It’s pretty damn cool to see articles in print about people from the industry who we’ve actually met in person. Such is the case with Steve and Charles from Devil’s Own Sauces. We tried some of their Jerk sauce while at ZestFest, and one taste of this amazing AND hot concoction was enough to get us to buy a bottle instantaneously. In fact, we’ve been biding our time to where we can cook up a recipe or two with it so we can post a proper review. Until then, check out this article from theday.com out of Connecticut:

The Jerk Boys
Stephen Kitchen And Charles Trefes

Published on 9/30/2006

Who: Stephen Kitchen and Charles Trefes, both 36 and both of Westerly.

Why you should know them: These guys are hot. Really hot. But never mind their signature hot sauce, Devil’s Own. It’s their recent acclaim from Chile Pepper Magazine Zest Fest in Forth Worth, Texas, that has tongues wagging (and lapping water.) Their Devil’s Own Jerk Seasoning this month won the Golden Chile Award in the festival’s Fiery Food Challenge.

Click here to read the rest of this article

Interview time again! This time from ZestFest, we present Beanie of Beanie’s Homemade Salsa:

Link to Beanie’s Interview

(It’s a pretty big Quicktime file, so please give it a few moments to load in your browser)

We found out that Beanie’s Homemade Salsa won honorable mention in Austin for their red salsa in addition to 2nd place with their Cranberry in the People’s Preference Contest at ZestFest.

In addition, they recently picked up authorization in Whole Foods in Texas. Their products go into all their stores on Oct 9th.

Our very own Chuk did a great feature write-up on Beanie’s back in March, and you can click HERE to read it.

After much anticipation after our return from ZestFest, my new additions to the Blair collection finally arrived in the mail. I was surprised at what a big ol’ box they came in, but when I opened it up I understood why that was the case. These reserves are HUGE, and are like the ‘05 Holiday Reserve in size…although much more fancy than that one. See for yourself:

Always looking ahead, I’m eagerly awaiting the chance at getting the other two that are coming out later this year. These are great, and I’m sure those will be too!

Now, we’ve tasted a bunch of salsa in our time…made by companies from sea to shining sea. This said, a request from a salsa company out of the state of New Hampshire caught our attention as something out of the ordinary. Also known as the Granite State, it’s in an area of the country mostly known for its beautiful topography, great places to ski, and a number of other historic sites. We figured it might be an area more conducive to maple syrup than salsa, but the folks at Better Than Freds Salsa are doing a lot to affect the way that people in the industry view this northeastern state. From the taste of their salsa itself to their label graphics to their company’s roots, this burgeoning salsa powerhouse is definitely worth taking interest in, and we asked the folks there to tell us a little about themselves and their company….

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Coinciding with the timing of the Open Fields 2006 event, we find that Hector and Achilles were ready to give up their fruit. See pics below for our meager haul from our pepper plant duo:

What we’re asking now is for some help from our readers on what to do with these peppers, as far as recipes go. For the habs, perhaps a hot sauce…but the poblanos are fair game for anything.

Keep it decent, people. Gotta be stuff we can take pictures of, y’know.

Send us your recipe or post it in the comments, and we’ll pick which one to use, make it, and take pictures of it. If we have enough suggestions, we’ll make it into a poll and have people vote on what we should make with these peppers.

This the interactive part of the process now. Send in your ideas!!

Ingredients: Red Rippened Jalapeno Peppers, Distilled Vinegar, Salt

My father, Richard, graciously sent me a $75 gift certificate to Trader Joes. This last weekend I visited TJ’s and to this chili-head’s surprise…they have their own hot sauce! I picked up a bottle, simply named Trader Joe’s Jalapeno Pepper Hot Sauce, for a stunningly cheap price of $1.19 (plus tax)!!!! Now, I have found very few sauces that are good at a price like that, so I was half expecting this to not meet my standards of a good sauce. Luckily, I was slightly wrong.

Right off the bat, I must point out that they used MATURE jalapenos. Most people use the green, unripe pods of the jalapeno. Those people are missing out. When left to ripen to its final color of red, a jalapeno is much sweeter and a little hotter. The folks at TJ’s must know this because that’s what they are using. The initial taste is sweet mixed with tart. Yes, sadly this has fallen pray to the overuse of vinegar. But the sweet is really nice and the tart vinegar taste is brief. I find nice warmth to this sauce, more so than most Jalapeno sauces, and is not overpowering at all. It just kind of hangs out in the background for a while and then leaves.

There is nothing too special about the label. The artwork represents the theme of their stores and they have a heat rating for the sauce on the side. It states that the sauce is almost toping the scale of heat…obviously they haven’t had Defcon Condition 1 (look for my MEGA review of all of Defcon’s sauces next week, folks!). This sauce goes great on eggs in the morning and splash some on your tacos.

Taste: 7, Heat: 5

This is another Red Savina hot sauce with the admonition on the label which says, “You have been warned! XX Hot!” I saw a similar warning on another of CaJohn’s hot sauces that I reviewed, so I knew to give this sauce its due respect when I tasted it. Hoo-hah!

First impression: While being vaguely red like ketchup, that’s where the similarity ends. There is the unmistakeable scent of habanero which emanates from the bottle which I thought was going to dissolve my nostril hairs. With the awesome fist-holding-a-chile label graphics, this sauces beckons to be eaten.

Taste: Ah, there’s nothing quite like the Red Savina (R) to get your attention when you take a big ol’ bite of it…like a big swig of habanero with afterburners on it. I did catch hints of some of the other ingredients, particularly the onion and garlic, but mostly it’s a whole lot of habanero. If that’s what you like, this is a real treat. The heat is at the upper limit of the scale, probably about a 9.6/10 or so.

What foods would it be best with? Alternate uses? I tried using this sauce for nearly two weeks, even taking it with me to work and daring my co-workers to try it. Trying it poured over foods was an experiment in endurance, but I kept trying! Since I eat a lot of salads, a dollop of this added to whatever salad dressing I was using made the salad a lot more tolerable. Using it in soups & stews (esp. chili) was a given, and I wolfed those down panting like a dog in 100-degree heat…loving it. Unsurprisingly, Mexican foods benefited the most during my tasting…particularly enchiladas and quesadillas. Depending on your heat tolerance, your mileage may vary with this sauce. As of the writing of this review, I was still looking for stuff to pour this on to make it taste better.

Ingredients: Red Savina (R) Habanero chiles, vinegar, onion, tomatoes, lemon juice, salt, garlic

Overall recommendation: I’ve been raving about CaJohn’s Ace to my friends for quite some time now, and this sauce is quite similar in taste, appearance, and heat. Usually, with the extremes in heat in hot sauce it’s really at the sacrifice of taste due to adding of extracts and other such ickiness, but this seems to preserve all of the taste…and it’s damn good. In fact, this sauce has rocketed up my faves list in terms of habanero sauce I’d take with me to a desert island. If you can tolerate the heat, pour it on everything you eat. See what happens! It’s an addicting flavor…but you didn’t need all those pesky extra tastebuds anyway, right?!

Important news from Scotty B:

Our new Web-site is up and running (but will still be tweaking and adding new awards and info over next couple of weeks). Mention that you saw this info here on the HZOB and you will receive 20% off any sauces purchased through Scotty B’s Gourmet Hot Sauces until Oct. 15th.

As of April 2005 and with recent wins we are up to 11 national awards to include five 1st. place wins, two 2nd. place wins and four 3rd. place wins.

We’ve been big fans of Scotty B’s products. See our reviews at:

Scotty B’s Gourmet Specialty Foods
“Green With Envy” prototype
Chuk reviews “Devil’s Drool”

Try ‘em all. There’s something for everyone!

We were sent this article from News-Leader.com out of Springfield, MO about a restaurant review about Carlos O’Kelly’s and their hottest dish, the burro en fuego.

At first, it was a pretty decent review about how hot it was…which got our attention. In it, the writer says:

The best way to make sure the burro en fuego lives up to its name is to request that it be prepared extra spicy, he advises. This visit’s rendition was good, he says.

I looked for an online description of this so-called spicy burro, and I found it:

Burro en Fuego
Spanish for “Burro on Fire!” Ay-e-e Carumba! The hottest item on the menu. A Burrito made with Shredded Beef lit up with our Atomic Salsa, sliced jalapeños, onions, and red enchilada sauce. There’s sour cream on the side to help cool things down. Served with rice and beans.

Being the fans of Mexican Ior some semblance thereof) food that we are, it sounded intriguing. The notion that it was somehow the hottest due to sliced jalapenos and an unknown salsa was a tough one to accept, especially after having our attempts to get any restaurant to make something extra-spicy…particularly a chain like Carlos O’Kelly’s. Reading further, we found this:

Hospitality manager Tara Guydos says the burro en fuego is indeed the spiciest item on the menu. The atomic salsa used in the dish is the same salsa the kitchen uses to increase the heat of the restaurant’s standard salsa, she explains.

So apparently a little nuclear (er, atomic that is) salsa is all it takes. If anyone out there has ever been to Carlos O’Kelly’s and tried this dish, leave a comment. I’d like to know what the salsa is, and whether or not it’s something we would have heard of before now. Until then, the closest place to find this out is at least one state away.

And one more note…I’d like to read a restaurant review about spicy food by an actual chilehead. Reading stuff from the palates of those with pansy tastebuds for heat can be nothing if not an exercise in abject frustration.

Dr. Gonzo is a unique guy with the admirable goal of creating quality products for those chileheads out there who want or need them to spice up the food they eat. After tasting some of his stuff recently, we were motivated to find out a little more about him, his products, and growing empire of Dr. Gonzo products. From the good Doctor himself, here is a recent transmission between us and him….

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