Do the winter doldrums have you down, especially when it comes to food? There’s another way to warm up this winter, by trying some locally produced, tongue-tingling hot sauces. In addition to growing my own cayenne and jalapeno peppers, much of my refrigerator’s real estate is taken up by hot sauces, which I drizzle on everything from stir fry to eggs, curries, chili, ramen, pizza or when making spicy mayo to slather on sandwiches.
A few of the sauces are pretty hot, including Kentucky-made Pappy’s Hottest Ride In Town, but most I’d say fall in the moderate range. A few locals make their own hot sauces as well, and I’m making it a New Year’s resolution to try as many of them as I can before the year is up.
Lexington resident David Workman became interested in making fermented hot sauces while working at Blue Stallion Brewing Company, which also relies on fermentation to make its beer. He said naturally occurring lactobacillus bacteria ferments the sugars in peppers, a tactic previously used as a preservation method, but one he says also adds to the sauce’s complexity compared to fresh sauces.
In early 2019 he started playing around with making hot sauces, and he said they turned out really well. He and two business partners — one in Lexington and one in Louisville — subsequently joined forces to create Peril Hot Sauce, with varieties including Pineapple Curry, Dagon (the hottest variety, containing smoked Apocalypse peppers), Taco Verde, Black Goat (key lime Jamaican jerk), Blood Moon (gochujang, passionfruit and blood orange) and Golden Fiddle, which contains chipotle, peach and Vidalia onion.
Most varieties are aged six to eight weeks, but three special edition wax-dipped varieties are all aged for a year, Workman said.
Peril has also released a line of chili pepper seasoning called Assault Shaker, which he describes as “pure, unadulterated, peppery madness.”
Hot sauce labels are often adorned with skulls, hellfire and comical references to future gastrointestinal woe. Peril’s labels are equally ominous, with wicked-looking graphics of menacing animals and monstrous characters created by artistic friends Ryan Case and Lexington-based Oracle Tattoo Guild’s Kevin Hamilton.
When he sells his products at events, Workman can be found hamming it up in a devil costume. And as a flaming tongue-in-cheek nod to the fiery underworld, the price of his sauces are $6.66.
The sauces, bottled at Blue Stallion, are sold there as well as at Wilson’s Grocery, select breweries and online at www.perilhotsauce. com, as well as at a handful of public events like Louisville’s Logan Street Market. Workman also hopes to establish a presence at Lexington’s new Greyline Station market.
He said though the sauces are hot, it doesn’t come at the expense of flavor. After all, he said, he wants people to enjoy it enough to finish their bottles and buy more, not try it, experience excruciating pain and never touch it again.
“We generally try not to make anything over the top as far as heat is concerned,” he said.
Pastor Mike Robinson, known for his Not Your Ordinary Vegan restaurant on North Limestone, has his own line of hot sauces. Though he wasn’t available to chat, varieties listed online include blueberry maple chili pepper, garlic habanero and mango pineapple jalapeno.
Mamadou “Sav” Savane is owner of Sav’s Restaurant & Gourmet Ice Cream and Sav’s Chill Gourmet Ice Cream. Along with Sav’s Vinaigrette dressing, he drew on his West African roots to create his own hot sauce, called Sav’s Piment.
Sav’s assistant and spokesperson Reina Slaymaker said the hot sauce is a family recipe that includes habanero peppers, onion and lemon, along with a few secret ingredients.
“People enjoy this hot sauce on all types of food, from stews like we serve at our restaurant to eggs, burritos, grilled steak and fried chicken and even on salad,” she said. “Personally, I enjoy the hot sauce on fruit, like mangoes when they are in season.”
Sav’s Piment is sold at his restaurant and at Good Foods Co-op, Wilson’s Grocery, Zim’s Café and the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea.
So is Sav sticking to the original blend, or will he branch out into new spicy hot sauce horizons?
“No new varieties of hot sauce are planned, but that is an interesting idea!” Slaymaker said.