Foods That Can Unexpectedly Be Improved With a Little Hot Sauce
It would be unfair to say that there are things that are not improved with a little hot sauce, but certainly products that it is applied to more often . But if, like me, you want to broaden your horizons and add hot sauce to even more things, I have a few suggestions.
Hard boiled eggs
Eggs and hot sauce is a fairly typical combination, but you usually see it applied to scrambled eggs, baked eggs, and omelette. Any eggs benefit from a little hot sauce, but hard boiled eggs are more beneficial (especially if the yolk in question is overcooked and powdery). The warmth, acidity, and a hint of fermented sweetness cut through the rich, sometimes tongue-coating yolk, clearing the palate with fire and preparing it for new hard-boiled eggs. (I usually like hard-boiled eggs with a little butter , so hot sauce is an even bigger improvement.)
It also does amazing things with seasoned eggs – even if you don’t add enough hot sauce to make them spicy, the acidity and peppery fruitiness makes them a little more interesting, a little less heavy, and a lot lighter.
Shitty beer
Watery, tasteless beers are greatly enhanced by the addition of an acidic ingredient, be it lemonade (for shandy) or pickles (for pickled beers ). If you’ve ever tried Michelada or another red beer, you know that a little spicy-fruity flavor makes a lousy beer very easy to drink, and you can use that magic without all the usual Michelada ingredients. In fact, just a few shakes of the hot sauce can turn the bland drink into something unexpectedly delicious.
The hot sauce reduces bitterness, enhances the malt flavor, and emphasizes the slight yeast character often found in high-volume pilsners and lagers. You don’t need much – just two drops will add enough flavor to make the beer even more uninteresting. You can of course add more hot sauce if you like. I have nothing against watered-down hot sauce.
Spaghetti sauce
I know the Italians will yell at me for this, but it was the Italian who first suggested that I finish the red sauce with a little Tabasco. (Frankly, his mother does not approve.) Does the addition of hot sauce flakes of red pepper unnecessary? Of course not. But hot sauce brings a different, more astringent type of heat to the table, and the effect is immediate, allowing last-minute changes without waiting for the aroma to emerge. In the words of the aforementioned Italian: “This is a scam. You can just shake it up. And it tastes good. “