Outer Limits Hot Sauce – Bayonne, NJ
I don’t know if this is a mashed hot sauce (where the chiles are fermented in brine prior to the sauce being made), but that’s how it comes across. During the mashing process, as the yeast chew up the fermentables, flavors mellow and merge until you end up with a single monoflavor that is the sum of its parts, somewhat muted, rather than a number of big, distinctive flavors blended together like you will typically get from a fresh sauce (think Texas Pete or Frank’s Red Hot, they are both stereotypical mashed Cayenne sauces). That’s what I get on the nose here: a delicious monoaroma that speaks of ghost pepper smoke and the savory Malliard flavors of the roasted garlic; that, and a big vinegar tang that is, again, consistent with a mashed sauce. The palate follows the nose.
The sauce has a modest viscosity but some really nice body, a combination characteristic of judicious use of xanthan gum as a thickener. In addition to nice aesthetics, this serves a practical purpose; in conjunction with the thoughtfully-provided shaker-top, it allows dispensing the sauce in judicious quantities, which is a decided benefit given how hot this stuff is. The burn is mid-mouth and intense, with a fast onset and an overbearing presence, and lasts quite awhile.
This would make a great go-to ghost pepper sauce. Recommended for the brave.
Ingredients: white vinegar, ghost peppers, granulated roasted garlic, salt, xanthan gum
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