hot-sauce A Leopard Sauce by LDHS

Being a bit chummy with some sauce makers has its perks.  Like when Scott of Lucky Dog Hot Sauce gets his hands on a small amount of the trendy Aleppo pepper and makes one of the first sauces known to man with said sauce.  I know, I know, a big thank you to Jim Duffy without whom this would not have been possible, and I would not be eating this sauce right now.
 
Since this is not a commercial sauce (yet), this will be an unofficial review, but I will put it through the paces as I do any
other sauce.
 

 
Ingredients:  distilled vinegar, onion, roasted onion, garlic, apples, fresh Aleppo chile, carrot, pitted dates, distilled water, fire-roasted Aleppo chile, sea salt, cane sugar, lime juice.
 
Appearance/Aroma:
 
I can't speak of the label much (again this isn't a commercial sauce) but I like the play on the name.  The appearance is stunning.  Little specs of red throughout the beautiful orange sauce.  I can also make out the garlic.  It looks a bit thick.  The aroma is dominated by the garlic and the onion.
 
Taste/Consistency/Heat:
 
The initial taste is a bit sweet.  You can taste the natural sweetness of the apple, the dates,and the Aleppo.  That is followed by the slightly bitter taste of the onion and garlic.  Not bitter in a bad way, but a definite contrast.  My taste buds are a little confused.  I can taste the vinegar, but it certainly is not dominant.  The aftertaste is all onion and garlic.  This is not a sauce you want to do shots of and then kiss your wife.
 
The consistency is a little like a puree.  I am getting skins and flesh of all of the ingredients.  It makes it a little chewy, but it is still pretty pourable.
 
The heat.  Hmmm.  What can I say, it has almost none.  I think this pepper tastes great, the combination of flavors works, but this sauce is begging for some heat.  Maybe a little Scorpion or Moruga mixed in.  I bet it would be good in combination with fatalii and Bhut too.  Anyway, if you are looking for heat.  Sorry.
 

 
Heat Level: 2/10
 
Suggested Uses:   I think this sauce would be very good with pasta, pizza, fish, chicken, and in a soup.
 
Score: 5=Best
 
Appearance:        4.5
Aroma:                 4.5
Taste                    4
Mouthfeel             4
Heat Accuracy      4.5
 
Total Score:          4.4/5
 
Reviewer's Notes:
I like this sauce, I like the appearance, the aroma and the taste.  The only thing about the taste that I would change would be maybe a little less aggressive with the garlic and onion.  I would love to see a little smoother sauce, and a little more heat.  That being said, I can't wait to pour this all over a pizza and shove it in my mouth!  Thanks for letting me try this Scott!

nice if its good with pizza i need some!

Nice looking sauce. I'm sure if Scott Z is putting his name on it, it has to be a good one!

im mad at scott!     he wont come deliver from killifornia !    
 
 
 
your move ldhs!

Ha - JayT got 1 of the 3.5 bottles I had. Another went to Chad of Race City SauceWorks & I kept one for me.


One nit to pick - how's "heat accuracy" a 3/5? I said it was a sweet pepper sauce with virtually no heat. Heh

All that said, this was my first time playing with the Aleppo. I really love the pepper and if I get more I now have a pretty good idea of what to do with it. It's a beautiful pepper with about 1/3 the heat of a mild cayenne - sweet flavor dominates, but you'll get a hint of lip burn after eating a couple pods. I'd likely use this with a dried hotter pepper - something with a slow burn like a scotch bonnet. I'd also like to use more in the sauce (I reduced my recipe by quite a bit after tasting one, but not enough)

And if I made it commercially I'd of course use the screen grinder to get less of a purée feel and more of a smooth consistency.

Thanks for the great review Jay! Fun to have something I made for giggles get put through its paces. I love scoring a 4/5 on a 1st try prototype extra mild sauce.

Heat accuracy should be renamed somehow.  It should relay how the heat of the sauce works for it.  Or something to that effect.  I have been meaning to discuss that with the boss for a while now.  I mean most people that send me sauces do not tell me how hot it is so that category really doesn't make a lot of sense.  I interpret it differently.  There is your nit.

Haha - fair enough.

I see heat accuracy as "the label has skulls & death on it & the name is 'face melting blood and death sauce' yet it's a super mild" - that would be 1/5 for "heat accuracy".

yeah that is kind of how it reads.  I think it needs to be changed.  Will discuss with the boss as to not cause any more confusion in the future.

Lucky Dog Hot Sauce said:

Haha - fair enough.

I see heat accuracy as "the label has skulls & death on it & the name is 'face melting blood and death sauce' yet it's a super mild" - that would be 1/5 for "heat accuracy".

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Correct.
 
Heat Accuracy*
*Is the heat level on par with the name/ingredients/marketing, etc.
 
That is how it is explained on the review page.

JayT said:

I mean most people that send me sauces do not tell me how hot it is so that category really doesn't make a lot of sense.

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It's not what they tell you it's what you get from looking at the bottle, just as someone would do in the supermarket by picking it up, reading it, and looking it over. Flames and bhuts as the #1 ingredient, but it tastes like ketchup, that would be a 1. And so on. It can be from a bad batch or just bad marketing. But these scores are good for people to know because chileheads expect heat and many times we are disappointed. It can also work the other way around. Fluffy Bunny!  Well that one is off on purpose, so the other way around would be some extract sauce and it says Mild or Medium on the label.

Yep - got it. 
 
By the way, this was about 2 seconds away from being "A Leper Sauce" with this image on the bottle: 

 
 
But I thought it might be in poor taste and somewhat unappetizing on a food product. 

Edited to reflect Heat Accuracy score.

LD, I like that you have your own style. Fire roasted pepper sauces, and you experiment with roasted as well as fresh ingredients for balance and texture (layers). That's your thing, and you apply it to your line. Even a sweet sauce. That's cool. You can tell this is yours just by reading it. Looks nice and tangy. Good for pork tacos. 
 
You should perfect it and add it to your line and add a hot one.
 
Leopard
and
Leopard Fight (pic of two entangled in battle)

4.4 now?  It's getting better!  

The Hot Pepper said:

LD, I like that you have your own style. Fire roasted pepper sauces, and you experiment with roasted as well as fresh ingredients for balance and texture (layers). That's your thing, and you apply it to your line. Even a sweet sauce. That's cool. You can tell this is yours just by reading it. Looks nice and tangy. Good for pork tacos. 
 
You should perfect it and add it to your line and add a hot one.
 
 

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Thanks THP - I'm working on a means of doing some small batch stuff - still prototyping before submitting samples to the state. This pepper is a strong candidate for one of those sauces. Hoping to have some out by year's end.  I'd love to do this sauce with about a 4-5/10 heat, but a slowly creeping up heat, like the Aleppo itself. Still sweet (it'd be unavoidable with the Aleppo - it's a ridiculously sweet pepper.)
 
Re: the hot one....Black Label is well on its way. Test batch showed me the things that need fixing - they're relatively minor, yet significant. I'm ready whenever the peppers are - it's going to be a very tasty & different sauce, and easily a 7-8/10.  Someone tell Mother Nature to hurry it up already. I needs me some peppers! 
 
 
 

Leopard
and
Leopard Fight (pic of two entangled in battle)

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Not "Leper" and "Leper fight"? 

Lucky Dog Hot Sauce said:

I'd love to do this sauce with about a 4-5/10 heat, but a slowly creeping up heat, like the Aleppo itself. Still sweet (it'd be unavoidable with the Aleppo - it's a ridiculously sweet pepper.)

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Dude you just named it... Creeping Leopard. There's your medium.

Ha! Nice. Lucky Dog & Creepy Leopard. 
 
lol
Actually I really like Creepy Leopard. What a great and oddball name. 

All silliness aside, I'd just call it Lucky Dog Hot Sauce something something something something. 

Lucky Dog Hot Sauce said:

All silliness aside, I'd just call it Lucky Dog Hot Sauce something something something something. 

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Well duh! I didn't mean as the main name.

it's bad enough I get people asking if it's for hot dogs, or "is it for dogs?" (seriously - at least 1-2 a month) - "Lucky Dog Hot Sauce Creeping Leopard Sauce" would get people asking if I use real leopard in it. 

Tell them yes!  Put the "essence of leopard" in the ingredients.

bahahahahaha
 
my state's field inspector would crap his pants.  I can get away with nothing. "Essence of leopard" would be awesome. Or "Leopard aura" or some other BS. 
 
so funny. 
 
I have my branding worked out for the small batch stuff. Y'all will have to wait & see.

That bacon sauce I reviewed for VooDoo Chile Sauces had this in the ingredients:  "The soul of six tormented swine"