CityOfAngels

I was recently introduced to habanero hot sauce (Dave's Gourmet Hurtin' Habanero) and I must say that it's GREAT. The only drawback is my favorite hot sauce, Tapatio, isn't hot at all to me anymore.

What's the best kind of Habanero Hot Sauce?

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Mister Coaster

I have tried several, but cannot remember most of them. There is a cajun bar I go to that has over 100 sauces that are available, and the ones that stick out in my mind are Blair's Sudden Death Sauce(s). There are numerous versions, all of which use habenero, and all of which I think taste a lot better than Dave's.

Just watch out, that Dave's Hurtin' Habenero is easily the mildest habenero sauce I have ever tried. Dave's line of "Insanity" suaces are the really hot ones, but again, the Blair's are better.

Another one that actually isn't a habenero, but is INCREDIBLY hot is called "Liquid Stoopid." It's made with chipotle ( I think) and smells really roasty and good, but will burn your soul.

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CityOfAngels

Well, I've tried one other Habanero sauce, which was about as hot as Dave's, but I'm not sure of the brand. I only remember reading the bottle and it said, "Product of Belize." I'm really not looking for the HOTTEST sauce, but rather the hot sauce with the best flavor. As I said, I LOVE Tapatio because its flavor, and Dave's is pretty darned good, too. I just don't want to get mixed in with those sauces that are meant to be hot and hot only. It's all about tha flava.

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skinnymofo

thanks for bringing this thread of COA. i too love Tapatio, it makes tabasco look like such trash (and it is in my opinion) but sometimes could use a little more kick.
i would be highly interested in seeing other peoples opinions on good sauces

snowy

Tapatio is good...I can't eat it any more because of chronic heartburn (poor me).

I'd like to see if anyone has some homemade habanero sauce recipes--not for myself (obviously) but for my best friend. He always says he wants flames licking his lips. Personally, I could do without the after effects, but spice is always nice.

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doodlebird

snowy - that is sad. i feel for your tastebuds.

as for homemade recipes...
i picked a handfull of teeny tiny peppers out of my wild garden. i have no idea what kind they were. i had planted jalapenos there before, but these were not big and green, they were tiny and red... so anyway,

take your handful of peppers,
put them in the cuisinart or blender
with a garlic clove or 3 for flavor,
add enough vinegar to achieve sauce consistency
blend until uniformly liquid.
store in a jar or bottle in the fridge
and watch out!!
i let mine sit for at least a day before using.

if you want a milder sauce,
remove seeds and "ribs" from the pepper before blending.

*and as for my favorite hot sauce... cholula. it doesn't use habaneros. pequins i think. it's not too hot, it just yummy.

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snowy

Cholula I can eat, oddly enough. I am going to have to research other hot sauces.

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Chingal0

I don't really like Tabasco, but the Habanero Tabasco isn't all that bad. Also yea, the Dave's Ultimate Insanity Habanero is quite hot, I ate half a teaspoon once for a bet and thought I was going to die.

I also agree with Tapatio, good stuff.

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westothemax

The most recent habanero sauce I bought was a bottle of "Pico Picante Chile Habanero" at the local dollar store. It's pretty good and spicy. It's also kind of chunky (which weirds me out a little) so sometimes the bottle gets clogged.

Tapatio is probably my favorite hot sauce, but I agree that after trying Habanero hot sauces Tap is no longer as hot as it used to seem.

Date the Banana

The stuff I've been enjoying lately is also a product of Belize. It's called Marie Sharp's Habanero sauce, comes in a gold bottle, orange sauce. Nice and spicy! Wish I could get my hands on some of that Blair's stuff, but I don't see it for sale around here.
Any of you guys top off rice with that stuff? People say I'm strange for wanting hot rice. Am I?

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skinnymofo

for rice i usually use the rooster hot sauce that most teriyaki places have.
never tried a "mexican style" (tapatio, etc) on rice though

westothemax

Sriracha? That stuff rules. It's good on burgers, sushi (think spicy tuna), spaghetti and almost anything else. The same company also makes a good sambal.

Psycho Dad

This likely my favorite habanaro sauce as far as flavor. It works well with most things I eat. However when I want to torture my systems, Dave Ultimate Insanity Sauce is the way to go.

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noodle

I eat sriracha on everything. But the Scorned Woman Sauce was the hottest I'd ever eaten. I think it's habanero, not sure though. It gave me a blister on my tongue but my father and aunt swear by it.

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Chamaeleontidae

Actually my favorite is Green Chile Habanero Sauce by El Yucateco There isn't a trace of a burnt after taste that a lot of the hot sauces have, and there is plenty of heat... Then again, I'm the type that will put 2 oz of the stuff on 1 enchilada... mmmmmm

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little_tippler

OMG you can get blisters on your tongue? From a hot sauce? Damn. I can't have much hot stuff because it irritates my digestive system. Do have it sometimes though.

I just have to say though, that you guys in the States have far too much choice of products! I wouldn't know what to choose with so many options.

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Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
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robodog

Hehehe, actually at one of the outdoor malls near me there is a store devoted to hot sauces! They have several hundred varieties from around the world. This is in the midwest which is not exactly known for adventurous food. (though I think most people have an warped idea of the midwest popularized by Hollywood elitests. Near me I have a half dozen Indian places, a couple Vietnamese, an ethiopian, etc. The only thing we really lack in Cleveland is a good Cuban/Caribian place)

TonySpilotro

Yes Date, Marie Sharp's is very tasty with decent heat and low in salt which is rare. Tabasco Habanero has a great carribean taste to it. I have at least 20 bottles in the fridge at home of the habanero variety, my favorite being some stuff called "Sweet Island Heat". If you can find it online get it, amazing flavor and great but not ridiculous heat...

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maleficent

Heaven on Seven, a dumpy little restaurant in Chicago (I'm not sure if they are a chain or not) has hundreds of hundreds of bottles of hot sauce available for use... and for sale.. some are hotter than others...

I personally have never thought that Dave's Insanity sauce was that hot... it just had really good flavor...

Recently, I had some hot sauce, that I wish I could remember the name of, it was just a very dark sauce, that was painfully hot.. there was nothing pleasurable about it... it was just hot for the sake of being hot... A few bites of this chili with a few dashes of this hot sauce throw in... and I was sweating, my face was red, my stomach was doing back flips and i was getting nauseaus.. there's hot and there's too hot - there's no point to making something this hot.

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TonySpilotro

Heaven on Seven not a chain but has 4 or 5 locations throughout Chicago now. I must have sampled 20 bottles last time I was in there, love that place...

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jujueye

Gawd, I love you all. I had no idea there was anyone here hwo loved it as much as me. neato!

A few comments: First, if you can't procure too many sauces where you live, check out http://www.mohotta.com. I'm sure they ship pretty much anywhere, and for their hot sauces, they show scoville ratings so you can get a good idea of just how hot they are.

For those of you who "just can't take it", work your way up. I know if youhave stomach problems, you might not be able to do that, but a little bit every day might do it. I used to be able to take a lot of hot sauce punishment, but have not had access to them recently. The last time I "hit the bottle" I was floored. My mouth hurt for a long time and my stomach complained for a day. I used to live on that stuff and had not so much as a burnin burp! Just work your way into it. But, if your stomach really can't take it, I am deeply sorry. Hot sauce adds another dimension to foods, IMO. If you have to pay for it for hours after, don't do it. It's a shame.

For those of you who like a certain flvor, but need more kick, just mix! I used to mix bland sauces that had no bite with a few drops of Daves and Yowza! I got the best of both worlds. No rules against that!

BTW: skinnymofo: i love that stuff. I know it has a proper name...but at our house we call it cock sauce. Hey, there's one on the label!!!! Sheesh! What were you thinking?

BigBen

My good friend went to a farmer's market and bought 10 habanero peppers for a dollar. The local farmers grow them for the city yuppies (like me and my buddy, I guess).

"What in the fuck are you going to do with 10 habanero peppers? You are a total spice pansy anyway!"

"I dunno. It was a good deal, and I could probably use them with my pickling spices..."

Ben Replies: "Dude, give me one."

And the hand-off occurs.

What to do with a fresh habanero? I finally decided to roast it on the barbeque. The pepper was barely big enough not to fall through the grates, and I was grilling jack fish in foil and butter, with a tiny bit of lemon pepper. I had seen chefs on TV roast peppers before, and they said that it released all of the flavour. Good idea!

When the skin got brown, I took the little yellowish orange pepper off of the grill... it was about the size of a gumball.

I put it into a small bowl, and set it on the counter. I took the fish off the grill, and peeled the foil back. Perfectly done. I turned my attention to the pepper. If I smooshed it up into a paste, and then touched my fork to the paste, that would probably be about right. You don't want to swallow this thing whole, after all.

I took a fork, and peeled the skin off of the habanero. The skin came off easily. I smooshed the pepper with the fork, and leaned over to smell it. It didn't smell like anything. I took the fork and held it to my nose. Nothing. 'Shouldn't I smell something?' I thought.

I took the fork and touched my tounge. There was just a little bit of the chili paste on the tines anyway.

POW!

everything exploded into a world of pain. I couldn't breathe, my eyes forced themselves shut, I collapsed onto the floor. I wanted to vomit, but my stomach was empty. The burning was so bad, I was rendered helpless. Oh, sweet merciful jesus, the pain.

A voice said "Are you okay?" I shook my head. I was about as far from okay as I had been in my life. Okay was a peaceful bliss compared to this. Oh, the burning. Actual fire cannot possibly be this bad. I wonder if I swallowed fire, would it make this pain go away?

The voice said "Do you need an ambulance?" I nodded my head. I was obviously in medical trouble, of that I was sure. The body needs oxygen, and in order to get that it needs to breathe, the act of respiration. I hadn't taken a breath since this ordeal started. It must have been weeks ago. How long had I been in this pain?

The voice said "Here, take some icecream in your mouth." I opened my mouth, and the pain subsided a little bit. It was only searing pain now. I could breathe. I could also cough, which I did profusely. The voice was my good friend, watching the hockey game in the next room. He came to investigate when I went crashing to the floor. He said that I wasn't screaming or anything. Just went purple and started twitching.

Alas, I have yet to experience the joys of habanero sauce. The counsellor says that the sessions are going well, and I will be upgraded to mild salsa in a few months.

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Psycho Dad

Damn. What do you consider hot?

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jujueye

That is comedy gold. I've got tears running down my face. Good Lord. Thanks for the evening laugh. What makes it funnier is that I did nearly the same thing with a fresh habanero myself. One tiny slice and I was done for the night.

Now the real question is: how was the endorphin rush after that? Didja feel a bit giddy? Oh yeah, baby!

Psycho Dad

Oh damn. I bought some sauce this weekend that I thought may be a bit milder than Dave's Insanity Sauce.

http://www.peppers.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=1580

Pain. I feel pain.

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Mister Coaster

I just moved to the Denver area and decided to try some of the local brands to see if there was anything worthwhile. There is. I discovered the Boulder Hot Sauce Company and their Harry's Habenero sauce. This is by far the most satisfying hot sauce experience I have had the pleasure of eating. It is nice and spicy, without burning your soul. There are lots of other ingredients that temper the heat, yet also add charictor. I cannot reccommend it more highly. I have a new 'standby' sauce for sure.

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