"How the hell did you get 3'rd degree stomach burns?"

I've got a pretty high tolerance when it comes to heat, given that I cook with habaneros and serranos pretty often. Its difficult to find hot sauces that push my limits. One of the better ones I've had, though, was Dave's Insanity ghost pepper sauce (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Daves-Ghost-Pepper-Jolokia-Sauce/dp/B001PQTYN2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.amazon.com/Daves-Ghost-Peppe ... B001PQTYN2</a>). It was enough to get my nose running, but also had a nice flavor. If you don't have a high heat tolerance though, I'd use it with caution. My brother was out of commission for about five minutes when he tried a drop, which was a lot of fun to watch. He said it stopped hurting when his face went numb.

As far as restaurants go, Indian and Thai places seem to have the best punch, but when ordering you need to emphasize adding extra spice to your food. As someone else mentioned, they tend to ease up out of a fear of traumatizing clientele.

 

You must be from Minnesota as well (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.saffronmpls.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.saffronmpls.com/</a>). As such, you probably understand my dilemma. We live in a land where people consider ketchup "hot." Seriously, people in MN think ketchup is fucking HOT! So for people like me that like actual hot food, searching the real deal out can be quite a challenge.

FOCUS: Sriracha and Dave's Insantiy are my daily go-to sauces. Not the hottest by any means, but just a good combination of heat and flavor. Two nights ago I made Tilapia over jasmine rice. The rice had some soy sauce, enough Sriracha to turn the color red/brown, and probably 5-8 solid shakes of Dave's on top. Heaven. A friend is growing some ghost chilis for a buddy and I this summer, and even though they won't be as hot as ones grown in New Mexico or India, I am still pumped to try the real deal.

I have been searching out a good HOT habanero sauce that isn't extract-based. Any suggestions? I can handle the heat from the extracts, but they often leave that distinct extract taste in your mouth and rarely taste as good. I'd like something with solid heat (like "9/10-people-can't-handle-it" caliber) yet retains that great habanero flavor.


ANTI-FOCUS: Anyone in the Twin Cities that really appreciates heat owes it to themselves to go to Harry Sing's Original Caribbean Restaurant on 26th and Nicollet (http://www.harrysinghs.com/). The food is fucking AMAZING, and their medium sauce (3/5) is hotter than most places' hot sauce. Ask for Harry to whip you up some of the 5/5 sauce if you want a real burn. Off the top of my head I think Harry's 5/5 is the hottest food I have eaten in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

 

It could just be the Thai restaurants in Texas, but when I go in, I order my food "Thai style", for example: Pad Thai, Thai style.

Basically, tell them you want it how they would eat it. At that point, it's usually very hot. The cooks/chefs have come out to watch me eat it once or twice.

There is a particular Thai place I go to specifically because they make ridiculously hot Pad Thai. I like taking people there because they don't expect it. I'm not a complete dick though. I tell them that it's hot, I'm just kind of vague on how hot. I like to think I get away with it because I always pay the first time at that place.

The craziest hot sauce I have ever seen was a bottle I picked up at an actual hot sauce shot in Houston. It was called Death by Stupidity. It looked like a Tabasco bottle, but had black liquid inside. The owner of the shop offered a taste test. He dipped a toothpick in it, wiped it off with plastic wrap and handed it to me. He told me to touch it to my tongue. I did and it burned like hell. So, I bought a bottle. It goes into chili.

That said, there are hotter sauces out there. The Blair reserves are way hotter: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.extremefood.com/shop/product.php?productid=46&cat=3&page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.extremefood.com/shop/product ... t=3&page=1</a>

 

My favorite Hot Sauce has always been:

 

I grew up on hot sauce. Literally.


My dad was in sales for Monsanto and traveled the world. Home for a weekend, gone for 2 months.

To compensate for his absence, he brought me home hot sauces from various airports. I'd have anywhere between 10-15 bottles in the fridge at one time.


As much as I enjoy capsaicin, something was missing..

 

None of the hot sauces were chipotle flavored?

 

Not if it's a major staple in one's diet.

 

I'm not big on spicy stuff, but my friends brought some of this stuff back from Key West and its awesome. Its almost yellow in color, a great mix of spice and flavor.

 

http://www.mariesharps.us/

A friend turned me on to Marie Sharp's hot sauce.. Their Firey Hot is the perfect blend of heat and flavor (for me), a step above Sriracha and Tabasco but not so bad you cant taste your food.. Highly recommended.

 

This.

The flavor is great, and it's mild enough to add to things you wouldn't traditionally add hot sauce to, like mixed vegetables, pasta, etc.

Cholula chipotle is also pretty good, but the flavor is rather distinctive so it only goes well with certain things. Put it in a cheese quesadilla though, and it's basically heaven.

Cayenne pepper and chicken ramen noodles is my go-to hangover cure. Really, cayenne goes great with pretty much everything where you need the heat but don't want the liquid.

Go-to is still Texas Pete though. Plus they have it at Chik-fil-a, which is awesome.

 

For the ultimate in funny and spicy.

 

The hot sauces I use are rather conventional; for some reason it's a bit difficult to find some of the stupid hot or more obscure hot sauce brands. Nonetheless. Each hot sauce has its own use for me.

Frank's Red Hot really shines through when you use it in scrambled eggs. It's not that spicy but it has a flavour and depth that holds up really well in scrambled eggs.

Tabasco is useful for a good caesar: it adds spice without adding volume, and the acidity from the vinegar blends right into the clamato.

Sriracha tends to cover most other things: I'll throw it into the frying pan when cooking (lately, into some steak and grilled peppers), or on top of pizza, etc.

I also have dry cayenne pepper, which I tend to add to soups, chilis, tomato sauces, ground beef, etc., when I want to add spice without adding liquid. My dad grew some cayenne peppers a few years back and made his own dried, ground cayenne pepper and I've been hooked on cayenne since.

 

I usually go with Tapatio or plain Tobasco. But, I put so much Tapatio in my food that my nose starts running and I'm borderline regretting my decision to add it.

My friend's sister-in-law found something interesting during her honeymoon earlier this spring. It's called Banana Ketchup. I think it claims to be spicy on the bottle, but the base is bananas. I didn't think it was spicy, but I had to try it for the novelty factor. Plus, it was yellow. Weird.

 

I prefer basic Tabasco or Tapatio as many others have mentioned, but that is not the reason i have come out of my lurker-shell this day. I have come out from hiding to share with The Idiot Board the most magical creation in the history of the universe:


Franks Red Hot sweet chili is not your average taco condiment, oh no, this is so much more. In fact, this is more likely than not beyond putting on tacos. The quickest explanation i can give is that a bottle of honey got knocked up by a rampant Tapatio bottle on a drunken, sex crazed night during spring break 20 years ago and we are just now able to reap the benefits of this deliciousness.

It starts as a normal dipping sauce, sweet, mild kick, comparable to sweet and sour sauce. You will keep eating it however and that is when the magic happens. You get into your third or fourth bite of whatever you are eating and BAM, your taste buds start to tingle, your forehead starts to sweat and all of the sudden you feel the heat. When you finally run out of this miracle in a bottle you will have to hire a therapist to console your grieving tongue.

I realize this is not the traditional "hot sauce" but i feel i must share this with the TiBummunity in hopes of boosting the sales of this Jesus sauce so that i can continue to buy it in the future. It is good on everything that is unhealthy for you and some that is. It would make cardboard edible. Chuck Norris jokes can never end in a Franks Red Hot sweet chili reference or the universe would collapse in on itself. I also realize it is not as hot as nearly half of the inferior sauces posted in this thread up to this point and the fact that it is hot to me makes me a pussy, however i digress.

 

Perfect sauce for Chipotle burritos. And just about anything else. Love the taste of it, with just enough heat, nothing too crazy.

Also, Trappey's Red Devil Cayenne Pepper Sauce. Again, nothing too spicy, it just adds some awesome flavor. Always use this when making chicken wings.

 

It doesn't go well on everything, but the chili-lime Frank's is money.