedHotSauces recently.
Chipotle powder is the ticket for making eggs.
@Ding I can vouche for Melinda's sauce. Very tasty with enough heat.
i have been trying hot pepper sauce for over 20 years and the best one i can find in the uk is delgety extra extra hot pepper sauce they have a web site, barons blazing hot is also good as is windmills yellow one, tesco do a blair one at £6 a bottle but jamaica pride is sold in the same shop at 55p,sriracha sauces are fantastic the ones with extra onion or ginger or garlic are the best and super sour, avoid sriracha super hot its too over powering.
My two favs are Tapatio and Siracha...
That's a no brainer. Zach's Zombie Sauce. :-) I think what gave us an edge is that we were connoisseurs first. We hadn't intended to go into the sauce business, but we couldn't find a really hot sauce that had quite the flavor we wanted until we created it ourselves. Still, there are other really good sauces out there, too, and often they're made by little known companies who sell to a smaller market. So research the food blogs, and try some of the little guys before deciding on a favorite sauce.