Food

We just returned from the Fiery Foods Show, held again in Albuquerque, New Mexico and I had a lot of people asking for the hottest chile pepper we offered. I smiled, not at their extreme passion for scoville units, but because I couldn’t supply them with anything hotter than our Coyote Trail Green Chile Sauce. Sure, the Green Chile Sauce has some heat, but nothing like what these guys were looking for. I thought back to our departure from a sound business plan-the time we were also in search of the heat…

Cleo “Jake” Calloway, Jr., president and owner of Jake’s Barbeque Sauce and Seasonings Company, is one of the most passionate people I’ve ever talked to, and seems to be totally into what he does. He’s extremely helpful and accommodating, too – I gave him a list of sample questions that I would plan to ask him a few days in advance of our phone conversation, and he e-mailed me back condensed but detailed answers to each one, which aided tremendously in the editing of this interview. And just speaking to him, he exuded an honest enthusiasm and love of what he does that it was darn near infectious. It was hard not to like this guy and what he does; and after reviewing his Barbecue Sauces and his Basil Marinade, I would say he does it quite well.

Before interviewing him, I had only known him as Cleo and did not know of his nickname, so it led me to start out by asking him…

Scott: How did the company get its name and who is Jake?

Jake: Jake is my great-grandfather, whom I was nicknamed after. After developing my first sauce and gaining approval on the flavoring from my parents and I was talking with them about the products when my mother mentioned that I reminded her of her grandfather Jake. Jake was an old time barbecuer and spent hours upon hours perfecting his sauces and dry seasonings. She said that I have that same level of diligence and persistence and with that I name the company Jake’s…

Americans definitely love their beer! Here are some interesting graphics that show just how much beer Americans drink in one year:

Find your weapons of thirst destruction right here with the Bullet Ice Cube Tray. Shaped like actual bullets from an AK-47 rifle, these will ensure you’ll have a killer drink every time (okay, enough with the bad jokes). You can buy them online right here for £7.99 (approximately $15.15 US)

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Need information on a variety of audio-related topics? Unsure of a topic or musical term? Then check out the Audiophile Wiki. It’s the brainchild of Paul McGowan of PS Audio, and is built for both the novices and experts alike. But like any wiki, it’s a work in progress and benefits from the input of everyone — including you. If you’d like to help edit and add topics, please sign up and make this the go-to sound resource.

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Several months back I had mentioned that Black Label Society/Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde was teaming up with Blair’s to create Berserker Brand Hot Sauces. Well, the sauce formulas have been made, the bottles are ready to be filled and labeled and shipped to your door after October 15th. You can pre-order the Berserker Hot Sauces from Zakk’s site ot the Blair website.

And what kind of scorching elixirs have Zakk and Blair concocted? Berserker is available in four flavors: Zakk Wylde’s Original Hot Sauce (mild), Wylde’s Sonic Brew Hot Sauce (medium), Zakk Wylde’s Stronger Than Death Hot Sauce (hot), and Zakk Wylde’s Shot to Hell Hot Sauce (extremely hot). It is advertised on both sites that Shot to Hell “contains ingredients 600 times hotter than a jalapeno chili”. If this is using the same semantics that is on Blair’s Mega Death and Jersey Death (which are advertised on the bottles as having ingredients 500 times and 750 times jalapeno heat, respectively), then this sauce is pushing 600,000 Scoville Heat Units. Yowza! That’s pretty darn hot.

Here’s a clever contraption that should be added to my Ultimate Guide to Drying Hot Peppers guide: a homemade solar-powered dehydrator. The homegrownevolution.com site has a nice little write-up describing their successful experiences with one they had built, plus provide a few links with instructions on how to construct your own. I still think an electric food dehydrator is the best method of drying fruits and vegetables, but if you’re looking to save a few dollars on electricity costs one of these solar dehydrators may be a great alternative.

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From what I’ve heard (I’ve yet to try it myself), acorn flour has a very distinct, very tasty flavor, adding a robustness and nuttiness to recipes that hum-drum wheat flour lacks. Here’s an online tutorial on how to create acorn

CaptureFox is a cool new Firefox extension that can record your screen movements and voice (through a microphone, of course) to create screencasts. It’s great for producing videos for on-screen demos, lessons and tutorials. Just in case you’re wondering, this

Totally impractical but cool nonetheless is the USB Mini Fridge – a real, working refrigerator that plugs into a USB port on your computer. It’s very limited as to what you can store in this little box (a 12-oz beverage

This was posted a few days ago on the Telegraph.co.uk:

An amateur chef died the day after eating a “superhot” chilli in a bet with his friend over who could make the hottest dish, an inquest heard.

Andrew Lee, 33, suffered heart failure the morning after he ate the chilli.

Toxicology tests are now being carried out to see if the fork lift truck driver suffered a fatal reaction to the dish or whether anything else contributed to his death.

Mr Lee, of Edlington, Doncaster was apparently in perfect health and…

I don’t know exactly how I felt after watching this – disturbed, scared, or nauseous. These Children of the Corn-esque kiddos conjure up images of the pre-programmed communist North Korean populace or the Hitler Youth. And yes, this is apparently real and not a parody.

“Sing For Change Obama”:

(This may sound like an extra long Twitter post, but so what…) Lately the craze at our house has been the new Spore game. It has to be hands-down the game of the year. It’s majorly addictive – my sons and I are constantly jonesin’ to play it. So far I’ve only gotten to the beginning of the Tribal Stage, whereas the boys are still in the Creature Stage.

Blair Lazar has just sent this message:

“Dear Chilipal,

It is with the greatest Honor for me to Announce the Pre-Release Of The All New Death Sauce Line-up, New Labels, New Boxes, Ultra Death Sauce, Not to mention, This is the First Batch Of sauce that Contains Habanero and Jolokia Chilis From our Very Own Pepper Farm just North of the Equator. For the First time ever, I am offering a Mega Pre-Release Special for the Hard Core Chilihead. A First Run Set including all 9 bottles of My Kick your Ass Hot Death Sauce Line up, That I personally cooked, Bottled, Labeled, Sealed and blessed with all every ounce of Karma in my Soul.

I made a Total of 36 Pre-Production Bottles of Each sauce. I Kept and Use half a dozen of each for myself, friends and Family and I am making the remaining 30 Sets available to my Chilipals around the World. Each Label and Awesome New Box is Signed and Numbered, Plus I am adding in a Secret Special Bottle that only you will receive. So it’s Ten Bottles Total. How Much you ask??? $10,000. Per Set. Ok, Only F-in With ya. And yes, I am aware The Death Sauce Phenomenon has brought in over $12,000 for a single rare bottle. But that’s from resellers; Bless um all I say. So here’s the deal, direct from the Source (That’s Me) and Never available again, $499 Per Set, I know you say “Blair that’s only $50 Per Bottle”. Yep, So Good For you, Re-Sell um if you choose to or better yet Keep um as the rare of rarest I have ever done. Your Call, Just Enjoy um. I have so much more to share but that’s it for now. Order at extremefood.com

Your chilipal,
Blair

PS And Yes a Very Limited Halloween Reserve will be announced soon.”