I was excited to try Melinda’s spin on a Louisiana hot sauce … but man is it bad. Irredeemably bad, except maybe as a weirdly flavored wing sauce.
Why is there so much Xanthan Gum in a Louisiana hot sauce? Biggest complaint. This stuff has the most unappealingly gelatinous, smooth, and yet runny texture. It’s like somebody sneezed fermented garlic powder on my eggs. This amount of thickener does make sense in some sauces, but it’s so out of place here. It reminds me of the very nasty Franks Thick hot sauce, or a runny ketchup.
Also, why does this supposedly Louisiana style sauce taste like nasty old jarred/powdered garlic? None of the holy trinity of Lousiana sauces (Tabasco, Crystal, or Louisiana) have garlic, let alone this much. And the garlic flavor is very obviously from overbearing garlic powder and not a pleasant fresh or roasted flavor.
Finally, sugar?! Again it has its place, but not in a Louisiana cayenne sauce. This stuff is weirdly sweet.
Between the thickness, sugar, and garlic, it’s like someone had wanted to make a sriracha sauce, but then at the last minute decided to swap in way more vinegar and aged cayenne pepper to make a Tabasco flavored sriracha instead. It’s so bad!
by jamesbrowski