Not Salsa, Hot Sauce. I want to expand my horizons. I love Yellowbird Serrano or Habanero. I love Cholula on my eggs, mild but tasty. I've got 6 pints of some ridiculous homemade stuff (from red fresnos and a couple of others, shishto?, hinkelhotz?) that I want to make wings with...but for everyday "hot but not melt your face" hot sauce I need new ideas. I know yall can help.
What all have you tried? Cholula is my favorite for eggs too. That and Crystal are my go to sauces. For wings, most the time I use Franks and butter, but it’s not hot. My wife can’t eat too hot
Oh I'm not as adventurous with hot sauce as I am with salsa, but I'd like to be. Texas Pete and Tabasco are worthless Franks is aight for wings but I'm not a huge fan Cholula/Sriracha of course Yellowbird - my current favorite brand Crystal Louisiana Hot Cajun Power Garlic Sauce ... and then there's a few random ones I've tried and liked and never had again because I couldn't find them online or in Specs or couldn't remember the name or whatever
I know OP is asking for brands, but for those who like to experiment making their own, Rick Bayless has an excellent Cholula-style recipe I’ve made this several times. It’s a gourmet Cholula, and lasts forever. Deeper, richer, less vinegary ... great for gifts. https://www.cookstr.com/Sauces/Chile-De-Arbol-Hot-Sauce Pain in the ass to de-seed the Arbols, but well worth it in the end. (Surgical gloves recommended, or don’t rub your eyes or pee without thoroughly washing your fingers) also helps to have one of these (cone strainer with pestle)
I have this habanero mango sauce, it’s called Melindas habanero mango. It’s pretty good and mixes well for wing sauce
this stuff is really good, Death by Chili Sauce. not as hot as it sounds but a nice kick https://flowercityflavor.com/shop/death-by-chili-sauce/
Nice! If I didn't have 6 pints already jarred I'd be all over that. Now this is what I'm talking about, yall rock. eta: I know I mentioned this earlier but these guys have not done me wrong, out of Austin, sold at HEB and on the internet: https://www.yellowbirdfoods.com Yall should check it out.
About 10 years ago my brother made this ridiculous mango/lime/habanero sauce for a couple of smoked pork butts, pulled-style. Thanks for reminding me, I need to get him to do that again.
I love Marie Sharp's. The original is my go to for anything but the green is excellent as well. I haven't tried the other flavors but you guys got me thinking I should give the mango or pineapple a shot
I've tried probably over 200 hot sauces in my life, gone to hot sauce festivals, etc., and I can honestly say none have made me say "damn! that's some great hot sauce!" Most of them were made with superhot peppers like scorpions, ghost peppers, reapers, etc. I can't stand stuff like Louisiana, Frank's, etc except on things like fried catfish. They all have so much salt and vinegar in them and they're not spicy enough, so I end up dumping so much on my food, the food tastes like salt and vinegar. I used to say they were just salt water with some cayenne in it. Which isn't surprising since most of them are basically salt water, vinegar, with some cayenne thrown in. I tend to like hot sauces with unique combinations that make you re-think hot sauce flavor. I also think most extract-based sauces end up leaving a disgusting aftertaste unless you use them as an additive in cooking to spice things up, so I eventually used them for that (the Mad Dogs, Blair's, Dave's Insanity, etc. types of sauces). I'd rather just use real scorpion/reaper peppers for this nowadays, though. They're usually hotter and have less of the "other flavors" hot sauces tend to add. If you're looking for flavor, it may be best to stay away from extract-based sauces. Yellowbird - you mentioned these. They are pretty good, they're out of Austin, and you can get them at grocery stores. Secret Aardvark - I tried this years ago and thought it was decent, so it may be worth a try. I didn't think it was as great as many, though. I don't htink it was all that "hot" and may have been kind of sweet. But like I said... a lot of people love it. Melinda's - I like these sauces on eggs and their stuff usually isn't drowning in vinegar. They have a variety of flavors and peppers they use. The only thing I don't like sometimes is they aren't overly hot sometimes. Must be the batch of peppers or something. Marie Sharp's - hit or miss with these, but they like using carrots from what I recall. Another one similar to Melinda's you can find in stores. Would probably do well on eggs depending on which flavor you buy. El Yucateco - I like these simply because they're cheap and have decent heat even though they're not overly hot. Bravado - this company is based out of the Houston area, and I first caught wind of them talking to people at a chile festival in the DFW area. I tried their blueberry/ghost pepper hot sauce. It wasn't for me, but a lot of people like their unique sauces with unique flavors. I could see why people liked it (they're popular), but like I said, it was "ok" to me. What I disliked most was they seemed to all be watery/runny. Cholula - I like their hot sauces, but the one that I really liked was their Chipotle hot sauce which was new a few years ago, I think. I just wish it had a bit more kick to it. Matouk's - if you're into the flavor of the Caribbean and the scotch bonnet, you'll probably like this line. I could only find them at local Caribbean stores, and even then, I was lucky to find them. Karma - I tried this line of hot sauces when they first started and again after seeing them at a hot sauce festival. I tried 3 of their sauces : Good Karma, Bad Karma, and another one I don't recall. lol. I can't remember which one I liked the most out of the 3, but the unique taste they have in the sauce that I liked was butternut squash. Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Push comes to shove, just read the ingredients on some of the hot sauces and see if you like them, then buy it (although, that's hit or miss, tbh). Reviews usually are sketchy for me because I've tried a lot hot sauces based upon reviews that were nasty or not worth the $5-$7 per bottle. Also when you think about how simple hot sauce is to make (generally speaking), it may be worth it to try and make your own, but I think you said you already have a bunch. There are people on the pepper forum The Hot Pepper that discuss growing and cooking with peppers and making hot sauces with a variety of peppers. It's a good resource to learn - I've been on the forum for years and gathered a bunch of info on it.