From all corners of the globe comes an infographic of 65 delightful cheeses, assembled into one wondrous wheel. The cheeses are broken down by the animal from which the milk is produced, the softness and hardness of the delicious dairy products, and shows the color and texture of each cheese.
Click the image below to see a mega-size infographic in detail. And if you want a poster-size print of the cheese wheel chart, you can purchase one at Pop Chart Lab starting at $29
Want a spicy new topper for your next beef steak, piece of grilled meat or grilled seafood? Try a compound butter like this one: a delicious spread that employs both Green Mountain Gringo Roasted Garlic Salsa and a vinegar-y cayenne pepper sauce like Texas Pete. It’s simple, can be made in a matter of minutes, and can be prepared for several hours before your big meal…
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Episode #67 – Indoor Kitchen Inventory with Ken and Scott
What do you have in your indoor kitchen? In an extended Ken’s Fiery World segment, Ken Alexander joins Scott as they give a rundown on many of the essential items they keep in their kitchens, from knives, tools, gadgets, pots, pans, and more!
Note: In case you’re wondering about the numbering of the podcast episodes being out of order, Episode #68 with Benito Maniscalco was edited and uploaded before this one. Sorry about the confusion!
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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs
Whenever there is a new king resting atop the “World’s Hottest Chile Pepper” throne, you can bet that there will – for better or worse – be hoards of hot sauces that flood the market that contain that particular capsicum. Of course, unless you’ve been living under a rock the past year, you’ll know that the current record holder chile is Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper, with an average of 1,569,383 Scoville Heat Units and measured peak levels of over 2,200,000 SHU. It’s expected that sauce makers will scramble to concoct a condiment containing the Carolina Reaper pepper; and whether or not the Reaper is a main ingredient or only available in trace amounts within the actual product, you can count on these companies veritably featuring the pepper as a headliner attraction on the bottle’s label. Additionally, many of these folks are looking mainly to quickly capitalize on the world’s hottest pepper craze and will do a less-than-stellar job at creating a good product, and focus on the heat of the sauce.
What I am personally interested in is the flavor instead of pure fire. I ask, what can you do to utilize the taste of the Carolina Reaper chile pepper in a cohesive flavor harmonization? Can you sculpt a product formula that isn’t a copycat of 500 other sauces that have come before it? Can it “wow” my taste buds in addition to “burning” them?
So I looked to a trio of proven fiery foods flavor master masters who have developed a Carolina Reaper-based hot sauce within the past year – Johnny McLaughlin of Heartbreaking Dawns, Steve Seabury of High River Sauces, and Ed Bucholtz of Born to Hula Sauces – to see if it can be done, and done well.
The Reaper-filled offerings I will cover from these gentlemen are as follows: Heartbreaking Dawns’ Fervor Reaper Chile Hot Sauce, High River Sauces’ Foo Foo Mama Choo Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper Sauce, and Born to Hula’s Reaper of Sorrow Carolina Reaper Sauce.
What I will do in this extended review of first go over each sauce individually, and look at the ingredients, the bottle label, the texture and appearance, the aroma, and the initial tastes of each hot sauce. Then, I will perform a battery of culinary tests and see how these three stack up against each other with meals. I will then crown one of them the sultan of sauce when it comes to employing the super-hot Carolina Reaper.
So let’s get burnin’!
As mentioned a few weeks ago, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant (SSG) Frank Hegr is a selfless, brave individual (among many thousands in our armed forces) who put his life on the life for the cause of freedom. On September 8, 2011, Frank sustained multiple complex injuries from the detonation of a hand grenade while while conducting combat operations in Afghanistan. It is also known amongst Frank’s family and friends that he is a HUGE fan of spicy foods, so many of us in the Hot Sauce Community are joining together to do something very special for him.
Our good friend and chilehead “Arizona” Jack Penrod has in his possession a Gibson ES135 Hollow Body Electric Guitar autographed by famed rocker Ted Nugent, that Jack, with the generous help of Sam and Tina McCanless of Zane and Zack’s World Famous Honey Co., is now raffling off to raise money for Frank. We plan to give Frank this gift of monetary support (and hot sauce!) personally at this coming March’s Fiery Foods and Barbecue Show in Albuquerque, NM. Many others in the fiery foods industry and chilehead community are donating their time, their money and yes, even lots of hot sauce, for this great cause.
The raffle to win this awesome Ted Nugent autographed guitar is now live, and you can purchase tickets right here. Chileheads and BBQers, please spread the word to help a TRUE hero! 100% of the money raised from this raffle is going directly to Sgt. Frank Hegr and his wife Shara.
Tickets are $5.00 each. Feel free to purchase as many and as often as you like!
Today I am reviewing House of Jerky’s Ghost Pepper Beef Jerky. I loved this since the first bite I got from it.
Ingredients:
Beef (top round), soy sauce, brown sugar, pineapple juice, honey, water, tabasco sauce, ghost chili pepper (bhut jolokia), garlic, red chili pepper, onion, liquid smoke, white pepper, black pepper, ginger.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 18th, 2014
High River Sauces Launches New BBQ Sauce
Chef Chris Santos, judge on Food Network’s popular “Chopped” series and chef and partner of Beauty & Essex and Stanton Social, collaborates with Steve Seabury of High River Sauces to launch Rattler Barbeque Sauce – the barbeque sauce with a bite!
Showcasing the bold, fresh flavors that the award-winning hot sauce company High River Sauces is known for, Santos and Seabury have created a custom-made barbeque sauce with the perfect amount of sweet heat. Rattler Barbeque Sauce features spicy Cascabel Chile Peppers, which, like the rattlesnake, are known for their distinctive bite – the name Cascabel actually translates to rattle…
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Episode #68 – Interview with Benito Maniscalco of Benito’s Hot Sauce
One of the most underrated sauce makers in the country, Ol’ Benito Maniscalco of Vermont’s Benito’s Hot Sauce, stops by the Skype chatline and talks with Scott about his stellar products. Scott also reviews Bigfat’s Boom Shanka Curry Chipotle Hot Sauce, and gives a tip on how to clean your coffee and spice grinders.
Note: You may notice that Episode #67 has not been posted yet. As of this writing, that particular show is still being edited, and it will be coming next week, with a special “Kitchen Inventory Essentials” with Ken Alexander!
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We are spreading the love for all things spicy in the way of this sale. We have gathered some of the best small market companies who make fiery products of all types and list them here with their own private sales for the holiday season. If you are looking for a gift for a spicy companion or just want to capitalize on some of these amazing offers, this is your opportunity to take advantage of their sales. So please browse through all the listings, and check out the links by clicking on their company names and see what interests you. We you find something great.
It’s time for another captivating snack chip showdown! Of course, since I try to keep it spicy, I’ve selected a pair of nationally-available brand names with takes on fiery flavor variations. Since major snack manufacturers are scatter-shot when it comes to not only featuring a product that should appeal to chileheads, but also be delicious at the same time, I came into this review with no expectations.
Interestingly enough, there are now actually a wealth of hot n’ spicy options down the chip aisle (almost too many, to be honest!), so I had to be very judicious in not only selecting suitable review subjects.
I ended up choosing Doritos Dinamita Fiery Habanero Tortilla Chips and Ruffles Deep-Ridged Classic Hot Wings Potato Chips, and I was fortunate because they were two fairly dissimilar munchies in core ingredients, texture, and flavor styles…
Fellow Hot Sauce Fans and BBQers (and everyone else reading this!), there is a true, real-life American hero who needs our love and support…U.S. Army Staff Sergeant (SSG) Frank Hegr is a selfless, brave individual (among many thousands in our armed forces) who put his life on the life for the cause of freedom. It is also known amongst Frank’s family and friends that he is a HUGE fan of spicy foods, so many of us in the Hot Sauce Community are joining together to do something very special for him.
Our good friend and chilehead “Arizona” Jack Penrod has in his possession a guitar autographed by famed rocker Ted Nugent, that Jack, with the generous help of Sam and Tina McCanless of Zane and Zack’s World Famous Honey Co., is planning to raffle off to raise money for Frank. We plan to give Frank this gift of monetary support (and hot sauce!) personally at this coming March’s…
The secret to any great chili is start with an awesome basic chili powder recipe. A chili powder spice blend can be theoretically used to flavor up many different things (try mixing it in with some cuts of steak or chicken the next time you make burritos or fajitas!), but of course its main usage will always be a good bowl of chili con carne.
Pitmaster Jack Waiboer of GrateTV recently asked me for an all-around good recipe for chili powder, when I realized that I had never posted it to this blog! So, for everyone’s benefit to use as the core of your next bowl of chili, below is my chili powder recipe…
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Episode #66 – More Listener Feedback, Including Your Most Missed Defunct Hot Sauces
It’s one again time to dip into the virtual Firecast Mailbag and read your feedback, including many of your responses to the topic brought up in Episode 65, “what are some of your favorite defunct hot sauces?”
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Our journey with taking a look at Wendy’s new BBQ Pulled Pork offerings began in late September of this year with their “BBQ4merica: Pulled Pork for the People” video. What can I say about it? It was an extremely clever and effectively ad campaign that, in today’s age where 98% of commercials personally do not appeal to me, actually drew me in, entertained me, made me laugh, and gave me a small glimmer of hope that another fast food franchise could perhaps pull off a decent barbecue sandwich (the previous one being the marginally-good ARBY’s and their Smokehouse Brisket Sandwich, whose commercial guest-starred Neil “Bigmista” Strawder of Bigmista’s Barbecue). Wendy’s new spot featured actors Alfonso Ribeiro and Ralph Macchio, and wrestler Steve Austin in a humorous faux-awareness cause advertisement. I love it. If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it below: