Hot Sauce Fun Fact - McCormick & Co.
A Spice Company jumps into the Hot Sauce world in a very big way!
McCormick & Co. agreed to acquire Reckitt Benckiser Group's food business for $4.2 billion, adding French's mustard, Frank's RedHot sauce and Cattlemen's barbecue sauce to its lineup of spices and seasonings in 2017.
McCormick then announced the agreement to acquire Cholula on November 24, 2020. Cholula, a premium Mexican hot sauce brand, is a strong addition to McCormick's global branded flavor portfolio, broadening the Company's offering in the high growth hot sauce category to consumers and foodservice operators.
That's a pretty powerhouse hot sauce mega power.
Chile Pepper Fun Fact - The Masked Singer Season 6
A Chile Pepper on the Masked Singer? It happened...
“Pocketful of Sunshine” singer Natasha Bedingfield was revealed as the Pepper on the eighth episode of The Masked Singer Season 6. While her clues were more challenging than some audiences have seen on the show so far, the extra clue was what sealed her identity for most fans.
The Pepper definitely knew how to spice things up on “The Masked Singer.” But unfortunately, she was too hot to handle to win it all!
Chile Pepper Fun Fact - The Mad Hatter Chile Pepper
A Chile Pepper with the same name as an Alice in Wonderland character? Yup, there is...
The Mad Hatter pepper is a hybrid of the unique mitre-shaped Bishop's Crown pepper and a 2017 winner of the All-America Selection Award (AAS). It has a similar sweet, fruity taste as the Bishop's Crown, but with much less heat (500 to 1,000 Scoville heat units.)
The Mad Hatter isn’t just a looker, it walks the talk on flavor, too. This is one delicious chili. It’s fruity-sweet, with both citrus and floral notes that gain in intensity as the fruits mature. The chili’s thin walls also add to the eating experience. They provide a crispness to the fruit when it’s eaten fresh.
That crispness and flavor make the Mad Hatter pepper an excellent choice as a raw bell pepper alternative for salads. They are also excellent raw peppers to use as crudités — they pair exceptionally well with cheese.
Really, anywhere you’d use a bell, you could use the Mad Hatter chili. Try it in salsas, on sandwiches, or atop pizzas. And while the Mad Hatter has thinner walls, the wide body of the fruit does allow for use as a stuffed pepper. And a bold cheese (again) is a perfect foil to the fruity sweetness you get here.
That sweetness, too, works with pickling. So, if you want a twist on pickled jalapeños (or another pickled peppers recipe), try giving this chili a try.
Hot Sauce Fun Fact - Keto Friendly
Following a Keto Diet, Hot Sauce could be your Go-To!
Hot sauce is a surprisingly Keto-friendly condiment. Most hot sauces are made with a simple combination of water, chile peppers, spices, garlic and vinegar. Each of those ingredients brings minimal carbohydrates and when no sugar is added, hot sauce is a perfect Keto condiment. The only thing holding you back is the heat itself.
Be careful, though, there are some options that have added sugars and hidden carbohydrates. It’s always important to read the ingredient list and check the nutrition label to confirm that a hot sauce is in fact safe to eat on the Ketogenic Diet.
Some foods have a keto stamp on them to make it easy to determine if it’s keto-friendly. However, most foods won’t necessarily have this stamp even if they are keto-friendly. In general, keto-friendly foods are low in net carbohydrates and low in/free of added sugar.
Net carbohydrates are the amount that impacts blood sugar levels and ketosis. To determine the net carbs, subtract dietary fiber from total carbs. Most keto-friendly foods will contain around ten or fewer grams of net carbs per serving, but that isn’t a set-in-stone rule.
Hot Sauce Fun Fact - Jennifer Trainer Thompson
Making, Collecting and Cooking with... This author knows her Hot Sauce
Jennifer Trainer Thompson is the author of numerous cookbooks, including Hot Sauce! and The Fresh Egg Cookbook. She has been featured in Martha Stewart Living magazine and has written for Yankee, Travel & Leisure, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, and other publications. Thompson is the chef/creator of Jump Up and Kiss Me, an all-natural line of spicy foods. She lives in Western Massachusetts with her family and a flock of backyard chickens.
Her Spicy Array of Books Published:
Hot Licks: Great Recipes for Making and Cooking with Hot Sauces, The Great Hot Sauce Book (This book started my hot sauce collecting), Trail of Flame, The Hot Sauce Collector's Guide: Everything You Need for Your Hot Sauce Collection, Jump up and Kiss Me: Spicy Vegetarian Cooking, and Hot Sauce: Techniques for Making Signature Hot Sauces.
Chile Pepper Fun Fact - Battle Hardened and Tested
Did you know that Japanese samurai used Chile Peppers to reduce fear. Eating them before battles made them feel invincible.
Chile Pepper Fun Fact - Jamaican Hot Yellow Chile Peppers
Yellow Jamaican Pepper plants will produce small fruits, measuring 1 to 2 inches in diameter. Their size is not relative to their kick however. Yellow Jamaican Peppers measure anywhere between 250,000 to 300,000 units on the Scoville heat scale. The outer skin of this variety is waxy with a bright yellow coloring. The plants themselves grow to a mature height of about 24 to 30 inches tall and about 24 inches wide. They can be grown directly in the garden, or in large pots and containers as well. They boast a sweet, fruity flavoring, much like Habanero Peppers and Scotch Bonnets.
They color during ripening from green to golden yellow and are very hot. The peppers have a fruity flavor and are widely used in the Caribbean for making hot sauces.
Chile Pepper Fun Fact - Multiple Personalities
Living two separate lives... The Jalapeno has dual personalities
The jalapeño is a medium-sized chile pepper pod type cultivar of the species Capsicum annuum. A mature jalapeño chile is 5–10 cm long and hangs down with a round, firm, smooth flesh of 25–38 mm wide. It can have a range of pungency, with Scoville heat units of 4,000 to 8,500. But did you know...
A chipotle pepper is a jalapeno chile pepper that has been smoked and dried. Chipotles are usually made from red jalapenos which are the ripest, but it's possible to make them from the less ripe green peppers as well. Chipotles are popular in Mexican and Tex Mex cuisine as a way to add heat and flavor to dishes.
Because the taste is very different and because the Chipotle is also a well-known pepper in itself. Due to the smoky character, this is the pepper for barbecue-style hot sauces, and they are often combined with sweeter flavors.
Chile Pepper Fun Fact - The Jalapeno Pepper
Jalapeno business...
It is of mild to medium pungency, 2,500 and 10,000 Scoville units in general. After harvest if Jalapenos are stored at 45°F they have a shelf life of up to 3-5 weeks. Jalapenos were the first peppers that traveled into space on a NASA shuttle. Nutritionally speaking, jalapenos are one of the best sources of vitamin C.
Hot Sauce Fun Fact - Jake from State Farm
Our friends at Bravado Spice Co. got some product placement
How fun is that? The folks over at Bravado Spice Co. out of Houston Texas got some product placement time on a State Farm Insurance TV commercial. Their products were on a shelf behind the counter on the "Maya Markdown :30" commercial. I wonder if Jake from State Farm bought any...