This morning with a few hard-boiled eggs for use as tasting devices, Bob and I sampled four hot sauces in search of the one that our continued search for one that might closely resemble Uncle Cecil's. Uncle Cecil was my friend Annabelle's uncle in Trinidad who made the most heavenly hot sauce out of green mangos, mustard and habanero peppers. Sadly, Uncle Cecil passed away and the secret went with him--we've been unable to duplicate his sauce with any recipe nor been able to find anything close in the many commercially-made sauces we've tried over the years.
Until now.
The sauces:
The one that really nailed the flavor we've been searching for, and coincidentally its both the hottest and the only one actually produced in the Carribean, is the Baron West Indian Hot Sauce on the far right. We've tested many a bottle in the past, and most have been good but failed at hitting the mark we wanted. Made in St. Lucia, it lists it's ingredients as water, hot peppers, mustard flour and then stuff like vinegar, salt and sugar. No fruit is attributed. Like a good wine, it's fruity without being sweet, hits the palate super hot did but tapers off quickly just like Uncle Cecil's. Very, very close. Purchased in Vancouver.
We differed in terms of a second favorite. Mine was the Melinda's Amarillo. It didn't have the punch or the piquance of the Baron's or some of the others, but it was less sweet and more balanced to my palate than the last two. It's ingredients are listed as habanero, onion, mustard, etc, but again no fruit attributed.
Bob's second favorite, however, was the Heartbreaking Dawn's Mango Habanero. In some ways, out of the line-up it was the most distinctive as it was the only one lacking mustard. Bob thought it the least sweet, whereas I thought it the most sweet though quite attractively, fruit-forwardly so.
Bob's last place was the Melinda's, mine was the Iquana Gold Golden Habanero which was also on the sweet side but tainted, to my palate though I know it would create an advantage to others, with quite a bit of cumin. That's not listed as an ingredient, though, just: water, cayenne, sugar, carrots, onions, salt, vinegar and, lastly, habanero.
