Special guest reviewer Cajun, courtesy of recommendation by Taste the Fear:

Hello, everyone…Cajun here! All of my friends call me Cajun, due to my heritage and since it is easier to remember that is what I go by. I was “Born on the Bayou” as the song goes and spent my formative years eating my way through the kitchens and restaurants of some of the best local purveyors of Cajun food in South Louisiana. In addition (and most likely of interest to you readers), there were three local pepper plants in my hometown alone, as well as numerous ones within driving distance. This gave me easy access to all of the hot stuff that I would ever need to spice up any given meal and is what has contributed most to my love of all things hot and spicy. The recent explosion in new hot sauces only serves to raise the stakes in the culinary world as regards all things hot sauce and I was excited when Buddah approached me to give my opinion on a brand-new line of hot sauces introduced by the Suffern Bros., namely the All-American Hot Sauce line of products. First up was the Original formulation, further subdivided into Mild and Full Bodied flavors. I decided to focus on basic American foods for the most part in this first part of the taste test, reserving more regional foods for the later products that we would be testing.

The very first food item that I tested the Original formulations on was a pot roast that my wife had cooked up using a slow-cooker. She had purposefully not seasoned it much due to the fact that we had obtained several cuts of beef (this one included) from a colleague of mine who raises corn-fed antibiotic-free cattle as a hobby. She wanted for us to be able to ascertain the differences between what is normally sold in the grocery stores and the beef that I had purchased from my co-worker. I, therefore, decided to pour some of both the Mild and the Full-Bodied versions of the Original sauce on several pieces of the pot roast and let them sit for a minute or two in order for the meat to absorb the product. All that I can say is “YUM YUM”! Both products definitely enhanced the clean flavor of the organic beef while not being overwhelming. The Mild version was as advertised, but still had a nice little tingle as a finish. The Full Bodied version packed a much larger wallop, but still didn’t overwhelm the taste of the beef.

As the weeks progressed, I used both products as both condiments and marinades for several classic American foods, including spaghetti, baked chicken breast, flank steak, smothered pork chops, beef stew, and many other classic American favorites. I especially liked mixing in both sauces in hamburger meat before grilling to give the burgers an extra kick. I found that the Mild version worked better with the fish choices that I used it with, whereas the Full Bodied version was a better compliment to beef and chicken dishes. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed these two products and the taste testing process and look forward to the next three sauces, especially the Bayou version, which I will be more involved in writing about.

So, until the next review…laissez le sauce piquante rouler!

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