What's your favorite hot sauce?

I know, them's fighting words. 

Personally, I'm a recent convert to Crystal. (Or, as I like to call it, Crystal-C.)

Pic just because. 

I literally just put some Frank's Red Hot on a fish taco as I opened this, and I was thinking about our last hot sauce thread.

I'm not proclaiming that it's the best, but it was just a happy coincidence.

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

He said hot sauce, not slightly less-bland ketchup.

Since my wife can't take the heat I don't keep any at home.

With the caveat that I make my own and might do it as a side job.

My favorite store bought ones are Cholula, El Yucateco, and Ta Patio.

My absolute favorite is a sauce my wife found on a wedding site that we gave out as a party flavor for each seat at out wedding. The wedding website stopped selling it after a few years. I remember it as habenero based made by some famous chef. I have yet to recreate it.

My next batch will be habenero peach. Maybe this coming week as I am off for vacation.

In reply to Honsch :

Didn't see that coming...

I like hot stuff, but the ridiculously hot billion-scoville sauces are all gimmicks and not food. A good mid-heat sauce with flavor is what I like to go for. My favorite, and has been for a long time, is Valentina. It's awesome. Good on anything, some heat but not too hot. The "extra hot" is more heat than flavor, so I prefer the just regular old "hot" and it's super cheap, like $2-$3 for a quart.

Anything that isn't Sriracha, sorry not sorry. 

Cholula

The two buck stuff at Aldi seems to be Franks.. 

Aldi used to have one buck hot sauce that seemed like Louisianan or similar. 

Chick FIL a offers Texas Pete.  It my preferred dipping sauce on their strips.  A little mayo and the Texas Pete on the strips. 

Of the "gonna have it in any store you walk into" sauces, Cholula is my clear favorite, and unquestioned top of the Cholula heap is this stuff:

Just fantastically smoky and flavorful. Not dominated by any one flavor, but also has a nice balance of acid and savory flavors. Not much heat, but enough that you know it's "hot" sauce, and the flavor makes up for the lack of kick.

On the more specialty side of things, anything from Bravado Spice Co. is awesome. And it's also available in a lot of better grocery stores. The Pineapple habanero is particularly good.

And for the more boutique sauces, everything from Puckerbutt is fantastic, and the prices are more than fair.  The Pineapple Ginger, vaious takes on sriracha, and Voodoo Prince Death Mamba are all really good. The Voodoo Prince is probably (for me) the hottest sauce that is still enjoyable for extremely good flavor and not just the insane thrill of poisoning yourself.

I'm a bit of a hot sauce snob, and even I have to admit that there's a commercially available sauce that's the business. https://mariesharpsusa.com/

Marie Sharp's is legit good sauce with a great balance of heat and flavor. The other flavors actually taste different, too, not just hotter/milder. The grapefruit pulp in particular is my go to for 90% of hot sauce needs.

Frank's Red Hot for buffalo-style applications, classic Tabasco as a sort of all-purpose spice-adder, and sriracha if I want a little sweetness with it. Should really keep Cholula in the house since it's another good all-purpose hot sauce.

Has anybody here tried Firelli? I've been seeing ads for it, and as someone who eats and cooks a fair bit of Italian-American food, I feel like I should acquaint myself with a hot sauce engineered for that cuisine.
 

It's like asking me what my favourite oil is. It's different for different applications.

I'm not putting Sriracha on my tacos, but on springs rolls? lot's.

When I make curry I use one for cooking, on the left, then when eating it I use the one on the right as seasoning. The cooking one is hot by my standards, and I use a fair bit of it, but they each bring a different flavour.

Every year we put a few baskets of assorted items together for the kids. The youngest enjoys hos coffee so we keep an eye out during the year for interesting coffees.  We all love to eat, and we take our hot sauces seriously in this house, but the eldest does most of the cooking in his house, and he loves his hot sauces. These are in this years basket

They're all really good but I like the Del Molcajete the best.

Yeah Cholula or El Yucataco for grocery store varieties.

For commercially available for purchase I do like Wuju.

Also end up buying a bottle of almost any local ones from various taco stands, regional stores, etc. and have nearly 50 bottles at the house.

Cholula for everything or occasionally yellow sriracha for eggs. 

Honsch said:

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

He said hot sauce, not slightly less-bland ketchup.

And in the third post this has already turned into a you're-not-hip-enough-to-appreciate-IPAs thread.

I'm out.

I used to be able to find Frank's Red Hot Ketchup-Style hot sauce locally that i really liked. Similar flavor but it had a thicker consistency so its didn't run off sandwiches. They don't carry it anymore though.

In reply to NickD :

I remember once buying some Uncle Dave's Kickin' Ketchup. Haven't seen it in years. It was good, though. 

El Yucateco is awesome. I love a base of Valentina with a splash of El Yucateco on it. Yummmm

Garlic Cholula is my go to right now.  Sometimes at work I'll just make a couple cups of rice, put a can of tuna in it, and drizzle the stuff on to taste.

Never heard of Valentina.   I will try. 

Duke said:

And in the third post this has already turned into a you're-not-hip-enough-to-appreciate-IPAs thread.

I'm out.

One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch, girl

NickD said:

I used to be able to find Frank's Red Hot Ketchup-Style hot sauce locally that i really liked. Similar flavor but it had a thicker consistency so its didn't run off sandwiches. They don't carry it anymore though.

Aw man, that would be perfect for pizza!