Eat More Hot Sauce

How much heat can you handle? There are literally thousands of Hot Sauces on the market today. Many are blended with great care, fresh peppers and pure spices and others are just a 5 oz bottle with a funny label. Some of the more extreme hot sauces contain a pepper extract called capsicum which creates a painful and sometimes dangerous level of heat. These intensely fiery hot sauces are used as food additives and although some very extreme chili heads can consume them directly most often they should only be use one drop at a time. Regardless, cooking with the right hot sauce can make even the simplest recipes into a gourmet experience.

1. Cooking with hot sauce is like cooking with wine. Only cook with quality hot sauces that have a flavor you enjoy and a heat level you can handle. Yes, even the most intense hot sauces have flavor when blended properly and it is that flavor you want in your food.

2. Make sure that the hot sauce you choose blends well with the other ingredients in your dish. A mustard based hot sauce may not mix well with chili or beef stew. I tend not to cook with hot sauces that contain extracts. Although, they have great heat their flavor can be very bitter and unpleasant. Blair’s Death Sauces are an expectation to the rule, but his hotter sauces are only for truly adventurous Chili-heads.

3. Add the hot sauce at the beginning and end of the cooking process. Adding the hot sauce at the start of cooking ensures the flavor has time to become part of the dish. Adding it in the last few minutes of cooking, just before serving, ensures the dish gets the heat, fresh taste and unique flavors of the hot sauce.

4. Start small, you can always add more. The flavor and intensity of a hot sauce will change as it cooks. Often a very hot hot sauce will mellow when heated. Likewise some hot sauces have very powerful spice blends that may overpower your recipe. Keep in mind it is easier to put in than take out. I also put a bottle of the same hot sauce I am cooking with on the table with the meal. If someone wants more they can add it themselves (that someone is usually me).

5. Experiment. Different styles of hot sauce are loved in every corner of the world and through the internet we can experience almost all of them. American style hot sauces are vastly different from Jamaican, Asian and African Style hot sauces. This is because of the dozens of different chile pepper varieties and the countless ways to prepare them. A jalapeño hot sauce can be blended with fresh, smoked (chipotle), or roasted peppers making three distinctly different sauces. Because of this cooking with hot sauce offers endless possibilities. Everyone needs to eat more hot sauce!

Cooking with hot sauce is just another way I simplify my life. One bottle of hot sauce can replace numerous hard to find ingredients. It can bring flavors found all over the world together into you kitchen at minimal cost and effort. Like anything else the fun in cooking with hot sauce is in the practice. If you keep it simple and cook with ingredients that you like all will be well and taste great. Most all of my favorite recipes are simple and quick to prepare. Two that I make for almost every tailgate party or gathering that I attend are Spicy Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts and peri peri Spicy Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts. Enjoy!

Jonathan Merenda is the owner and operator of the gourmet BBQ and fiery foods store UlgyGourmet.com .