Bayou Blend Louisiana Style Seasoning

Heck, I'm getting way behind on reviewing hot sauces, so I've resorted to getting some condensed information out, which I plan to follow up on in greater detail when time permits.

This seasoning comes from Mossy Bayou Foods located in Louisiana. You can find them online at www.mossybayou.com

This is stuff is quite delicious. The label doesn't give much away as to its contents, it merely lists - Black pepper, garlic powder and "other" spices. Clearly from the taste, the "other" component packs a real punch. The first taste to hit the tongue is salt, quite a lot of it, and it surprises me that it isn't listed separately on the ingredients list. So this isn't really a condiment, it's designed to be used liberally at the pre cooking stage on meats, fish etc where the sodium strength will cook down. Buy hey, what the heck, I've started using it here and there as a condiment replacement for the salt shaker, it tastes that good.
The spice blend is hard to break down into individual components, there's a lot going on. Certainly the black pepper and garlic are quite prominent yet there's a little more heat than just black pepper.
I've used this in steaks and on BBQ and it always works with the food, never against it. You can use it quite liberally on meats that take longer to cook and certainly use it successfully as a marinade in a dry rub format.
So it's a really tasty and versatile seasoning and my recommendation is that you check it out. It isn't hot, so you can always throw in a little extra chile powder to build more heat if you wish, but this could certainly form the backbone of a good hot spice rub.

Enjoy!

Hellacious Hot Sauce - Review

This isn't a full review in the usual format since I'm pushed for time right now. But the sauce has been sitting on my desk unopened for about a week and I finally gave it a whirl about 15 minutes ago.....and my mouth is still burning!!

This is a really good blend of chipotle and habanero mash. I'm not always a fan of chipotle if there's too much smokiness, but this stuff hits it bang on the nail for my tastes.
The aroma of this is just wild, maybe the best to hit my nose in a long while. It screams out all kinds of different notes, the vinegar is there, but not too overpowering, the chipotle comes next, then the sweetness of the habs, a little garlic and so on. It's a beautiful thing.

I took a dab on my finger to check that it wasn't too hot, then when nothing extreme seemed to happen I slathered it liberally over a large piece of grilled chicken, and began to chow down. Yeah this isn't the usual carefully executed review, but I just couldn't stand it any longer I had to have some, then I had to get this post written, pronto!

 The heat didn't hit for about 30-45 seconds, but wow....what a nice build up and a really nice level of heat!!....it just creeps in there and takes you by surprise. Yeah it's hot. I've been working on a Bhut Jolokia sauce from Heartbreaking Dawns that has less heat than this bad boy.

The flavor, aroma, consistency are all top notch for my particular taste buds. It pours well, tastes great and packs the heat. The color is an intense chocolate brown, deep and thick, just yelling out "Chipotle", but not overwhelming you with chipotle flavor. Intense stuff.

I love the label too. Damn this is a good hot sauce.
Highly recommended.

Wisconsin Chileheads

Are there any active chilehead communities in Wisconsin? (OK, lets get the spelling variants out of the way, chileheads, chiliheads, chili-heads etc). I've been searching around for a while now but haven't been able to track down more than a couple chileheads through other online forums.

I'm thinking of organizing a chili cookoff, perhaps with a section for bottled hot sauces, but I need to establish if there's sufficient local interest. Location, Door County Wisconsin, date, somewhere around the middle of October.

Anyone interested, shoot me an email.

Review - Habitually Orange Hot Sauce

KneppersPeppers.com - "Habitually Orange

Online Order - Yes - arrived quickly via Priority Mail, well packed.

Ingredients -
Mandarin Orange, Carrot, Habanero, Brown Sugar, Lemon Juice, Vinegar, Onion, Garlic

Packaging / Labeling
The label design is intentionally clean and basic, which gives it an attractive look.

Aroma -
The first thing to hit the nose is the vinegar with citrus tones from the lemon juice. There's a fruity aroma which seems to be split between the aroma of the habanero and the aroma of the mandarin orange, with neither having prominence over the other.
The aroma gives a fairly good clue to the heat level, there's just a hint of pull-back as you inhale, suggesting this sauce has a nice kick to it.

Consistency -
This hot sauce has a medium thin consistency and shows a fairly good amount of pulp with a little seed, though quite finely pureed. There's some cling to the bottle and you can see the fine solids as you invert the bottle and set it upright again.

Color -
The sauce has a palish red/tan color, pretty much what you might expect from the combination of habs and oranges.

Taste and Heat
There's a really nice tangy zest and fruitiness which is quickly accompanied by the heat from the habanero. It has a medium sweetness and really shows off the subtle differences between the flavor of an orange and the flavor of a mandarin. There's no mistaking this for an orange flavor, the mandarin is very identifiable and very pleasant indeed.
I don't find this hot sauce to have the intense vinegar bite that so many sauces seem to have. It strikes me that the formulation has been carefully worked out to create a balance between sweet and sour with a good level of heat to bring the two together - a nicely balanced flavor profile. In fact I'd say the balance is almost perfect, with the sweetness coming in from the brown sugar and mandarin and the lime juice and vinegar cutting the sweet to just the right level. I don't pick up on much garlic, which suits my taste buds fine. Though I use a lot of garlic in cooking, I prefer my hot sauces with just a hint.

The sauce surprised me pleasantly with its level of heat. It gives you a nice all-round sensation of heat starting from the front of the tongue and working back, without ever getting into the throat in an irritating way.
Taken neat on a teaspoon the heat doesn't overwhelm, but it gives you a good mild burn which lingers around for a few minutes before gently drifting away. There's no esophagus burn to speak of, which makes it a good sauce for an intermediate user, looking to kick it up from the mainstream table hot sauces like Tabasco and Frank's. I like the heat level a great deal, it makes it versatile for use on a wide variety of foods, without ever masking the food flavor through intense heat. So far I've tried this on chicken, mac 'n cheese, cheese/crackers, smoked trout and on a veggie wrap, and it worked deliciously with everything. I was hesitant to use this on something as delicate as the lightly smoked trout, but it didn't overwhelm the fish, it just gave it a nice zesty flavor with a blast of heat.

Conclusion -
I like the versatility of this sauce, it fits my personal heat level preferences pretty well, and the zesty mandarin flavor is really great on just about anything. I have a bottle of HAbermelon and Piney Hab from the same make that I'm really looking forward to giving a try. If they're anywhere near as good as the Habitually Orange hot sauce then it'll be a winning trio.

Highly recommended.

Ratings -
Packaging 3.5 from 5
Aroma 4 from 5
Consistency 3.5 from 5
Color 4 from 5
Taste 4 from 5
Heat Balance  4 from 5

Throw-down - Hot and Spicy Feature

Sunday 3rd July was the first ever throw down competition for yours truly, a competition organized by a large online chilehead community, and basically conducted over the Internet.
It's a lot of fun. There are rules to establish the authenticity of all entries, a specified cooking 'theme' and various other requirements.
This is a monthly event, and the theme for July was 'Toast'. So it was quite a loose theme, opening up all manner of culinary possibilities. Of course the dish needed to be hot and spicy!, with liberal use of chile peppers.
The rules stipulated that a full list of ingredients be provided with each entry, along with a detailed cooking method. I wont post that here, just a few pics of the work in progress and my finished entry. Enjoy!