An entire shop devoted to the hot sauce devotee.

With the 2009 Cajun Hot Sauce Festival just around the corner, (April 17,18, 19 – SugArena, New Iberia, LA), it seemed like a good time to talk about the popular, fiery sauce that has had a loyal following from pepper lovers probably since before people started keeping track.  

One of my colleagues recently wrote offering her opinion of the “best” hot sauce.  I did not mean to discount her choice by pointing out that the variety is so wide, it is almost impossible for anyone to taste them all and decide on just one, lone favorite.  There are literally thousands of hot sauces of varying recipes and levels of heat with new ones added to the market all the time.  There is everything from the common, semi-mild sauce “Crystal”, that is almost ubiquitous in New Orleans, all the way up to new sauces boasting 2.5 million Scovilles, the unit of heat based on the amount of capsaicin found in the chile.  Hot sauce, not to be confused with “Salsa”, is a special mixture meant to be used as a condiment and is so popular there is even a web ring, “The Ring of Fire”, devoted just to hot sauces, chiles and those seeking that special, burning sensation on their tongues.  

Crystal is the ubiquitous, Lousisana favorite.

A brief history of hot sauce shows through archaeological evidence and bottles found in old shipwrecks that hot sauces have attracted followers much longer than one might expect.  The first evidence of home “brews” comes from 1807 Massachusetts, of all places.  When Lewis and Clark were looking for Wooly Mammoths and dinosaurs out west, people back home were busy “makin’ fire”.  By 1840, the first crop of Tabasco chiles came in and the first commercial hot sauce made with wild, bird peppers was marketed.  From there, the market found a following and took off.  It has been growing ever since.  You can check out the entire history at Hot Sauce Headquarters on the web.  

The Best Habanero Sauce of 2008

If you want to try some modern product, the winners at the 2008 Cajun Hot Sauce Festival were “Woo Wee” Hot Sauce and Uncle Brutha’s Fire Sauces, both #9 and #10.  The Best Hot Sauce award went to Woo Wee, who also took the Best Habanero category.  Uncle Brutha’s took Best Green with #9 and Best Red with #10.  All of  these sauces are available for purchase on line to sample at home, but at least one site, Woo Wee, actually comes with a disclaimer and will not be responsible for any damage you do with their product.  Woo Wee, by the way, is the company working on two new sauces with extreme heat.  Their new “Grim Reaper” sauce, when available, will have a heat level equal to one million Scoville units.  The hottest peppers in the world, the Naga Jolokia from India, only rate 1,040,000.  Woo Wee is also working on a sauce they call “The Terminator” which will be 2.5 million Scovilles and worth the disclaimer.  With that kind of heat, there may be a market for an asbestos tongue sock, and, if you do not already have a mouthful of scar tissue from sampling their other products, this one will turn the trick.  

The Best Green Sauce of 2008

Uncle Brutha’s, by the way, also sells an Obama “Special Edition” to mark the historic election.  Eventually, I hope to get around to trying the Special Edition as well as many of the other sauces mentioned here along with anyone’s recipe anywhere I can find it, even some of the milder, tamer versions.  It may take a while, but, until then, I will hold off judgment on which is the best and just enjoy that little gift from heaven, the hot pepper, made Earthly bliss into a sauce.  

The Best Red Sauce of 2008

(Special note:  For you old timers who remember Cajun cook and humorist Justin Wilson, his legacy lives on with his own version of hot sauce, recipes, and even videos you can purchase at

www.justinwilson.com

.  Even long after his passing, he still inquires, “How y’all are?”)