Comments on: Hot Sauces of the World

Hot Sauces of the World

Lemkin — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:41:48 -0800

Eaters around the world have spent thousands of years figuring out new ways to make their food hotter, so compiling anything close to a definitive list of hot sauces would be impossible. However, plenty of the more unusual hot sauces in the world are similar to, or influenced by the styles listed below.

By: Windopaene

Windopaene — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 20:01:18 -0800

I'm a Tapatio guy. Or some good Mexican Salsas. Gochujang is pretty good though. Wish I had had something hotter than BBQ sauce on my dinner. (However, Tabasco is nasty and boring) Will try to try some of these going forward. Harissa has been on my radar for a while to try, but many of these I have never heard of, and some sound great.

By: Windopaene

Windopaene — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 20:06:13 -0800

Weird. First time I clicked on this link, it was just a normal text article with some pictures. Second time, just full of blurred out pics of products to purchase, along with the text... Ah, two different links, my bad.

By: mittens

mittens — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 20:10:17 -0800

I have never seen peri peri spelled "piri piri" before! Clearly I need to try more varieties of it.

By: symbioid

symbioid — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 20:11:05 -0800

Nice to see some Aji Amarillo. I'm glad they had some Sambal, too. I want to try some hotter harissa, the Mina Harissa I had was a lot milder than I expected. I really like Sambal Oelek with Hummus & Pita Chips.

By: Greg_Ace

Greg_Ace — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 20:29:32 -0800

I'm no hard-core hot sauce guy - I'd surely die on Hot Ones, drowning in my own copious sweat. Still, I've tried a fair number of the more popular (in the US) sauces listed in the links above over the years and most provide a pleasant flavor but with only the lightest touch of zing. When I lived in Asheville NC I swore by local chef Hector Diaz' own Smokin' Jalapeno (later Habanero) Hot Sauce, which just a drop or two on his Caribbean-fusion restaurant's excellent food was plenty of heat but also plenty of intense flavor. Alas, now I live on the other side of the continent. The good news is, I've discovered Marie Sharp's Smoked Habanero Pepper Sauce, which is also quite spicy but with similarly great flavor. And even more smokiness. ❤️❤️ Plus it's cheaper than getting Hector's teeny bottles shipped to me...

By: potrzebie

potrzebie — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 20:45:01 -0800

Haha as a Tapatio loyalist who HATES Tabasco it was funny to see it explicitly mentioned as the "antithesis" of Louisiana style hot sauces. Damn straight! Es una salsa muy salsa!!

By: ashbury

ashbury — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:07:35 -0800

I know better than to click on a Serious Eats link! Down the rabbit hole.... I want to like hot sauces but most of them are just too hot for me - I would also die on Hot Ones. I don't like sweating and feeling uncomfortable, having my mouth on fire, not tasting my food and wanting to die so there's no need for ghost peppers, million Scoville sauces and all that. With that out of the way, here's my list of mild sauces. Sneer if you like, it's my mouth not yours Frank's is good in a pinch to kick it up a notch...a single notch. It's plain and vinegary and adds a small amount of heat without drowning out the taste of your food. People love to hate on Tabasco but it's popular and famous for a reason - simple, spicy but not by much and it can elevate your food without overwhelming it. Most types of piri piri are where I start to become uncomfortable and the food becomes more about the hot sauce. Some are easier for me than others. Sambal is loaded with flavor and is pure magic. There was no mention of spicy chili crisp, which is a crime. Sure, make your own or just get some perfection in a jar as discussed in the article. This stuff has so much flavor that it's a party in your mouth and you just want more and more and more. It's one of the few condiments that feels like I'm having trying it for the first time each time I have it - sometimes I'll just have some on a spoon like it's peanut butter. I'm salivating as I write this out. My friend brought back some Kaitaia Fire from New Zealand. He liked it so much that he bought a box and then ordered another box. My favorite was the Waha Wera. Sweetened with kiwis, I still miss this stuff that I last had many years ago. I've yet to try harissa but it's on my list. I'm looking forward to it! Not hot sauce at all but maybe very slightly adjacent, I make candied jalapenos and they're a hit with pretty much everybody who has them. Any fresh hot pepper would work but again, I don't like them too hot so jalps are the way to go for me.

By: Chuffy

Chuffy — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:59:11 -0800

Just popping in to say Marie Sharp's turned me on to habanero sauce when I was in Belize 25 years ago, and there is always a bottle in my kitchen (currently in need of a new bottle of Belizean Heat). That stuff is the bomb. Huy Fong's "Rooster Sauce" (Sriracha) hasn't been the same since the owner FAFO'd with their chili provider. Fascinating story...sad result.

By: Greg_Ace

Greg_Ace — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 22:03:14 -0800

Whoa, I'm definitely going to have to make some candied jalapenos - thanks, ashbury!

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 22:59:31 -0800

I hadn't really thought of hot sauces in terms of their categories, but yeah- I love picante sauces (Valentina Extra Hot being my absolute favorite) and can't stand the vinegar-forward Louisiana-style sauces, and it's nice to see that trend explained so neatly. A friend of mine gave me a bottle of green Sriracha by Tropics, describing it as "Sriracha verde", and it's fairly mild but goddamn if it isn't pure flavor.

By: Ice Cream Socialist

Ice Cream Socialist — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 01:17:22 -0800

Hot Sauces of the World Unite and take over!

By: BinaryApe

BinaryApe — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 01:35:17 -0800

"Hot Sauces I've Bought In The USA" would be a more accurate title - there's nothing from India, never mind UK, China, Japan, Middle East, etc - but the artwork is still lovely.

By: HVACDC_Bag

HVACDC_Bag — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 03:31:09 -0800

I worked south of I-10 in Louisiana for several years, which made me into a Crystal guy for an all purpose hot sauce. I also enjoy the Chipotle Tabasco (but not the regular one.) I recently found Melinda's Black Truffle hot sauce, which is amazing and I can eat that on just about anything. I also love harissa from my time working at a Moroccan restaurant half a lifetime ago.

By: Czjewel

Czjewel — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 04:40:35 -0800

Franks for my Buffalo wings! With a blue cheese dipping sauce, no ranch!

By: Kitteh

Kitteh — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 05:22:40 -0800

I love that these are presented as illustrations instead of photos! My preferred house hot sauce is the giant glass bottle of Valentina in my fridge. I am also partial to Crystal (which is surprisingly available here in Kingston but only at one grocery chain). I bought Shepherd a gift pack of chili crisp by Zing Pantry based in Toronto, and their super garlicky version is the tits. We are also routinely gifted hot sauce from small Ontario makers during the holiday season.

By: mittens

mittens — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 05:27:32 -0800

(not to derail onto blue cheese, but ironically, for breakfast just now i was having exactly what czjewel describes, only vegetarian chicken thingies instead of actual birds. anyway, i hated the blue cheese! which is weird to me, b/c i love blue cheese stuff in other contexts--salads with lots of fruit, for example. but for some reason blue's weird savory + spicy + vinegar just does not work for me at all! and i don't understand why, it's the same cheese!)

By: y2karl

y2karl — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 05:33:13 -0800

My understanding about the Sriracha sauce in the big red bottles with the green caps, which was the first and only Sriracha sauce sold in the US for some time was that they regretted not attempting to copyright the name as similar Srirachas were busting out all over soon after. But, otoh, the more the merrier eh?

By: Pararrayos

Pararrayos — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:07:50 -0800

While the article included several salsas from El Yucateco, they missed my favorite, kutbil-ik. Pica con sabor.

By: djseafood

djseafood — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:46:08 -0800

Harissa - if paprika had an angry child! Loved it at first taste. I have this wonderful Harissa paste from Socodal in a toothpaste style tube (like German hot mustard; another tangent to this) Pick-a-pepper - all of them, srsly the original is the best steak sauce (veg) any of the hotter varieties are excellent but OG (not hot) is my fav Gochujang - newer to me but amazing and the one I have is almost ketchup in texture. (kinda like Sriracha of old)

By: Dr. Curare

Dr. Curare — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:09:16 -0800

Useless trivia of the day. "Tapatío" is not a tío who serves tapas. It is what people from Guadalajara, Mexico are called. It comes from nahuatl "tlapatiotl", which means "worth three". It was a word in common usage in markets in Guadalajara (which itself comes from Moorish Arabic ي الحجارة (wādī al-ḥajārah), rocky river). Tlapatiotl refers to the custom of trading in threes in markets in Guadalajara in the 17th century, as in "may I have a tlapatiotl of tortillas", or to a set of three pouches containing 10 cacao pods each, which was a lot of money. European Spanish speakers mostly from the capital used Tapatío despectively to refer to people from Guadalajara. Bug now it is used with pride. Btw, notice that the charro on the label is white with blue or green eyes? There are regions in Jalisco, where Guadalajara is, with a lot of very white green and blue eyed people, but that is another long and complicated story.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:12:03 -0800

Favorite all around hot sauce for flavor: El Yucateco Kutbil-ik. Nothing beats it. Favorite for adding pure heat to other flavors: Dave's Scorpion Pepper Favorite for smoky flavor: Cholula Chipotle

By: Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon

Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:13:42 -0800

I suppose it's like craft beer - there's been a great proliferation of local creations in Canada over the last decade-or-so. I encourage it. The Huy Fong Rooster Sauce was much more potent back in the late 90s (when I first encountered it). I guess became more popular when the they made it smoother/less chunky and less hot (even before their MBA-fuelled supplier fuckup). I have yet to find a truly ideal hot sriracha - Kikkoman's comes close, but it's expensive. Most other brands are ketchupy failures. I've taken to making my own sriracha variant using mostly home-grown hot peppers (which reminds me - I'm late in getting my seeds going). Marie Sharp's sauces are superb. Clean, bright heat. I've ordered it by the gallon in the past.

By: thecincinnatikid

thecincinnatikid — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:24:27 -0800

In '91, shortly after we bought our first home - which is still our first and only home - I began collecting hot sauces and displaying them in our kitchen, a collection that grew by our own travels both foreign and domestic and those of our friends and families who came to know about my rather obsessive and unique interest. At that time, typical US groceries might have 3-5 brands of hot sauce, usually Tabasco and Frank's and maybe a few others of a more regional nature, while foreign shops would offer a similar selection of often hyper-localized brands alongside a nationally popular brand or two . Pre-Amazon or the advent of "international grocers", it was only by perusing stores and/or visiting the occasional restaurants that sold regional specialties that one could find "exotic" brands - and there was not yet a market for all the wacky varieties with crazy names and super-hot selections that would explode in the coming decades. Over that decade, our kitchen became an international bazar of hot sauces - lined one-by-one along every window ledge and sill and cabinet top, a collection that once exceeded a hundred varieties - dozens of which friends and family proudly bequeathed to me upon return from their travels and the rest each a joyful memory of our own. At parties and gatherings, I'd often be urged to bring down a bottle or two for some ceremonial tastings - I even once owned a hot sauce holster I wore on my hip by a belt loop cradling a specially chosen selection. There followed hot sauce posters and even a giant 3' fiberglass red pepper prop my wife carried home from a store design conference. Our collection was once even featured in a newspaper article by a local reporter who spent an entire summer walking Cincinnati neighborhoods and discovered my curious obsession when he happened onto our porch one morning for a chat and a cup of coffee. But by the time the category exploded, and the internet and international stores offered dozens, even hundreds of freshly launched brands at the click of a button or by handful and cartload, my highly curated collection was dwarfed by a tsunami of impersonal, easily-obtained Johnny-come-latelies and my capsaicin compulsion was soon after extinguished.

By: mmascolino

mmascolino — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:31:43 -0800

Agree that plain Tabasco is well below replacement level hot sauce. However Chipotle Tabasco is quite good. The Secret Aardvark sauce they referenced is good. Heat Hot Sauce Shop is a very good US source for excellent sauces.

By: I-Write-Essays

I-Write-Essays — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:45:01 -0800

I'm also a big fan of Chipotle Tabasco. I keep both Crystal and Frank's around as my go-to low-intensity hot sauces. Crystal is a little bit more watery than Frank's imo, which makes it less effective as a condiment.

By: ginger.beef

ginger.beef — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 08:57:50 -0800

Sriracha on salad every day, add it to pizza, eggs, most meals. Sambal Oelek in fridge at all times. Discovered a nice NS version of Frank's and bring in a case each year, my god it goes with scallops wrapped in bacon very well: Dave's The Heatonist gift box from my sister sits atop the cupboard, intimidating me

By: thecincinnatikid

thecincinnatikid — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:30:14 -0800

Also interesting fun-to-know, fun-to-tell I took away from touring the home of Tabasco on Avery Island, LA is that the field workers who harvest tabasco peppers each carry a small wooden stick which, on its end, is painted precisely the color of red - and the only color of red - at which the peppers are to be picked for peak flavor. The name of that stick is le petit bâton rouge (or "the little red stick" in English).

By: jim in austin

jim in austin — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:59:01 -0800

I have used Tabasco for decades as a flavoring agent, both in the kitchen and behind the bar. Any heat is incidental compared to the unique flavor it imparts...

By: scruss

scruss — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:20:58 -0800

Wiri wiri pepper sauce from Guyana, please. The peppers are quite widely grown in North America but as a decorative shrub. The peppers look like the reddest, roundest cherries ever ... but they're more of a cherry bomb. They don't have the highest heat level, but it's a quick burn followed by sweetness a little like tomatillos.

By: mittens

mittens — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:26:11 -0800

I have never in my life had sambal oelek, but I saw it at the store today and was like wait, wasn't that mentioned in the hot sauce thread, and now I own some. Now I gotta find something to do with it.

By: zardoz

zardoz — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:04:13 -0800

A few years ago I discovered harissa. Fantastic stuff! Heavy on cumin, it's similar in flavor to Texas chili. And that's a good thing.

By: ashbury

ashbury — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:18:11 -0800

I just bought some today for the first time. Smoky, tomato-ey, peppery, spicy but not overwhelming. It's delicious!

By: Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon

Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:25:18 -0800

I was introduced to the mighty wiri wiri about five years ago. It's a tiny ball of a pepper with a mighty kick! I've been growing them ever since - they grow well in a temperate climate and produce a lot of fruit.

By: ginger.beef

ginger.beef — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:43:15 -0800

Now I gotta find something to do with it. Let us know, mittens!

By: Conrad-Casserole

Conrad-Casserole — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 16:45:08 -0800

Zhug, Cilantro chutney, Sambal oelek, and Mexican salsas are easy to make and so, so, so good. Google some recipes and get started. Mexican salsas are easy to riff on almost endlessly. Summertime is obviously the best time to make them when chiles and fruits are all ripe at the same time. I made one killer salsa with mango, papaya, blueberry, tomatillo, chilaca (fresh pasilla) and jalapeño. :emoji:. Soooo, good.

By: mittens

mittens — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 17:08:37 -0800

Let us know, mittens! I played it safe and broke into the Strategic Egg Reserve! The sauce was really good (I sauteed peppers and onions, then cooked them in the sauce a bit before adding the eggs)--the brand I got had lime, which along with the vinegar gave it a really strong bite; it was spicy without being hot-hot, which I appreciated, because I'm always kind of a chicken with this stuff! Now I'm scrolling through more recipes to see how to actually use it!

By: TedW

TedW — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 18:23:28 -0800

I love this post! I am very much a hot sauce aficionado, but all too many of my friends and family think that means I want the hottest sauces they can find and/or hot sauces with clever names which may or may not be any good. I grew up in a household where Tabasco was a standard condiment (and in the 1960s and 1970s there weren't a lot of other options in most grocery stores here) and to me that is the standard by which all hot sauces are judged. The original Tabasco has a complex flavor from its long fermentation that is really unique and sets it apart from even other Louisiana hot sauces. But now I spend more time picking out a hot sauce for a given food than I do a wine. Especially since I tend to like food much spicier than everyone around me (although I swear I am not this guy). In general, I like sweeter sauces with Caribbean or south Asian foods, garlicky sauces with Latin or Mediterranean foods, vinegary sauces with southern US foods, and so on. Was thrilled to see Queen Majesty in the first link; my wife had some in her cupboard when we started dating and it quickly became a favorite. Although it was a different version; and I tend to be suspicious of hot sauces/condiments with too many additional ingredients like fruit and coffee. Of course I am a complete hypocrite and have made hot sauces with peaches and mangos that were well-received. One omission that I noticed is a personal favorite despite the name: Ring of Fire. It has a unique flavor that is very vinegary and also very peppery, with what seems to me a black pepper flavor in addition to capsicums. Despite its name it really isn't that hot (I am not a reliable source for that judgement) but I think it adds a great bit of tanginess to soups and stews.

By: JohnnyGunn

JohnnyGunn — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 21:44:07 -0800

Mo Hotta Mo Betta My mom, since I was 14, did her best to facilitate my need for heat. Pre internet, she signed me up for this catalog. This was before you could buy no hot sauc3s other Tabasco. To this teenager, some of the names of the sauces were scandalous sort of like a pre teen reading National Geographic. Back in the day when I was a floor trader in Chicago in the slow times bets were placed on things like the classic drinking a gallon of milk and holding it down. I would regularly win the habernaro eating contest for hundreds of dollars.

By: i used to be someone else

i used to be someone else — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 23:48:38 -0800

i mean i guess gochujang is a "hot sauce", but that feels like such a shallow explanation of it, given that one could consider it one of the mother sauces of korean cuisine, alongside doenjang and ganjang, and maybe, if you're going for a more expansive definition sesame oil, mirim, and anchovy sauce anyway, with gochujang, if you're using it, try to get sunchang style--it's not a brand, but a specific variant (it's regional)

By: scruss

scruss — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 05:16:20 -0800

→ Ring of Fire. That was a favourite of mine too, but there's no local supplier here. Don't let the name or logo put you off: it has a really pleasant flavour.

By: mhum

mhum — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 18:45:19 -0800

I'm pretty late to this thread but here are my two cents:

If we're shouting out our favorite niche hot sauces, lemme give a shout out to Salsa Huichol. I find something about the specific peppers/pepper blend gives a distinctive flavor (smokier? pepperier?) compared to similar sauces. My go-to choice for arroz con pollo. Also, shout out to Lan Chi Chili Paste with Garlic, gone but not forgotten.
I was way, way too old before I realized you could put any hot sauce at all on your Taco Bell. You don't just have to use their sauce packets. There's no law against it, not that I know of anyways. Really opened up my horizons, I tell you what.
Here are two of my recommendations for specific hot sauce applications:
1. Bloody Mary + Marie Sharp's (the habanero one). The carrot base makes a great complement to the tomato.
2. Potato & Cheese Pierogis + Sour Cream + Lao Gan Ma. I like Fried Chili in Oil but I think Spicy Chili Crisp would also work. Also, no Lao Gan Ma in the article? What's up with that?