Our original plan was to let Linda do the whole review on the Ellie’s Lip Smackin’ Sauce because of how much she liked it after trying it for the first time, but it really turned into quite an interesting taste experience for both of us. Here’s our stories:

Linda: The minute I got a whiff of this sauce, I knew it would be good. I could tell it would be savory, but the exact tastes weren’t clear until I tried it. It has a kind of soy sauce flavor to it initially, but with a more balanced blend of spices added in and an interesting texture (almost like tomato juice). Yes, it was a bit salty and that hit me right away, but I immediately saw potential for this sauce. Before I get to my big discovery on what I think is the best way to use this sauce, I must point out that if you’re going to do anything with this sauce, do NOT immediately season anything. We cooked some chicken with a spice blend first, added this at the end and it was just too much. This sauce stands very nicely on it’s own and would make a good quick marinade. What I like to do with it most of all is mix it with another one of my favorites…maple syrup (100% maple syrup mixed 1-1). It is the ULTIMATE combination. The sweetness of the syrup tones down the saltiness and the blend of flavors just marries and creates something you will never forget. It would be great as a grilling sauce, but I have to say that stir fry with it is amazing. Great on baked pork chops as well. I imagine that the combo on a ham steak would be nothing short of wonderful, since ham and maple syrup have a steamy relationship to begin with. I would definitely recommend this product.

Ingredients: red cayenne peppers, vinegar, water, wheat, soybeans, sodium benzoate as preservative, wine, high fructose corn syrup, butter, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and spices

Joe: My initial taste was a bit different, as I tried to concentrate upon the peppers in the sauce. It doesn’t quite have the bite that many cayenne sauces do, and shouldn’t really be thought of in the same vein. This is just as much, or more, of a cooking sauce than a hot sauce. It has a very complicated taste, and Linda nailed it on the head about not adding too much extra stuff to the food with this sauce before the taste profile gets altered. While I liked Linda’s idea of chicken, but for some reason this sauce seemed like it would be such a good mix with fish. So, we baked some mahi mahi fillets with just a light dusting of salt and pepper spice mix for taste, added some of this sauce, and let it bake for a few more minutes. The results? Some fish that you’ll absolutely adore.

The soybeans and wheat made me think of stir fry, so I tried that with some veggie mix and that was pretty darn tasty as well. I didn’t give this sauce as much usage as Linda did, but it went well with a lot more food that I originally thought with its soy-heavy taste. Pretty useful, overall. My only problem with this sauce? Well, let’s just say that I’m a stickler for ingredients. I hate seeing high fructose corn syrup and preservatives in hot sauces, so I’d love to see Dave Sumerville and crew tidy that up in this sauce at some point.

Overall recommendation: Two thumbs up from us. We liked it, although it’s pretty ironic that you would find us cooking very different sorts of food with it. Perhaps that fact alone speaks to the utility of this sauce. Try some for yourself and see what you think. Enjoy!

Popularity: 13% [?]
» Hysterical hot sauce commercial, part 3
» Something for Chuk Hell: Sgt. Pepper’s Hot Sauce et al.
» Hysterical hot sauce commercial, part 1
» Doctor Hot Sauce, D.O.
» DEFCON Shrimp?

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website