HAPPY VEG - Archives

Gourmet Lynch Selection: Sriracha Hot Sauce

3/26/2018

GOURMET LYNCH SELECTION: SRIRACHA HOT SAUCE

HEAT LEVEL 5 / 10

CAYENNE PEPPER 30, 000 - 50, 000 SCU

Utilizing cayenne peppers and sweet peppers, this sauce ends up being the perfect combination of heat, sweetness, and tang. Cayenne peppers are a bit higher on the scoville chart but with the addition of the sweet peppers, the heat is tamed down to a mild level.

I loved the underlying sweetness of the sauce and found that the heat was kind of lacking despite the cayenne peppers potential for bite. Being a bit more mild makes this sauce perfect for everyday cooking. As the bottle suggests, it can be used in a variety of ways including eggs, chilis, and dipping sauces. Try stirring some into mayo / vegan mayo for a wonderful dipping sauce for fries, veggies, or as a condiment on burgers or sandwiches.

This sauce is perfect for those who say they love heat but cringe every time the bottle of hot sauce hits the table.

My only complaint about this particular brand is that there is a few more ingredients than what I'd like to see in a sauce. The sodium is especially high as well so it's important to stick to the serving size suggested to avoid a sodium disaster!

HAPPY VEG

PC Chipotle Hot Sauce

6/2/2016

PC Chipotle Hot Sauce

HEAT LEVEL - 5 / 10

Chipotle Peppers - 5, 000 - 10, 000 SCU

This particular sauce is a bit different because of the method of preparing the peppers. Chipotle Peppers are actually Jalapeno Peppers that have been dry smoked prior to being used. This is what gives them their dark, brownish red appearance and smoky flavour. They end up falling somewhere in the middle of the Scoville Ratings chart.

This sauce is fairly mild but provides a smokiness not found in most other hot sauces. It's a welcome change from the vinegary / super spicy sauces available.

It's phenomenal as a cooking sauce and can be added to sauces, chilis, and other dishes while also being delish on its own. I enjoyed mixing it into a mayonnaise to create a smoky, sweet dipping sauce for fries. (This would also go great on a veggie burger!)

It lends its flavours to Mexican, Tex - Mex, and Southwestern style dishes but because it's milder you can really dash it on almost everything to figure out what you enjoy it best on.

Overall, it's a great change from the spicy, red hot sauces and makes a great starter sauce for those who aren't really into spice. It's smoky, and delish! Get your hands on a bottle and try for yourself!

Tabasco Jalapeno Hot Sauce

5/8/2016

HEAT LEVEL: 2 / 10

JALAPENO 2500 - 5000 SCU

Jalapeno peppers have a reputation for being spicy but in fact, they are one of the milder peppers available and have a fairly low Scoville rating.

What's unique about this sauce is the colour. It's green! It certainly stands out against other sauces available and is easy to spot in the market.

This sauce is absolutely delicious! I consider this to be one of the best sauces for beginners. It's extremely mild and has a wonderful flavour making it the perfect hot sauce to use if you are unsure of guests tolerance levels.

You can cook with this sauce, use it as a garnish, or drizzle it on tortilla chips and it is fabulous. It's essentially the perfect sauce. Mild, flavourful, and pairs well with a variety of dishes. I strongly suggest you pick up a bottle today and give it a try!

Billy Bobs Hot Sauce

5/4/2016

HEAT LEVEL: 5 / 10

I was so excited to get into this sauce because it is produced locally (Ontario). This hot sauce lists its contributing peppers as "Red Peppers" which doesn't really specify the individual peppers used. I suppose we will leave it to our imagination!

The Scoville Rating System

4/28/2016

I enjoy a little spice in my life and for the longest time I was really unaware of the differences between one pepper or another. There are some serious differences and that's where the Scoville Rating system comes in.

The Scoville Rating of a pepper determines the level of heat you can expect from the pepper. It breaks everything down into a chart that groups peppers within a general category. Hot, Medium, and Mild. Every RATED pepper on the market falls within those three titles.

For example, a common hot pepper such as Jalapeno falls somewhere between 2,000 and 7 or 8,000 Scoville Units. They vary wildly but you can expect a tolerable heat.

Somewhere in the middle we have the Cayenne Pepper which can climb up to 50,000 Scoville Units. That's could essentially be up to 25 times hotter than a Jalapeno pepper.

Right up at the top we have the Carolina Reaper. This pepper has an unimaginable Scoville rating of up to over 2 million. Can you imagine how spicy that is?

Always keep in mind the rating system when you're shopping for Hot Sauce. Look into which peppers are used to make the sauce and this will kind of fill you in on how hot it's going to be.

The more I learn about hot sauce the more excited I am to try and create my own. I still have a lot of tasting and feeling the burn left before I start creating but I feel like I`m already finding clues to creating the perfect hot sauce. I can't wait to try more.

HAPPY VEG

Great Value - Sizzlin' Hot

4/19/2016

HEAT LEVEL - 6.5 / 10
TABASCO - Up to 50, 000 SCU
HABANERO - Up to 350, 000 + SCU

With its contributing peppers being Tabasco and Habanero, it is definitely Sizzlin' as its name suggests! Habanero is definitely one of the hotter peppers on the Scoville Scale and even a little packs a punch! It starts off with a familiarly vinegary flavour that leads into a mildly smoky taste before leaving a nice, lingering burn.

Depending on how you enjoy this sauce will determine just how spicy it is. It's almost the perfect heat level. Straight on my tongue I found it tasty with a lovely, tingling heat. When I poured it on my mac and cheese it was a wonderful flavour contribution and not so much heat. Really, it's a great sauce!

The only downfall was I found it slightly runny especially compared to the Valentina sauce I previously shared which was thick like a Barbecue sauce.

Valentina Hot Sauce

4/10/2016

HEAT LEVEL: 4.5 / 10
http://www.pepperscale.com/hot-pepper-list/

My first time trying this was at a restaurant and I remembered it to this day. It was amazing and I couldn't wait to bring it home and test it again!

Valentina Hot Sauce is a Mexican brand of hot sauce that uses chili peppers as the heat. This particular brand is recognizable for its size. The bottle is 12.5 ounces and comparably priced to other varieties that are significantly smaller. Great value!

I tested the sauce on its own as well as dousing my bean dip in it. The flavour is spectacular! It started off almost like a barbecue with a smokiness I absolutely loved with a very mild heat that followed. It's delicious and so flavourful.

It was also nice and thick so there wasn't a lot of mess! Between my friend and I we polished off a quarter of the bottle in one sitting. This sauce has so much flavour that we were actually just pouring it on our chips and eating it that way.

It's mild in comparison to a Jamaican brand for example because the peppers used are lower on the SCOVILLE scale. I've attached a link at the top of this post that basically gives the Scoville rating of every pepper on the market.

Long story short, you can pour this on just about anything and enjoy it. It's just the right viscosity, flavour, and heat level to compliment any meal. Keep an eye out for this amazing product!

Grace - Hot Pepper Sauce

4/5/2016

HEAT LEVEL 8 / 10

Grace Hot Pepper Sauce is a Jamaican Hot Sauce with a blend of peppers to create what they call a "Very Hot Sauce".

What I initially loved about this sauce was the flavour. Instantly as it hit my tongue I tasted a welcome sweetness and a nice tangy note but that was short lived. This is definitely a "Hot Sauce" by name AND by flavour.

I tested the sauce two ways; as a garnish on a dish and on its own. When it was paired with my hash browns I found the spice tolerable and the flavour enjoyable. When I sampled it on its own, my face instantly got warm and my tongue started to heat up.

This sauce is one of the warmer sauces I've had but what is it they say when you're vigorously working out, "feel the burn" ?

Introduction

4/1/2016

If you looked in to my fridge right now you would see at least 6 or 7 open bottles of hot sauce. I can drown just about anything in hot sauce and devour it which is why I decided to dig a little deeper and attempt to find the very best hot sauce on the market.

When we eat hot sauce we are generally looking for 3 things;

Flavour
Contribution to a dishes overall flavour
Spice

With that in mind, I am going to try every hot sauce I can get my hands on and share with you all my results. I intend to learn as much about the peppers and flavours that make up the perfect hot sauce in hopes of creating my own line of hot sauces one day. In the meantime, let's spice things up together and find the perfect hot sauce on the market!

I look forward to getting spicy with y'all!

HAPPY VEG