Categories: Food & Wine

Battle of the Hot Sauces: Louisiana “The Original” Hot Sauce Versus Frank’s Original RedHot Sauce

In this review, I am comparing two different brands of pepper hot sauces, Louisiana “The Original” Hot Sauce and Frank’s Original RedHot.

Frank’s Original RedHot

Frank’s RedHot® is the best-selling cayenne pepper sauce today. They say that it uses the same original recipe created in 1920.

RedHot has a moderate heat level, one of the mildest of any other “hot” sauce. On the Scoville Scale, Frank’s Original RedHot has a rating of 450, while Tabasco is at 3,050. Frank’s does have the hotter, Frank’s RedHot XTRA Hot, which weighs in it at 2,085.

Frank’s Original RedHot is widely used for preparing Buffalo Hot Wings, barbecue sauces, dressings, dips, marinades, and in many other recipes.

History & Origins

In 1896, the Frank Tea and Spice Company was founded by Jacob Frank in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1918, Frank contracted with the Estilette Pepper Farm in Louisiana in which Frank became a partner with another man. There, they created the original recipe for Frank’s Red Hot, which was first sold in 1920.

In 1977, Frank’s RedHot was sold to Durkee Famous Foods. It was then sold to Reckitt Benckiser. which owns French’s foods,

Today, there are six different flavors of RedHot, all variations of the original recipe. The company fully controls all aspects of the production from selecting the seeds, aging and fermenting the peppers, to producing the sauces with all natural ingredients. They use Louisiana Sunlongs, a variety of cayenne pepper, in their sauces.

Frank’s RedHot is known as the secret ingredient in the first buffalo wing sauce, created by in 1964 by Teressa Bellissimo at the Anchor Bar and Grill restaurant in Buffalo, New York. Her son’s friends came over for a snack one day and, being that they were just closing up for the day, she threw together chicken wings, Frank’s RedHot, celery, and blue cheese dressing. And thus, Buffalo wings were created!

Ingredients

Aged cayenne red peppers, vinegar, water, salt, garlic powder.

Louisiana “The Original” Hot Sauce

Louisiana “The Original” Hot Sauce is your typical cayenne pepper sauce similar to several other competing hot sauces. It is made from three simple ingredients: aged peppers, vinegar, and salt. It has a moderate heat level compared to other brands.

Hot sauce fans easily recognize its famous yellow, blue, and red label with its yellow safety seal labeled with its logo.

History & Origins

Louisiana “The Original” Hot Sauce is a hot cayenne pepper sauce produced by Bruce Foods, a Cajun and Mexican food company that was founded in New Iberia, Louisiana in 1928.

Louisiana “The Original” Hot Sauce, not being a really “hot” hot sauce, uses this point to sell its product with the slogan “Not too hot, not too mild.

Bruce Foods created a second hotter hot sauce brand, Louisiana Gold Hot Sauce, to compete with other hotter brands such as Tabasco.

Ingredients

Peppers, vinegar, salt.

Product Comparison

I heard people bragging about Frank’s Original RedHot for years, but I never bought or tried it until this years. I never was a big fan of hot sauces until last year, when I first tried Taco Bell and their hot sauces. Up until that time, I had only tried Tabasco Hot Sauce, which I did not care for then. But since then, I have been trying ever hot sauce I can get my hands on. So I just had to try Frank’s Original RedHot. I wanted the wing sauce version, but it was not available at the time.

I first used Frank’s Original RedHot on chicken wings. They turned out okay, but not great.

I find Frank’s Original RedHot to be very salty, too much of a vinegar taste, and not enough of a pepper taste. I also tasted and felt a grainy texture probably due to the garlic powder, which, by the way, I did not really taste the flavor of the garlic. This is strange to say, but I think it tastes likes buffalo chicken wings.

A friend recommended Louisiana “The Original” Hot Sauce to me after he told me that he hates Tabasco hot sauce. He almost staked his life on it. So I got it. After tasting this, I must ay that I will not be accepting of his recommendations about food ever again.

I did not use Louisiana “The Original” Hot Sauce on wings, but have on most other foods. It is not bad but a far cry from Tabasco, which I find the best hot sauce so far.

I do find Louisiana to be better than the Frank’s. It is not as salty or vinegary as Frank’s. I also find Louisiana to be slightly hotter as well. Louisiana has a slightly smoky flavor that is distinctive.

While I find Louisiana and Frank’s to be similar, I prefer Louisiana because it is not as salty or vinegary as Frank’s. I want a pepper taste, not vinegar! Frank should fix his hundred year old recipe.

History sources include: Frank’s, Louisiana, Wikipedia