Spicy Food
All about spicy food of all kinds - hot sauces, hot chile peppers, snacks, spicy dishes, hot wings, and more - and even bland food!
New! Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauces and Spicy Snacks
Weekly Firecast Episode 16 - Pepper Jelly Heaven with Suzanne's Kitchen!
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If you know me well, then you know that I love the celestial combo of sweet and heat! In his video, I get to try out an offering in that category as I review four tantalizing chile pepper jellies from Suzanne's Kitchen - Heaven (Mild), Purgatory (Medium), Hell (Hot) and Ghost Jelly (Extra Hot). Are these worth a look? Watch to find out.
For more info or to purchase Suzanne's Kitchen products, go to at http://pepperjellyheaven.com.
Yahoo Video of World's Hottest Lollipop at ZestFest 2012
Here's Yahoo!'s Blue Ribbon Hunter's version of the Intensity Academy Gourmet & Hot Sauce Company Lollipop Lick-a-Thon a few weeks ago at ZestFest 2012. If you're unfamiliar with the web show, as I was before they appeared down at ZestFest, it features Chef Allison Fishman as she travels to food festivals all across America.
In this video you'll see several well-known chileheads and sauce makers. You can also spot me on stage towards the end in the red t-shirt standing next to the winner of the contest.
Unfortunately, a lot of the fun smack-talk from myself and Jacs Tailgaters towards previous Lick-a-Thon winner Vic Clinco wasn't showcased at all, but this is worth a look, nonetheless:
On the Spice Trail in India
In the brown sand dunes of India's Thar Desert, local farmers lay out mounds upon mounds of red chilies on thin plastic sheets to dry out under the harsh desert sun. Red, lustrous, and inviting, they are a sight to behold. Once dried, these red chilies will be ground up, packaged and shipped to every corner of the country, or even used directly in one of the many Indian curries.
Red and yellow are the two predominant colors in Indian cuisine. Red, from the generous use of chilies; yellow from turmeric. To say that Indians like their food to be spicy would be an understatement. In some parts of the country, it is an acceptable practice to keep shakers filled with ground up red chili powder next to the...
The Facts Behind the Moruga Scorpion and the Chile Pepper Institute Super-Hot Study: A Talk With Jim Duffy
It's official that there's a new hottest kid on the block - the Moruga Scorpion chile pepper. What's more important than that is that the largest and most comprehensive study on super-hot chile peppers has been made by New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute and that tons of data will soon be available. After nearly 11 months of work that was headed up by graduate student Gregory Reeves, CPI senior research specialist Danise Coon and CPI director and regents professor Dr. Paul Bosland, the results were publicly announced at last weekend's Chile Pepper Conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Essential to a lot of this was my good friend and chile pepper grower Jim Duffy of Refining Fire Chiles. He, along with Dr. Herman Adam of CARDI, (Caribbean Agriculture Research & Development Institute) provided the vital seeds used to grow the plants in this testing.
February 2012 Poll: Do you think a new chile pepper will ever replace the Moruga Scorpion as the hottest?
It was only a matter of time before something hotter than the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T was dethroned as the world's hottest chile pepper. Now that the Moruga Scorpion chile pepper has become the Scoville king of the capsicum family with some reaching higher than 2 million SHU, will it be knocked off at some point in the future by an even hotter chile? That's the question I'm posing for all of you, blog readers...
Photo courtesy of Jim Duffy of RefiningFireChiles.com
The Moruga Scorpion - The NEW Heat Champ?
Well, the chile pepper heat race has apparently been pushed to screaming hot new heights.
If a photo released by chile pepper grower Jim Duffy is any indication, then the Moruga Scorpion - a very close relative to the current world record holder Trinidad Scorpion Butch T - is the world's hottest chile pepper at more than 2 Million Scoville Heat Units in some cases. Yikes.
The photo shows Duffy standing in front of a large poster making the proclamation regarding the Moruga Scorpion, and looks to show research headed by graduate student Gregory Reeves, senior research specialist Danise Coon and regents professor Dr. Paul Bosland of New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute. This may have been taken at the 2012 New Mexico Chile Conference, which is taking place as I type this.
While no official press release or word has been released regarding this, I imagine this will THE talk of the chile pepper world for the next few days. More details to come.
Photo credit goes to Jim Duffy of Refining Fire Chiles
Weekly Firecast Episode 15 - TATS Original Ghost Barbecue Sauce
This time out, I review a BBQ sauce with a little sweetness and a lotta kick - TATS Sauces & Marinades' Original Ghost Barbecue Sauce:
ZestFest 2012 Photos
If you hadn't seen this link on one of the social media sites I plugged it on, here it is for all of you to enjoy - photos from Day Two of the most recent ZestFest!
List of ZestFest 2012 Fiery Food Challenge Winners
Read it here first: here's the complete list of Fiery Food Challenge winners from ZestFest 2012! Big thanks go to FFC coordinator Judy Fuhrhop for providing the information.
Here are the winners...
Hot Sauce: Chipotle - Consumer Ready
1st CaJohn's Fiery Foods Company - Happy Beaver
2nd The Karma Sauce Company - Smokey Karma Sauce
3rd Duke & Baron's All American - Smoke Blueberry Chipotle
Hot Sauce: Fruit Based - Consumer Ready
1st Jungle Heat - Mango Heat
2nd Captain Thoms' Chile Pepper Company - Captain Thom's White Zombie
3rd Red Hawk Premium Peppers - B3 Hot Sauce
Hot Sauce: Habanero - Consumer Ready
1st Sizzlin Sauces, LLC - Spittin' Fire Hot Sauce
2nd....
Scott's Heading to ZestFest! Plus Event Schedule
It's almost here! I'm starting my 2012 festival and event season this coming weekend by sojourning down Texas way to ZestFest. The three-day event is happening at the Irving Convention Center in Irving, Texas this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, January 27 -29, 2012.
I will be arriving in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area on Saturday morning to see friends old and new at the show, and to witness what is good in the world of fiery foods and BBQ. I'll also partake in the Intensity Academy Lollipop Lick-A-Thon, a contest where participants must lick and suck on a 1.8 million Scoville Heat Unit sucker only it's completely dissolved. My good friend, chilehead extraordinaire and hot sauce collector Vic Clinco, has been the lolly-licking champ four times, and is looking for his fifth victory. Can I or someone else best him? We'll find out...
The winners of the...
Save Now With Super Spicy Sale For Super Bowl Sunday
We thought it would be a great service to the chilehead community to help our small business friends out a little and at the same time get some good sales to encourage some extra purchases for the big game of the year. The companies below are offering some very nice specials to you to help hoist your football gatherings to a new level of Super. Check them out, and give them some love back. They can always use some extra business during the cold Winter months. Thanks to everyone that participated!
All Discounts/Sales below are US only because of shipping costs. The Peppermaster brand is from Canada though, so their rates will differ...
Weekly Firecast Episode 14 - Review of Red Hawk Premium Peppers Hot Sauces
This time out I review Red Hawk Premium Peppers Hot Sauces - Strawberry Scorpion Sting, B3 Bhut Jolokia Banana Blueberry, and Grounds For Divorce Hot Garlic Sauce.
Review - Crazy Good Sauces
Crazy Good Sauces/Tiger Blood LLC owners Jim and Nikki O’Brien currently reside in the state of New Mexico - as evidenced by the Land of Enchantment's sun on the Crazy Good hot sauce bottle labels, yet I was pleased to learn that they have ties to St. Louis, especially in the case of Jim who grow up in the Gateway City, and also did chef duties here, among other U.S. cities. Not a bad little connection to have there to this humble little reviewer.
But I cannot have any bias towards regionality, as any product I'm testing out has to taste great no matter what part of God's green Earth it comes from. Two of the elixirs the couple produces - Nikki's Crazy Good Southwest Sweet Heat and Jimmy's Crazy Good Red Chile Sauce - are now under my review microscope. Let's see how it fares...
Recipe - Scott's Cream Cheese Marshmallow Fruit Dip
Let's take a short break from the screamin' capsaicin-induced pain and the bold flavors of spice and BBQ, and instead rest on the tasty, soothing side of the tracks. Here is one of the simplest things you can whip up on the kitchen when you're hankerin' for an addictive, sweet snack or appetizer: my marshmallow cream cheese dip.
There's really not much to it. All you'll need are:
1 8 oz. package/container of cream cheese
1 7 or 8 oz. jar of marshmallow creme
Various spices (optional)
Fruit for dipping...
Create Your Own Reserve - Blair's Death Sauce iPhone-iPad App
A few days prior to me losing access to the internet, my good friend Vic Clinco tipped me off about the new Death Sauce iPhone/iPad App from Blair's Sauces and Snacks. It's been a long, long weekend without me being to get online without my phone, and now I can finally write about it! Well, instead of me expounding on the topic, I'll just reply on Vic's eloquently written review of the app, which was also posted earlier this weekend on Peppers and More...
The app is kinda basic right now, Blair says it's the version 1.0 and they are already working on the next version and we can expect a whole lot more with it's update. I'm pretty excited. So what is it you ask... It's a Blair's Reserve collector's dream come true in a phone app. Have you ever longed for a custom, personalized reserve bottle from the man?? Well now you can do it!! I'm going to take you on a tour of app, for those of you with an iPhone or iPad, feel free to follow along. And for those that don't, hopefully this will give you a good feel of what is it. I do know also that they are in the works on an Android app now and it shouldn't be to long before you get get the app there as well....
My Top 10 List of BBQ Sauces and Rubs for 2011
Just a few weeks ago I unveiled what I thought were the top picks for spicy products of the previous twelve months. Although I did offer honorable mentions AKA runners-up for a few of the categories, I only offered what I thought were the numero unos and not much else.
Last night on the BBQ Central Radio Show I revealed to host Greg Rempe and guest Billy "DoRag" Carroll how I would rank the top 5 in the categories of best barbecue sauce and best barbeque rub for 2011. You can download or listen to the January 10, 2011 episode (my segment is approximately 74 minutes into the show) or you can read my choices below, which are listed in reverse order from #5 to #1...
Review - Kramer's Wing Rubs
If you've never heard of Kramer’s Gourmet Foods, then you're not alone. According to their website, "In 2011, Kramer’s Gourmet Foods was born! On November 15th, 2011, Kramer’s hit the market with their specially blended Chicken Wing Rubs! These Texas inspired spice blends are designed specifically for GRILLED WINGS! But it’s pretty much good on everything!"
It's commonplace for rubs and seasonings to be created for individual meats, such as chicken, pork or beef, but outside of ribs it can be rare for them to be specialized for specific body parts such as chicken wings. Very interesting. Kramer's sent bottles of their Easy Pickin', Finger Lickin' and What Was I Thinkin' for me to test out and give you my humble opinions.
Weekly Firecast Episode 13 - Review of Danny Boy The Tear Jerker Ghost Pepper Sauce
In this episode of the Weekly Firecast, I give you my first impressions of Danny Boy's Hot Sauce Co.'s The Tear Jerker Original Ghost Pepper Sauce. For more information, go to http://www.dannyboyhotsauceco.com.
Jim Duffy Talks Up Chile Peppers and Hot Sauces on KUSI in San Diego
My friend Jim Duffy Refining Fire Chiles recently appeared on a morning show segment of KUSI News from San Diego and chatted about all things spicy:
Review - Eswatini Swazi Kitchen Chili Sauces
Produced and bottled in Swaziland, Africa, Eswatini Swazi Kitchen's Chilli Sauce and Swazi Fire Chilli Sauce are among the most exotic spicy food condiments I've ever eaten. Yet, they are comfortably similar to Americanized sauces.
Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauces, Spicy Snacks, and more.
