Mad Dog 357 Hot Sauce – 357, 000 on the Scoville heat scale. That’s damn hot. The label has a long list of terms of agreement before you use this sauce. That’s because Mad Dog sauces are violently hot. If you’re one of those guys or girls that like pain, this is a sauce for you.

I’ve tried it alone and with foods. Even as an additive to other foods, Mad Dog 357 is only marginally workable, and then only if you have enough common sense to use it in moderation.

There’s not a whole lot to this sauce.  Vinegar, chile extract, cane juice, habanero peppers, garlic, onion, and cayennes that measure 160,000 on the Scoville chart themselves. Continue Reading

Bear Claw Chipotle Barbecue Sauce – This sauce has a deep, reddish-brown color and an exceptional pour quality. It lays perfectly over any meat you use it on and cooks to a nice and thick consistency, allowing its flavor to stay with the meat and compliment every bite.

Any sauce made with chipotle stands a chance of being good. The smoked peppers give it a taste that suits barbecue well. In addition to the chipotle peppers in Bear Claw, there’s a tomato sauce base with sugar, worcestershire sauce, salt, crushed pineapple, pineapple juice, and some bell peppers. None of these ingredients, including the pineapples, take away from the wonderful smoky taste of the chipotles, which remain the key flavor personality throughout. Continue Reading

Wimp Retardant Hot Sauce – Actually, the full name of this sauce is Professor Payne Indeass’s Butt Blazin’ Recipe #3 Wimp Retardant Hot Sauce, but that seemed like an awfully long title for a review. The old-timey label features a man, presumably Professor Payne Indeass (get it?) himself, arms outstretched with a bottle in his hand, a top hat on his head, and his mouth open wide. I can just imagine him saying “Step right up…” A crowd gathers around the edges of what appears to be a picture frame. I like that the label leaves about an inch and a half of the back of the bottle uncovered so that you can easily see the pepper seeds floating around inside. I rate the old-fashioned packaging 5/5. It creates the feel they seem to be going for.

Habanero peppers are the first ingredient. Continue Reading

The label of Smoky Iguana Chipotle Pepper Sauce features a rare sight: an iguana smoking a cigar — in camouflage, no less. He is climbing onto a rock, apparently leaving the flames of battle behind him, as he smokes his victory cigar. His name is Iggy, of course, and there is a cute little story about his adventures on the side of the bottle. The slogan tells us, “It’s so good, it’s smokin’.” Aside from the implied heat of the flames on the label, this sauce makes no claims of extreme heat. It even describes itself as “Smoky, savory and sort’a hot.” When so many milder sauces seem to feel the need to describe themselves as the hottest stuff on the planet, such honesty is refreshing. I freely give this label 5/5 for its creativity. Continue Reading

Widow Hot Sauce – First of all, if you have forgotten what the bottle looked like when you placed your order, you will likely be quite startled as, while unpacking your order, you find a big black spider on the bottle. Not on the label — on the bottle! It’s plastic, of course, but the two seconds it took me to process that fact were quite disturbing. The yellow, black, and red label also features a black widow — with the distinguishing red hourglass on her belly — sitting in a web. Blood drips from both her fangs and from the words “Widow” and “No Survivors.” There is also a warning that reads, “Extremely HOT SAUCE. Use one drop at a time!” I give the dramatic, attention-getting label 5/5. You really can’t help but notice it — and perhaps wonder whether you are up to the challenge. Continue Reading

Mountain Man Roasted Corn, Garlic, and Chipotle Sauce – This Mountain Man sauce is everything you’d expected from the finely crafted sauces Mountain Man puts out. Those sauces include Mountain Man Garlic Pepper Sauce and Mountain Man Roasted habanero Sauce. Mountain Man sauces are exquisite blends of ingredients and unique flavors to tickle the palate. I mean, really, give me a break. Just take a look at the name of this sauce. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Apple cider, vinegar, chipotle peppers,  roasted corn, tomato puree, molasses, garlic, salt, and brown sugar. Continue Reading

Dave’s Gourmet Badlands Barbeque Sauce – Usually, when I’m about to taste a product by Dave’s Gourmet, I take some preparations. I have 911 on speed dial, I keep a large glass of iced tea handy, and I make sure no one is around to hear me scream and see me cry. So I was surprised to find that after tasting Dave’s Gourmet Badlands Barbeque Sauce, no trips to ER would be necessary.

To be fair, the label indicates in two places that Badlands Barbeque is not as much about heat as it is about flavor. And there it definitely has plenty. Continue Reading

Demon Pig Blaze Orange BBQ Sauce – The blue pig with the devil horns and tail on the label of Demon Pig Blaze Orange BBQ Sauce is one ugly specimen of swine. But all is forgiven, because the sauce inside the bottle is so good I feel like I could roll around in it like an oinker in a mud puddle. On second thought, that might be such a good idea since this sauce has some serious spice to it and that might irritate my gentle bits.

Of course, I’m a fan of the regular Demon Pig BBQ Sauce anyway, so when I saw “Blaze Orange” I was thinking “just as good, only better!” And I was right. Continue Reading

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 20 fresh jalapeno peppers, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup distilled white vinegar

Directions:

1. In a medium glass or enamel lined sauce pan over high heat, combine oil, peppers, garlic, onion and salt; saute for 4 minutes. Add the water and cook for 20 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool to room temperature.
2. Transfer the mixture to a food processor and puree until smooth. With the processor running, slowly add the vinegar.
3. Pour into a sterilized jar with a tight lid. This sauce will keep for 6 months when stored … Continue Reading
   

Melinda’s XXXtra Reserve sports a bright-as-fire orange color and a beautiful, thick consistency. Habaneros, carrots, lime juice, onions, vinegar, and salt make up this sauce, with a pepper seeds worked in throughout for texture and added flavor.

Despite the name, this sauce isn’t intensely hot. It’s warm for sure, but it isn’t going to send anybody rushing to cool things down. What it is, however, is a finely crafted sauce with a delicate balance of its ingredients and a substantially good flavor.

Melinda’s XXXtra Reserve tasted great on tortilla chips with nothing else. Continue Reading

Melinda’s Coffee BBQ Sauce – There’s an extremely complex set of tastes going on with Melinda’s Coffee BBQ Sauce. Being a coffee lover, I believe that coffee is a fine taste enhancer for just about anything, and barbecue sauce would have been high on my list of things to use it in. I wouldn’t have been wrong. Coffee is the perfect additive to a barbecue sauce, as Melinda’s Coffee BBQ Sauce very quickly establishes.

Melinda’s Coffee BBQ Sauce was inspired by the winning recipe in 2002 contest. It’s no wonder it was a winner. The complex tastes here are due to a wide range of ingredients that work well to enhance whatever meat you decide to barbecue with. Continue Reading

Nuckin’ Futs Hot Sauce – Besides having a really cool name, this sauce can boast about how hot it is. This is the sort of heat that die-hard hot sauce and chili heads like to brag about. Here’s the deal, though. This sauce is off the charts when it comes to heat. The pepper here is habanero, which we all know packs quite a punch, but the extract added to boost this famously hot pepper is what sends it over the edge. If you decide to give it a try, be prepared for a shot of heat that will bring you to your knees.

With this heat comes flavor. The very first thing you taste is the flavor. Continue Reading

Fork ‘n Halo Heavenly Hickory BBQ Sauce – There’s a fat pink pig in a red devil’s suit on the label of Fork ‘n Halo Heavenly Hickory BBQ Sauce, but something is dancing on my tongue and I don’t think the satanic swine is it. For clues, I look to the back of the label and the ingredient list: tomatoes, evaporated cane juice, molasses, red wine vinegar, honey, apple juice concentrate, salt, smoke flavoring, mustard powder, smoked Spanish paprika, onion, garlic, chipotle pepper, black pepper, and xanthan gum.

At the outset, I’m ruling out the xanthan gum. Continue Reading

Joe Perry’s Mango Peach Tango Hot Sauce – I’m tempted to say that Joe Perry’s Rock Your World Mango Peach Tango Hot Sauce is as hot as his playing, but the truth is that I’m not the world’s biggest Aerosmith fan. In fact, I wish they’d just break up already without all the rehab drama. So I’m not going to make any musical comparisons and the only thing I’ll say about Joe Perry himself is that he makes a damned fine hot sauce.

The original Boneyard Brew flavor of Perry’s is a bit hotter than its follow-up, Mango Peach Tango, but I suppose that’s to be expected, considering the additional fruity flavors in this product. Continue Reading

Mad Dog BBQ Sauce – In the world of commercial barbecue sauce, there are the dozen or so major brands that take up all the space on the supermarket shelves, then there are the hundreds, perhaps thousands of small independent manufacturers whose sauces are sold in specialty stores or perhaps only online. Mad Dog bridges these two worlds. It’s probably one of the largest if not the largest of the smaller brands and is well known and highly regarded by much of the public.

How does a smaller brand get to play with the big boys? It helps to be super delicious and have award-winning quality. Mad Dog’s recipe is pretty simple – Continue Reading

Blair’s Ultra Death Sauce with Jersey Fury – The sauce doesn’t even sound like it plays nice. I’ve had plenty of Blair’s ultra hot sauces. There are enough of them, believe me: Blair’s Mega Death Sauce with Liquid Rage, Blair’s Original Death Sauce, Blair’s Pure Death with Jolokia, and now Blair’s Ultra Death Sauce with Jersey Fury.

Just what the hell is Jersey Fury anyway?

Like all of the Blair hot sauces, this is over-the-top hot. It’s dangerous, simple as that. Blair sauces also have the distinction of tasting great on top of the heat. There are no preservatives, which truly does shine through when you taste the sauce. Continue Reading

Ole Ray’s Blackberry Wine Barbecue and Cooking Sauce – Lord, give me mercy. That’s what I said when I opened this bottle and put a spoonful of this in my mouth. This is fine dining, gourmet, Heaven-on Earth eating. The chicks will moan, the guys will say, “Oh yeah.” I’m not exaggerating. You’ll find reasons to cook with this stuff.

Is it a great barbecue sauce? Yep. But it’s so much more than that. Ole Ray has managed to whip up a batch of Nirvana in a bottle. It starts with blackberry jelly (that’s what I said),  corn syrup, sugar, and fruit pectin. There’s also some tomato puree. Continue Reading

Marie Sharp’s Habanero Pepper sauce – I’m a big fan of Marie Sharp’s products. The Marie Sharp’s factory is located in the Mayan Mountains. This is where the ingredients for the products are cultivated, and baby, are they fine. The ingredients are always fresh when the product is produced. it shows. The habaneros used in this sauce are particularly hot. The beautiful flavor of the habanero shines through here at about three times the normal flavor level. I’m not sure what the process is, but whatever they do to make this sauce, it sings.

In addition to the fine red habaneros used, ingredients include lime juice, garlic, salt, vinegar, and a healthy carrot base that provides a lot of the color. Continue Reading

Roadhouse Southern Sunset Bar-B-Que Sauce – This is an absolutely classic bar-b-cue sauce with some additional things going on that give it character beyond the classics. Vinegar, cider vinegar, sugar, tomato puree, molasses, peach juice, onion, apricots, garlic, paprika, lemon juice, salt, cayenne pepper, crushed red peppers, and some extra spices make up the delicate balance of this sauce.

The sauce has a consistency a little shy of thick, which makes it perfect not only as a barbecue sauce, but as a dip or marinade as well. There are pieces of ingredient throughout, which helps provide a cling factor during the cooking process. Continue Reading

Gringo Bandito Hot Sauce – I didn’t expect much from this sauce when I glanced at the label. First impressions can be everything, though it isn’t always wise to judge a book by its cover when you’re dealing with sauces. In this case, a blonde guy in a sombrero with a couple of six-shooters across his chest just looked like a cheap ploy to get my attention. I glanced at the ingredient list and found a pleasant surprise. It reads:

Vinegar, water, habanero peppers, jalapeno peppers, Red Japanese chili peppers, more peppers, salt, mojo, and spices. Continue Reading

Ahrun’s Carolina Mustard BBQ Sauce – This is billed as a barbecue sauce. It’s slightly thin for the purpose, but the taste of the sauce makes up for it.  The ingredients this sauce sports include corn syrup, vinegar, sugar, mustard,  worcestershire sauce, onions, garlic, tamarind, cloves, and chili pepper extract.

Ahrun’s Carolina Mustard BBQ Sauce is a very sweet sauce with a slight bite of fire. It works extremely well on ham and other pork, it’s great on chicken, and it even makes a great addition to seafood. Despite the thin personality of the sauce, if you keep painting it on your food while you’re grilling, it maintains its flavor and finally manages to thicken up a bit.
Continue Reading

Arrogant Bastard Ale Jalapeno Hot Sauce – Based on the Arrogant Bastard Ale, this hot sauce delivers both sharp, tangy flavor and a heat punch that will leave you grasping for something to pick you up off the floor. Arrogant Bastard is a kick-in-the groin beer that adds to the taste of this sauce. It is, in fact, the key ingredient, along with crushed hot peppers, pepper sauce, cane juice, jalpeno peppers, garlic, lemon juice, and a little capsicum for good measure.

I dropped some of this into a cheddar cheese dip just to see what I could work up. Before that, I tried a half a teaspoon full. Continue Reading

Big Bob Gibson Mustard BBQ Sauce – Big Bob Gibson makes some unique award-winning sauces, including Big Bob Gibson Championship Red Sauce and Big Bob Gibson Original White Bar-B-Q Sauce. This one is a mustard-based bar-b-cue sauce and it rocks. Mustard, as an ingredient in sauces, is something I really enjoy when the blending is done well. Big Bob Gibson Mustard BBQ Sauce is an exquisite blending of mustard and other ingredients that creates a sweet, smoky, very rich presentation.
Ingredients here are extensive. Mustard, soy sauce, steak sauce, salt, onions, garlic, orange, orange peel, turmeric, apple concentrate, rye concentrate, tomato paste, molasses, raisin concentrate, tamarind, brown sugar, and a whole bunch of other spices and flavorings that Big Bob uses like paints on a palette to create a masterpiece of bar-be-cue flavor. Continue Reading

Dave’s Hurtin’ Habanero Hot Sauce - Dave’s insanity sauces are world-renowned for deadly heat factor. When I came across a bottle of Dave’s Hurtin’ Habanero, I knew I was in trouble. When one of the hottest peppers in the world becomes the start attraction in one of Dave’s insane combinations, you know you’re going to need to approach the situation with caution, and that’s exactly what I did. Not only did I approach with caution, I was cautious about that. The point is, none of the precautions mattered. i took a reasonable sample to start with, I had a slice of bread and lime juice on the side, and I approached the situation slowly.

The heat was so intense that my mouth went numb, which you’d expect to be a good thing under the circumstances. Continue Reading

Pappy’s Not Made in China barbecue and dipping sauce is made in the USA without lead paint. That’s what the label tells us. Cool. Lead paint isn’t good for you. The good news is, Pappy’s Not Made in China BBQ Sauce is good for you. Pappy’s Moonshine Madness is one of my favorite sauces, and so is Pappy’s Sauce for Sissies. Okay, so I don’t use the sauce for sissies (well, I don’t admit it) as often as I use the Moonshine Madness, but in any case, it’s a fine sauce.

Not Made in China BBQ Sauce is billed as a barbecue and dipping sauce. Soy sauce, sugar, molasses, fresh garlic, fresh onion, salt, smoke flavor, hot sauce, tomato paste, worcestershire sauce, anchovies, and all those other ingredients typical of Pappy’s sauce are in this mix. Continue Reading