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I had recently the opportunity that El Yucateco sends me directly some of their hot sauces to review them.
I heard many good things about their products and have been wanting to try them for a long time, finally here they are!
The two sauces reviewed today are part of the Habanero range consisting of Red Habanero Sauce, Green Habanero Sauce, Caribbean Style Habanero Sauce and XXXtra Hot Habanero Sauce (also known as Kutbil-Ik from the Mayan eponym recipe).




Red Habanero Hot Sauce

Ingredients: Water, Habanero, Tomato, Salt, Spices, Acetic Acid, Xanthan Gum, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate as a preservative, FD&C Red N°40, Calcium Disodium EDTA.



Created with the classic recipe, this sauce is made mostly from a blend of Habanero, tomatoes, spices and seasoning.
I tried it with some grilled lamb chops and with some shrimps, it went really well mixed with some Mayonnaise to make a kind of "Cocktail sauce" and dip the shrimps in.
Strong flavour of tomatoes and a bit of acidity from them, but has there is no vinegar in the recipe this acidity is limited even with the use of citric and acetic acids.
However, I would have expected to get a bit of Habanero-ish flavour but there wasn't any inside.
The heat level is medium, actually the Green Habanero sauce is stronger.
Thick texture with some tiny bits of spices and tomato/Habanero skin, not too runny, this is a versatile hot sauce, you can use it with whatever you want as the recipes is basic, would go well on burgers and also pastas such as some mac and cheese.



Overall:




Green Habanero Hot Sauce

Ingredients: Water, Habanero, Salt, Acetic Acid, Spices, Xanthan Gum, Citric Acid, Onion Powder, Sodium Benzoate as a preservative, FD&C Yellow N°5, Calcium Disodium EDTA, FD&C Blue N°1.



Another classic recipe, this sauce uses some fresh green Habanero, garlic and spices.
I tried the green one with the lamb too but I found that from its herbal flavour especially of parsley, it would go great next time that I prepare a guacamole, I appreciated the fact that despite it uses some green Habanero, unripe fruits, this doesn't bring a bitter taste, and there is no vinegary aftertaste. Nice dash of garlic too!
The sauce is of a glowing green, thick and very homogeneous.
Surprisingly this green hot sauce is stronger than the red one (the green was measured at 9000 Scoville units whereas the red one is at 5790 Scoville Units), as the ripe fruits are hotter than the unripe ones, it is supposed that the percentage of green Habanero used is much more important in the green one than in the red one where it has been diluted with some tomatoes.
Despite the use of a good quantity of Habanero for this sauce, I didn't find neither in this sauce an Habanero-ish flavour nor special chinense flavour.



Overall:



Overall impression:
El Yucateco hot sauces can be used as a condiment to dip the food in or to cover the meat/seafood after it has been grilled for example, but it can be used also as an ingredient, you can get some zesty guacamole and excellent results in different recipes using their sauces.
What I'm surprised about these two sauces is that they have some FD&C inside, you know that from painting mixes that blue+yellow makes some green, but for the Green Habanero sauce this makes a glowing neon green appearance, it's a bit a pity for these all natural sauces but that's a choice to bring a bright green to appeal the customers.


You can find more informations about El Yucateco hot Sauces here: www.facebook.com/elyucateco
You can also check their website www.elyucateco.com for further informations



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