Bringing the heat!

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

1 minute ago, FireHazard51 said:

We got it from Jungle Jim's to win a chili cookoff.  We were told that the hot ones win so we got the hottest one from Hot Ones show to use.  We ended up doing only three toothpick dips worth of the stuff for a whole crock pot and many people said it was too hot.  When diluted so much I think it was really wonderful. I did a tooth pick worth right on the tonge and it was pretty fucking bad for 15-30mins.  I honestly am not a big hot sauce kind of guy but thought I could add a little to the thread/discussion.

Jungle Jim's in Eastgate?

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

3 minutes ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

Jungle Jim's in Eastgate?

Fairfield (The OG), haven't been to the Eastgate one so not sure which is better for getting hard to find items.

[RH | 4,903]

And speaking of hot sauces, I'll tell you about the hottest hot sauce I ever had.

Back in college, my freshman year, there was this super-small chicken joint in the rural town my college was in.  Blazers was a shed converted into a kitchen, you walked up to a window, ordered and they gave you your food.  They had three hot sauce flavors and they were Mild, Medium and TNT.  The sauce was fire engine red.  I have absolutely no clue what it was made of but I'm sure it was house made.  To this day I've never tasted anything like it.  It was a tad sour, had a couple other flavors and was slightly-bitter.  In fact, I think their chicken is why I do like bitter hot sauces to this day.

Anyway, I'd get the TNT chicken fingers or wings at least once a week my freshmen year.  By the time I was a senior, I'd long worn out the place and close to graduation, I hadn't eaten there in 18 months and since I was about to move, I decided to go "one last time".  I walked up to the window and asked for 2x TNT chickens sandwich, "as hot as you can make it."  The girl looked at me strange and said "are you... sure?" Yup!

Well, I went over to a friends house to eat my meal, I opened the first box and I dug straight in.  I didn't pay any attention because TNT was never that hot to me.  Toasty, but not super hot. ...but that day I was wrong!  They changed something from what they had done my freshman year.  I should have known something was off, because the meat wasn't fire-red.  It was orangish-clear.  I started digging into the first sandwich and it was a progressive heat.  I was half-way into the thing and it hit HARD.

I was crying, nearly vomiting, I drank a half gallon of milk in my buddies fridge and I just wanted to die.  I've never eaten a sauce or pepper that hot ever again.

The funny thing is, this left an uneaten sandwich. About 30 minutes or so later, two female friends of mine came over to the apartment to hang out and I was still read eyed and sniffing.  They asked what was wrong and I told them those sandwiches were coated in death.  Well... both of these girls didn't trust me, thought I was overreacting and were curious. 

I told them not to try the  sandwiches but, nooooo, they had to see how wussy I was.  One of the two girls listened at first, but when she saw the first take a bite and say "oh, this isn't bad" the second one followed and took a bite too.  As bad as it was for me, it was worse for them, plus I'd drank all of the milk.  They ran out crying, snotting and vomiting in the streets.

I would have felt bad for them but I seriously warned them.  One of the funniest moments of college for me.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

Just now, FireHazard51 said:

Fairfield (The OG), haven't been to the Eastgate one so not sure which is better for getting hard to find items.

Eastgate is out my way. Last time I went, the selection was pretty small. I try to order my sauces directly from the makers to help them out.    

[Reed Rothchild | 9,523]

I used to put Dave's in all my food.  Nowadays I can't be bothered with any sort of capsaicin sauce.  Too much work and you have to maintain a tolerance.  Well, and cooking for kids.

I do always have a pretty nice set of "normal" sauces on hand.  But not 30+ like I used to.

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

1 minute ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I do always have a pretty nice set of "normal" sauces on hand.  But not 30+ like I used to.

I have a friend that is big into hot sauces and a whole row of his fridge door was nothing but hot sauce bottles.  I bet he had more in selves else where too.

[twiztor | 850]

the Mad Dog 357 is what i've been using lately. i really like the flavor. it's got a kick, but i expected it to be hotter.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

22 minutes ago, twiztor said:

the Mad Dog 357 is what i've been using lately. i really like the flavor. it's got a kick, but i expected it to be hotter.

Here's the one I'm using. It's a solid 9/10 heat for me.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I used to put Dave's in all my food.  Nowadays I can't be bothered with any sort of capsaicin sauce.  Too much work and you have to maintain a tolerance.  Well, and cooking for kids.

I do always have a pretty nice set of "normal" sauces on hand.  But not 30+ like I used to.

Dave's insanity? I've got a bottle of Dave's Scorpion Pepper that I need to try. It's a natural sauce without extract so I'm interested to see how hot it is.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

Tabasco is as spicy as I get, so my only contribution to this thread is to watch the documentary series “Champions” or “we are the champions” on netflix. 

One of the episodes has the “hottest chilipepper” contest, and its pretty wild when

Spoiler

dude busts out custom hybrids that are over 2x the hottest ever recorded  

 

[nesmaster14 | 435]

I used to buy Carolina Reapers and Scorpions at my local farmers market by the bag.  They have a nice flavor when slivered onto foods.  I made the mistake once of trying to eat a whole one, my entire being was on fire for what felt like hours, pacing the floor lol.  However, my favorite pepper is probably Fatali. I used to get them from the same farmers market. They're yellow and have a nice flavor, some describe it as citrus-y, with heat a step above habanero.

[Renmauzo | 1,200]

My wife and I are big fans of the Bulgarian Carrot pepper; chop that up with a King of the North pepper and you've got sweet to go with the extreme heat.

On the island, we have a company called Maritime Madness (https://maritimemadness.com/) that has phenomenal hot sauces; my current favorite combo for nacho Saturday is Mexican Mole + Candied Habanero

[Daniel_Doyce | 470]

I got bored with Hot Ones after a while, but I did enjoy Gordon Ramsay, Alton Brown, and Bill Burr's episodes.

I'll give a shoutout to Chinese la jiu yao, aka chili oil, at your nearby Asian market or maybe even International aisle of a normal supermarket. Great for cooking with stir fries or other dishes that could use some heat, and also as a condiment (most Vietnamese pho places have a little cylindrical cup of it in the rack of condiments).

Edited December 10, 2020 by Daniel_Doyce
mandarin instead of cantonese

[drxandy | 3,225]

Years ago I had a friend who bought some pure capsaicin oil, used some in a bag with beef jerky. The quantity he used I don't remember but I do remember the endorphin high.. holy crap. Laid out. After that experience, for a few years my tolerance for heat was up there. I do like trying different sauces but am too lazy to buy often, in pre covid times it was cool going to places that had different hot sauce options to sample. There's a chicken place a ways away that had like 50+ commercial hot sauces to choose from and I thought that was brilliant, got to try like 8 of em that sounded good.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

20 minutes ago, drxandy said:

Years ago I had a friend who bought some pure capsaicin oil, used some in a bag with beef jerky. The quantity he used I don't remember but I do remember the endorphin high.. holy crap. Laid out. After that experience, for a few years my tolerance for heat was up there. I do like trying different sauces but am too lazy to buy often, in pre covid times it was cool going to places that had different hot sauce options to sample. There's a chicken place a ways away that had like 50+ commercial hot sauces to choose from and I thought that was brilliant, got to try like 8 of em that sounded good.

I ordered some Carolina Reaper beef jerky that should be here any day now. There's a cajun restaurant in Cincinnati with a hot sauce wall, so I always try a new one when I go. 

[RH | 4,903]

I don't know how wide-spread they are but Firehouse Subs is a sub sandwich chain and they usually have 30-40 hot sauced that people can use.  I think Dave's Insanity (of some form) is there only ranked 10 sauce they tend to put out, but to me it's not that hot for a "10".  Regardless, I know it's a restaurant so they don't want to kill anyone that's naive, so they can only put out so much.

Regardless, it's a good place to go to try new hot sauced.  Granted, I do like a lot of heat, but I really do like those sauces for the flavor. For sheer, frequent use, this is one of my favorite ones to find in restaurants.  It's nothing fancy, but it has a good flavor that goes with just about anything you'd put hot sauce on.

[RH | 4,903]

Here's another related topic of discussion.  I'm the only foodie-nut in my house but when I say that, what I really mean is I like to think about the flavors I pick up in my food, as well as the feel or other subtle experiences.  I've never read up on it, I don't have friends I discuss food with and this is completely a 100% personally independent thing.  I'm a guy who likes to analyze my food.

With that said, habanero based sauces tend to be my favorite because there's something about them that doesn't taste, but sort of feels creamy.  I can't explain it.  It's not the consistency, it's a sensation.  A couple of other peppers do it too, but an generally, if it's a really hot pepper it will give the sensation.  Habaneros seem to give this off pretty well, whether the sauce is really hot or not.

Anyone else know what I'm talking about?  Does that feeling/sensation have a name, and what are some sauces out there where that's really accentuated?

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

14 minutes ago, RH said:

I don't know how wide-spread they are but Firehouse Subs is a sub sandwich chain and they usually have 30-40 hot sauced that people can use.  I think Dave's Insanity (of some form) is there only ranked 10 sauce they tend to put out, but to me it's not that hot for a "10".  Regardless, I know it's a restaurant so they don't want to kill anyone that's naive, so they can only put out so much.

Regardless, it's a good place to go to try new hot sauced.  Granted, I do like a lot of heat, but I really do like those sauces for the flavor. For sheer, frequent use, this is one of my favorite ones to find in restaurants.  It's nothing fancy, but it has a good flavor that goes with just about anything you'd put hot sauce on.

I've only been to Firehouse Subs once and I don't remember them having hot sauces at the one I went to. El Yucateco is one of my favorite mainstream hot sauces. The XXXtra hot and the Caribbean are really good. You can get them for $2 at Walmart, so they make a great table sauce. 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

Got two new sauces in today's mail. I've never had any of Blair's sauces, so I'm interested to see what it's like.

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

Thai chilis are super underrated in America. They are probably my favorite of all. Very floral and the heat is nice and clean.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

On 12/10/2020 at 9:36 AM, drxandy said:

Years ago I had a friend who bought some pure capsaicin oil, used some in a bag with beef jerky. The quantity he used I don't remember but I do remember the endorphin high.. holy crap. Laid out. After that experience, for a few years my tolerance for heat was up there. I do like trying different sauces but am too lazy to buy often, in pre covid times it was cool going to places that had different hot sauce options to sample. There's a chicken place a ways away that had like 50+ commercial hot sauces to choose from and I thought that was brilliant, got to try like 8 of em that sounded good.

I just tried this jerky today. It's really good! 

[drxandy | 3,225]

pucker butt pepper co

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

1 hour ago, drxandy said:

pucker butt pepper co

At least they let you know what you're getting yourself into! They have a large selection of all natural hot sauces that they make. I've ordered from them multiple times and I've enjoyed everything so far. 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

Opened this one today. It's not as hot as I thought it would be given that the ingredients are literally 92% Carolina Reaper peppers and 8% vinegar.

[The Count | 527]

There are just waaaayyy too many hot sauces to keep track of. Give me some sriracha for my pho and chili peppers in my laab and I'm straight. You know I'll crush some Flamin" Hot Cheetos though too.