Any sauce that brings tears to your eyes and makes you grab for a glass of water is hot sauce. Used in liberal amounts it can enhance your cooking. Sometimes it can be difficult to decide which hot sauce to use since supermarket and grocery store shelves are full of a very wide variety of hot sauces. They can also be called chili or pepper sauces and one of the main ingredients are chili peppers.
What brings out the heat in chili peppers? The answer is a group of chemicals which are called capsaicinoids. Focusing more on flavor than intense heat is Mexican style hot sauce. A popular ingredient in Mexican hot sauce is Chipotles which are dried and smoked jalapeno peppers. They not only give heat but have an extinct smoky flavor. There are sauces which are produced in Mexico and have a high-vinegar content. Some Mexican sauces are Valentina, Bufalo and Chile de Arbol.
In the United States hot sauces consist of ingredients such as chili peppers, vinegar and salt. The pepper varieties used are mostly cayenne, jalapeno, habanero and chipoties. Sauces such as Tabasco sauce is aged in wooden casks. Other ingredients that may be added to hot sauces to make the heat of the chili mellow a little such as raspberries, mangoes, carrots and chayote squash. Louisiana-style hot sauce contains red chili peppers, vinegar and salt. In Hawaii they use chili pepper water which consists of whole chilies, garlic, salt and water. It is often homemade. An American version of a traditional Thai hot sauce, which consists of ground chilies, garlic, vinegar and salt is called Sriracha sauce. It is also called “rooster sauce” after the predominant brand’s label. The Heinz Company makes a very mild chili sauce based on tomatoes, green and/or red bell peppers, spices and a bit of chili pepper. This sauce is more related to ketchup and cocktail sauce. The difference with sauces in New Mexico is that they contain no vinegar. Most of the traditional New Mexican dishes are served with red or green chili sauce and it is often used in cooking.
In the West Indies hot sauces are known as hot pepper sauces and they consist of chili peppers and vinegar with fruit and vegetables added to give them extra flavor. The pepper most often used is Scotch bonnet since it is the most common in Jamaica. It is also one of the hottest peppers in the world. The other pepper used is habanero. Bottled sauces are available. However homemade sauces are still common. In Jamaica Scotch bonnets are often mixed with fruit such as mango, papaya and tamarind.
In the Virgin Islands a hot sauce is available called Asher and is made with lime, habaneros, cloves, allspice, salt, vinegar and garlic.
Naga Viper and Infinity Chilies were developed in England and are the two hottest chilies in the world. They are produced in hot natural chili sauces without the addition of any added pepper extract.
