Its Hotter Than Hell

Chef Frank Terranova M.C.F.E.

The New King of Hot Sauce

Hell

The New King of Hot Sauce

Things are certainly heating up for young upcoming chefs in the area of hot sauces. They have been around for a many years; bottles have even been found on shipwrecks which have been recovered on archaeological sites.

We have long had a love affair with hot sauces in the USA; they appeared in Massachusetts newspapers as early as the early 1800’s. According to reports, the first hot sauce was imported from England to the USA as Worcestershire sauce. As time passed the love of hot sauces became so popular that many homegrown hot sauces in the United States began to come from the South, mainly as seasoning for Cajun food using the famous cayenne pepper.

One of the first manufacturers of domestic hot sauce was Edmund McLihenny’s Tabasco Brand Pepper Sauce, which came on the market in 1868 and is still made today. Many other hot sauces are made from Tabasco peppers but the original recipe is still a guarded secret. Many chefs used the Tabasco Pepper Sauce for many years as an addition to cocktail sauces and even white sauces. I find one major problem with Tabasco Sauce:  first you taste strong vinegar; then comes heat and then more heat.  It seems to destroy all the flavor in food if used excessively.

So here comes the new kid in hot sauces. Its Sriracha hot sauce made from chili peppers, garlic, vinegar and sugar. Its flavor is chili peppers first, the heat, then the sweet, and then along comes a little tang. As the school year progresses, I usually ask questions of these young aspiring chefs in my classes. I ask them a simple question: it’s your kitchen; what is your preferred hot sauce flavor? Usually 18 out of 18 students pick Sriracha pepper sauce. Sometimes young minds know a lot and it shows. I love this hot sauce! I almost put it on my Corn Flakes one morning then discovered it didn’t go well with the bananas and milk. As always, “That’s Cooking With Class”.