Tag Archives: hot sauce

Bite Your Tongue When Sharing These Hot Sauce Tips!

Serious hot sauce lovers and collectors already use “liquid fire” in all kinds of ways. Outlined below are some suggestions that people may not have thought of or for those more timid, to convert and inspire them to “eat the heat”:

• Try mixing a small amount of hot sauce with softened cream cheese as a spread for bagels or as a dip for vegetables or crackers.

• Mix equal parts of olive oil and your favorite hot sauce and marinate skinless chicken breasts or fish fillets before grilling or broiling.

• Mix equal parts of soy sauce, dry sherry and hot sauce (or to taste), add a small amount of corn starch and mix in at the end of cooking your favorite stir-fry dish. If you’re using meat in your stir-fry, marinate the meat in the sauce mixture beforehand.

• Add a few drops of hot sauce to mayonnaise or salad dressing to add some extra flavor.

• Add a few drops of hot sauce to your favorite salsa, gravy, soup or stew for a little extra “kick”.

• For a different flavor in your next Bloody Mary, Caesar or glass of vegetable juice, try adding a few drops of your favorite hot sauce to “kick” up the taste.

• Use hot sauce on pizza and pasta dishes instead of red pepper flakes.

• Try cooking ham, pork roasts or smoked sausage in any tropical fruit nectar (pineapple, etc.) with a few shakes of hot sauce.

• Try a Caribbean style hot sauce on cottage cheese or your favorite salad as a low calorie, low fat dressing.

• Try mixing your favorite hot sauce with ketchup for a quick and delicious barbecue sauce.

• Tired of airplane food when travelling? Try carrying your own hot sauce to jazz up whatever they serve you.

• Try replacing the salt in your diet with hot sauce. Sprinkle it on burgers, vegetables, eggs, rice, salads, sandwiches or on any food that you’ve grilled. The sauce adds great flavor and is much better for you.

Hot Sauce Trivia

Linda in Newsletter, Site News

Hot sauces are excellent in sauces and stir-fry’s, make quick and handy marinades before grilling food, and are always welcome condiments on the table.
Research has proven that adding hot sauces to your foods can help your body burn calories faster (up to 45 calories more per meal than if you eat bland dishes).
When people eat hotter sauces, they experience pain in their mouths and throats. The nervous system reacts to the pain by releasing morphine-like endorphins. Endorphins create a sense of euphoria similar to the “runner’s high” that some people get from exercise. People who regularly eat hot sauces and chiles will find that they develop a tolerance to the heat and will have to eat increasingly hotter sauces to get the high.
Hot sauces are North American’s favorite way to turn up the heat and add some extra flavor and spice to their food. Most hot sauces are a blend of chiles, vinegar and salt, but many are variations that may also contain ingredients such as carrots, onion and papaya.
By adding lots of flavor to food with hot sauces, chiles and spices, you can reduce the amount of fat, oil and salt in your diet.
The stinking “rose”, otherwise known as garlic and a common ingredient in hot sauces, is an excellent antioxidant that can help reduce free radicals that exist in the human body. Garlic reduces cholesterol, clears arteries and helps maintain healthy blood circulation.The true hot sauce collector and aficionado looks for several qualities when evaluating a new sauce: appearance, originality, aroma, heat and flavor. Why not invite friends over for a hot sauce tasting party with evaluation forms for the sauces you’ll be trying? Try each sauce on unsalted crackers or tortilla chips and have some fun.
Half the fun of collecting hot sauces is laughing at the names that their creators give them. The names are as original as the sauces themselves and range from reference to fire and explosion, animals, religious, crime and punishment, controversial, erotic, naughty, mental health, and western themes. The names and labels make us laugh and represent much of the fun that enjoying hot sauces bring us.

Hot and Spicy Mood Lifter

Linda in Newsletter, Site News

We all know someone who loves their spicy food. Well, as it turns out, there is some science behind the love of hot flavors. Capsaicin, the chemical that produces the heat in chiles and peppers, increases the release of feel-good endorphins when the spice hits the tongue, according to Dr. Paul Rozin, Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Endorphins are known for their ability to reduce stress, relieve depression, and significantly raise the spirits. So, if you need an emotional lift, add some hot sauce or cayenne pepper to your next meal.