The recent first annual hot wing-eating contest at The Blues Kitchen in Camden sorted the fire eaters from the chilli shirkers. But chicken isn’t the only thing worth adding a dash of flaming hot sauce to. Here are five of our favourite mouth burners to get you started.
1. Frank’s Redhot Original Cayenne Pepper sauce
A surprise winner: tasted with crisps, you can only detect tangy vinegar. But add to chicken wings before they go in the oven and the result is a crispy skin and a pleasant, consistent burn. £1.49, Ocado.com, franksredhot.com
2. Piman Dou sweet chilli salsa
A balance of heat and flavour, with tomato and sugar adding a sweet fruitiness. Warning: a bottle of For, Dou’s unbearably hot sister sauce, recently exploded after two weeks in our fridge. Good with fish. £5, Vinngoute food stall, 5pm-midnight at Street Feast market, Hackney Downs Studios, E5, on Oct 5. vinn-goute.co.uk
3. Holy Fuck
Lovely thick consistency with a big hit of Scotch Bonnet peppers. The Ribman Mark Gevaux has made a handful of even hotter sauces but this original — brush onto meat in fingernail-size amounts — is my favourite. £5, theribman.co.uk
4. Punjabi pesto
Another burner, this is a thick, hot paste of garam masala, green chilli, red chilli powder and turmeric. Add to pasta sauces and cheese. £2, at Harvey Nichols from October 15, or at mrsinghssauce.co.uk
5. No Joke! hot pepper sauce
Susannah Donovan’s hot Scotch Bonnet-based sauce is a favourite on Twitter. Peckham blogger Helen Graves likes the papaya and jammy consistency. From £3, in mild, medium and hot, The DeBeauvoir Deli, 98 Southgate Rd, N1 or nojokepeppersauce.co.uk
