Review - Twodogs Unleashed Sweet Hidden Heat Salish
Is it a salsa or a relish? How about what they call a "salish"? I found that it's also a top-notch sauce, spread, and dip. It's sweet, tangy, mustardy, spicy, savory all rolled into one unique condiment. In concept it may not sound like it would work, but boy, does it! Sweet Hidden Heat Salish is one of the most unique - and satisfying - food products I've tried all year.
Sweet Hidden Heat Salish comes in three variations - Mild, Medium, and Hot.
Ingredients:
The ingredients for all three are identical, except that Medium has cayenne peppers added and Hot has habaneros added:
Mild: Jalapeno and Red Fresno Peppers, prepared mustard, white vinegar, flour, water, sugar and salt
Medium: Jalapeno, Red Fresno and Cayenne Peppers, prepared mustard, white vinegar, flour, water, sugar and salt
Hot: Jalapeno, Red Fresno and Habanero Peppers, prepared mustard, white vinegar, flour, water, sugar and salt.
Aroma:
3.5 out of 5. All three are close in smell, with increasing amounts of chile pepper aroma as the heat level goes up. The salish smells like a sweet mustard with hints of an almost pepper jelly presence in them (it must be the chiles and sugar combining to do this). None of them are overly harsh or too vinegary.
Appearance and Texture:
4 out of 5. The salishes have a golden brown hue, not unlike melted caramel. Prepared mustard is probably the biggest factor in the color, but the salishes' texture and consistency is vastly different than most other spicy or peppered mustards I seen, which are usually gritty, grainy, pasty or speckled. Sweet Hidden Heat is smooth, glaze-like and a bit thinner than comparable condiments. Also, with each rise in the heat level, the salish gets slightly chunkier with pepper pieces and seeds.
Mild
Medium
Hot
Taste Straight Up:
4.5 out of 5. Nice, sweet and tangy. This gets a lot of it's personality from the mustard, of course. There is also a very impressive performance from the chile peppers - so strong, in fact, that these may the the freshest, natural pepper taste I've ever come across in a processed product. Only in a homemade salsa have they tasted more "fresh from the garden".
Taste on Food:
5 out of 5. In the spirit of blending things together such as salsa and relish, I tried a good dose of Sweet Hidden Heat on a couple of fried egg roll-wrapped chicken fajitas. The salish was excellent on the food, providing additional dimensions of sweetness and spice to the chicken breast meat, onions, and bell peppers. Every bite was lip-smackin'.
Suggested Uses:
The possibilities are endless...burgers, dogs, pork, wings, meatballs, sandwiches, and maybe even Chinese food.
The "Catch":
2.5 out of 5. This salish could have ultimately wound up as a 5 out of 5, A+ product if not for one thing...it's lack of addictability. It tasted fantastically good in small amounts, but was I craving it again and again after consuming it the first time? Not really. I could imagine eating this on occasion (and loving it) yet frequent uses of salish would probably make me tire of it rather quickly.
Heat:
Good work, my friends. Twodogs Unleashed is another company that "gets" chileheads and doesn't skimp on the heat. Even its Mild version of salish contained a welcoming warmth from the jalapenos and red fresno chiles. If any mainstream manufacturer would have produced this, it would have been labeled as Medium or even Hot. If you have a weak tolerance to heat, Mild may even be too hot for you.
The actual Twodogs Medium version is nice and spicy and would rate 2.5 on a 1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the hottest.
Hot contains the real bluster of habanero peppers and is for chileheads only. 3 to 3.5 out of 5 on this one.
Label:
Cute depiction of a male and a female dog. What is the male canine doing? Humping the pepper or the female behind him? Who knows. Anywho, the heat level is indicated by the paw print in the upper right of the label.
Overall:
Great stuff, and it gets a high recommendation from me. If you wish to bite into this salish, go to Twodog's Etsy page and buy a 16 oz. jar or two for $6.00 a piece plus shipping.
Related Articles:
Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
Comments
2009-08-21 05:55:42
2009-08-21 07:33:35
Really really good on grilled food.
2009-08-21 10:04:05
2009-08-21 20:53:11
2009-08-23 15:51:39
2009-08-24 17:54:32
Twodogs Unleashed Sweet Hidden Heat Salish can be purchased at Julie's Corner store in Lacon Il. and is also available online at: www.TwodogsUnleashed.etsy.com
2009-11-19 07:09:19
2009-12-01 08:40:26
Add Your Comment: