Cinnamon

Sweet Heat – Fire Foods’ Fire Jam reviewed

by Patrick Garratt on January 30, 2012 · 0 comments

in Product Reviews

Fire Foods Chilli Jam

Fire Foods Chilli Jam

My mother-in-law ate some of this experimentally and nearly melted, dubbing us “bloody mental” for having it in the fridge. Fire Foods’ Fire Jam is worth getting if only to scare old people.

It’s more of a jelly than a jam, with a thick, hard consistency. This is no bad thing; it spreads easily on toast, and thanks to its physical nature you can cover the surface of whatever it is you’re seeking to enheaten with a small amount. There are no lumps in it at all.

The jar reckons it’s great with toast, bagels, croissants, cheese and cold meat; I can’t argue with that. It’s 175ml for £3.50. Fire Jam’s really sweet, and the ingredients have been kept simple:

Ingredients: Apple, Sugar, Pectin, Chilli Extract and Cinnamon.

Jar kindly supplied by Fire Foods

My biggest problem with it is that it has a sense of artificiality. There’s a stringent note to its odour. It tastes mega-appley and it has a well above-average heat level, but I feel I’d be scoring higher if the freshness of the fruit had been replicated with chillis as opposed to extract. Nice lumps of pepper and a natural heat would have lifted the entire concept.

But. It’s tasty; we’ve eaten it all; and it greatly distressed my mother-in-law. All reasons to definitely give this a shot.

Flavour
(7/10)
Heat
(8/10)
Packaging
(6/10)
Value
(7/10)
Overall
(7/10)

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Panola – 10 Point Buck Sauce

by Hot Juan on December 5, 2011 · 0 comments

in Product Reviews

Panola 10 Point Buck Sauce

Panola 10 Point Buck Sauce

The Panola Pepper Corporation is based in Lake Providence, Louisiana USA . It was started in 1983 by Grady “Bubber” Brown the son Martha Wyly Brown who’s recipe for Louisiana Sauce was used as a way of employing the farm workers over the winter months. This original Panola Gourmet Pepper Sauce was such a success  the business has  now grown to employ 30 people making nearly 100 different products.

Traditional Louisiana Hot Sauce is a mixture of Cayenne Chilli Peppers, Vinegar and Salt, generally these sauces are unthickend, in the UK  we would know such brands as Frank’s RedHot and Tabasco Sauces as being Louisiana Style Hot Sauces.

This sauce is based on the Louisiana Hot Sauce style but has some seasoning’s added as the Panola web site says “It is specially blended for the outdoorsman” and just in case you are wondering what a 10 Point Buck it is a term used to describe a male deer and the 10 points refers to the number of points or tines on his antlers the more points generally the older the deer.

After that lesson, I better crack open the bottle and see what it is like, the initial smell comes from the chillies with a mix of the Cinnamon and All Spice, the sauce is a dark reddy brown colour, a second smell of the sauce reveals a slight aroma of the vinegar.

This sauce is as what I expected, there is a real depth to the flavours, it provides big reminders of  cooking a highly spiced lamb dish a while ago, the more I taste the more I also think of  Jamaican influences with the all-spice and sweetness from the sugar and the warmth from the chillies.

Ingredients: Cayenne and Jalapeno Peppers, Vinegar, Onions, Sugar, Salt, Cinnamon, All Spice & Mustard Flour.

Bottle kindly provided by www.h0t-headz.com

I can see why they would call this an outdoorsman style of sauce, while it is not hot it packs a punch from the spices, enough to turn the worst outdoors cook in to a chief (I better keep this near the BBQ I can hear you say).

I can just about tell this has Cayenne peppers in it, but with the Jalapenos and the spices it is almost completely lost.

Being that I don’t shoot many ( take that as none) Deer here in Somerset (We don’t seem to be over run with them), I think this sauce would go well here with some roast mutton, the strength of flavour from the Cinnamon and All Spice would compliment a rich strongly flavoured meat.

At only £2.99 a bottle this sauce is excellent value for you money and if you like it spiced up and not overly hot, then give it a go, everyone who I asked to try it where surprised how much they liked it.. You can order this on-line at www.hot-headz.com.

Flavour
(7/10)
Heat
(3/10)
Packaging
(6.5/10)
Value
(8/10)
Overall
(7/10)

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Cafe Louisiane – Sweet Cajun Blackening Sauce

by Hot Juan on July 26, 2011 · 0 comments

in Product Reviews

Cafe Louisiane - Sweet Cajun Blackening Sauce

Cafe Louisiane - Sweet Cajun Blackening Sauce

Cayenne seems to be the chilli of choice for Cajun cooking, with it’s slight dry flavour and punch of heat.  But the Cayenne is one of just a handful the chilli varieties that seems to have spread around the world becoming synonymousness with many different regional styles of cooking while retaining it identity.

This bottle has one of those plastic drippers that annoys me so much, but after ripping that from the bottle, I can actually smell  the heady concoction of Allspice, Cinnamon, Cloves and the slight dry smell from the Cayenne peppers.

This sauce has that almost Christmas scent, as that is when we seem to use these spices in our cooking, but as a Cajun ingredients they are an all year around flavour. This sauce is thin almost water like consistency with a uniform red/brown colour, the taste is not watery the first thing that hits my taste buds is the Allspice then a slight bit of sweet vinegar, then the unique Cayenne flavour backed up by the Salt, Cloves and finally just a touch of Cinnamon.

Ingredients: Aged Cayenne Pepper, Vinegar, Salt, Sugar, Allspice, Cinnamon, Cloves, Xanthan Gum.

Supplied by www.hot-headz.com

This is not a HOT hot sauce, even the cayenne’s bite has been tempered, but the overall flavour is almost magical, I can feel the urge to cook some chicken tonight, how about mixng some of this bottle with some yoghurt and trying a kind of fusion Cajun/Tandoori, marinading the chicken in the mix for a few hours and then grilled on the BBQ until cooked with a nice crisp almost burned coating..

Always a little worried when I see the term ‘Aged Peppers’ in the ingredients list, when I age a pepper it is generally as I have forgotten them and find then in the bottom of the fridge, doing what only well aged veg can do.. In this case I think they mean the peppers have been ground in to a mash and stored with some salt for a year for two to let the flavour develop.

At £3.99 a bottle you are getting a very unusual sauce, not something I would expect a UK producer to make, it does not fit our normal traditions, but as a nation we have yet to discover the world of Cajun cooking, but it will be coming to a TV screen soon I am sure. I wonder which TV chef will be the first to discover this, before they do, buy a bottle of this and be ahead of the crowd.

Flavour
(8/10)
Heat
(4/10)
Packaging
(7/10)
Value
(7/10)
Overall
(7/10)

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Bim’s Kitchen – Smokin’ Red Hot Sauce

by Hot Juan on July 15, 2011 · 0 comments

in Product Reviews

Bim's Kitchen - Smokin' Red Hot Sauce

Bim's Kitchen - Smokin' Red Hot Sauce

This sauce from Bim’s Kitchen could have a bit of a kick, for the smoke flavour he has not used Chipotles but gone for a much hotter Smoked Scotch Bonnet, and if they does not supply enough heat there are the favourite Birdeye Chillies and then just in case  there is some Bhut Jolokia.

Another unusual ingredients has also slipped into this sauce, Hibiscus, they are often found in herbal teas, in West Africa they make a tea called Bissap (Jus de Bissap or Beesap) using dried red Hibiscus flowers, teas like this have been shown to help reduce blood pressure and have other medical properties, there may be hope for me yet!

The sauces come in a 100ml bottle and is a mid brown colour with lots of seeds and other ingredients visible floating in the mix, there are no thickeners added to the sauce, but it has a nice thick consistency, the smell is slightly fruity, not as smoky as I had expected.

The sauce has that instant tingle effect as it hits my tongue, it is good are warming, with a slightly grainy texture from the  ground Alligator Pepper and Cubeb, I had not expected to be able to taste the Hibiscus over the other ingredients, but there are definite hints that I would associate with an Hibiscus based tea. There is some smoke flavour but it is not as heavy as Chipotles can be in high percentages.

Ingredients: Smoked Scotch Bonnets, Smoked Red Peppers, Onion, Tomato, Garlic, Hibiscus, Vinegar, Soy Sauce, Birdseye Chillies, Salt, Ginger, Alligator Pepper, Oregano, Cubeb, Bhut Jolokia Chilli, Thyme, Parsley, Cinnamon.

Bottle kindly supplied by Bim’s Kitchen

This is another excellent example of a sauce with a complete different flavour profile that many that we try, it has be a little confused, time for another spoonful , having tried the Alligator Pepper and Cubeb, I am staring to recognise there earthy peppery flavours, I think it may be the ginger and cinnamon that is producing a very exotic lingering after taste.

Do I like it, well yes, it is very interesting, unusual, defiantly not Mexican influenced, it needs a good strong meat, it would go very well with some of our excellent local salt marsh lamb or even mutton, my mouth is watering as I think about it, must be time for a roast.

At £3.50 a bottle, you are getting a sauce that packs a lot into a small bottle, the more I taste it the better it gets, buy some and try a taste of Africa. www.bimskitchen.com

Flavour
(9/10)
Heat
(7/10)
Packaging
(5/10)
Value
(8/10)
Overall
(8/10)

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