They may share a common name, but not all hot sauce is created equal.
Oftentimes, hot sauce varies greatly depending on where it originates. We’re not just talking about the peppers, either. A tour around the world shows the style of hot sauce is often tied to the region in which it’s originally made.
Here is the U.S. Louisiana-style hot sauce is extremely popular. A favorite for nearly a century, the vinegar-based hot sauce comes in a variety of flavors, from mild to hot and almost earth-shattering hot! Vinegar often serves the purpose of acting as a preservative. As far as Cajun-style hot sauce, Tabasco is still widely popular. Sriracha hot sauce, with ties back to Thailand, has really exploded in popularity across the nation too, mostly over the past few decades. While it contains vinegar, Sriracha is thicker than Tabasco and subtly sweet, now used to flavor a wide variety of foods. You’ll also find some non-vinegar-based hot sauces available.
Take a tour around the world, though, and you’ll quickly see that there are plenty of styles of hot sauce and flavors to experience.
In China, for example, chili sauce is often a thick paste that you add to a stir-fry or use as a dipping sauce. In the Middle East, you may find a hot sauce that uses a blend of ground chili peppers and olive oil. In Mexico, vinegar is sometimes used in small quantities, but the flavor is always key. Meanwhile heading south, the type of hot sauce varies, but traditional recipes are generally extremely hot. Usually referred to more often as pepper sauce than hot sauce in the Caribbean, the region often utilizes the Scotch Bonnet pepper. No matter which style or flavor of hot sauce you choose, feel free to experiment along the way, experiencing the many flavors of the world through hot sauce.