The Official French Fries Pages:
Condiment Reviews: Chile Pepper Sauces
from chilepepper-dot-com (1996-1999)


Note: This domain is no longer owned by the original company reviewed here.
Please don't visit the squatter's site.

Nathan Freedenberg of [the original] chilepepper-dot-com told us that hot sauce is especially good on French Fries. He backed this up by sending a few sauces to the Select Ware Laboratories Culinary and Food Technology Division for testing. When we saw the box, we figured it was going to take us an awfully long time to test all the sauces, but we were relieved to find only four bottles. Seems Nate knew all too well that UPS and glass bottles don't mix well, so he used lots of padding.

The Select Ware Laboratories Culinary and Food Technology Division tested the four sauces which were sent and came up with the following results (label scans have been lost):

Rasta FIRE! Hot Sauce:
A lot of citrus and tropical fruits in this one. Habanero is fourth on the ingredients label, but don't let it fool you as it did our tester -- it's hot. This sauce has sort of a curry flavour, with a nice mango-y spicy finish. It's reminiscent of Heinz 57 steak sauce, but with a little more character and a lot more heat.

Bubba Brand H'eatin Hotsauce:
Habanero pepper is second only to vinegar in this one, and surprisingly, it's not too hot. It has a raisin-like flavour, even though raisins are not on the ingredient list. The heat comes in at the end and stays around for a while.

McCutcheon's Spicy Chesapeake Seafood Sauce:
We thought McCutcheon's only made jellies and jams. Turns out they make a pretty good hot sauce, too. McCutcheon's, unlike the other sauces tested, is a mustard and horseradish-based sauce and uses Tabasco, not habanero, peppers for the heat. The result is a distinctive mustardy-horseradish flavour which ends in some nice, but not too long-acting heat. This is the mildest of the four, and we would classify it as "medium" in heat.

Habanero !Hot! !Hot! !Hot! Panamanian Style:
The bottle says "Mustard Base" but we didn't notice it. We certainly noticed the !Hot! !Hot! !Hot! after sampling the stuff. The first ingredient is "Peppers." No kidding! It has a hot start, hot middle and finishes with a long-lasting hot. We didn't really notice the mustard flavour, but it may be there.

Our recommendation:

Of the four sauces tested, we find the Rasta Fire the most-suited for use as a French Fry condiment. The curry-fruit flavour goes especially well with thicker cut French Fries. Runner-up is McCutcheon's, which works well on thin as well as crinkle-cut French Fries.

Do you have a favourite sauce or condiment? Are you a manufacturer or restaurant with a condiment which is particularly good on French Fries? Send us some and we'll review it. If you make your own special sauce at home, send us the recipe. Write to us at info@officialfrenchfries.com.

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