Chile Paste Taste-off
Some are more saucey, some more pasty.
Chile paste, chile sauce, all are tasty.
Having a chile paste on hand is having a shortcut to flavor. Some are all heat. Some are heat plus. Plus garlic, plus spices, plus sugar, plus fermented soy, plus fish…if anything could possibly be considered delicious, inventive societies have added chile to it and made it into a sauce.
I have my favorites, of course. But they might be different from your favorites, and I am sure there are many that I have never tried - there are worlds of flavor out there to discover!
To start us on our journey, I assembled a small sampling of chile sauces and pastes to taste back to back. Not only did this give me a chance to discover a few new pantry staples, but it also let me compare heat levels between them, to make substitutions a little easier for you, my loyal readers (both of you).
That’s how much I care about you. (Both of you.)
If you’ve got a little free time (14 minutes), you can watch me taste them in sequence in my first ever justeffingcook video post.
Or you can read my summary below. Or just look at the pretty pictures.
Having choices rocks!
Harissa Paste
A favorite of mine. It makes any roasted vegetable shine, is excellent in all manner of sauces, and I even enjoyed eating it straight from the jar. Aromas of toasted cumin and chile with a bracing edge. A complex flavor that includes toasted spices, chiles, tomatoes, and preserved lemon. Completely rad.
Lucius scale = 2.
Crunchy Garlic Chili Sauce
My newest pantry staple. You need to find this and put it on everything immediately. Seriously, I can’t stress this enough. I have heard this referred to as “chile crisp” as well, so I guess look for anything with the words “crunchy” or “crispy” along with “garlic” and “chile”. This tastes like the garlic bits on an everything bagel got salted and crisped up, and then took a bath in a mild but flavorful chile oil. A+++.
Lucius scale = 2.
Crushed Calabrian Chiles
I love these damn chiles and use them in pasta sauces constantly. Fresh, fruity, and little sweet with a smoky depth that makes me crave them again and again. The heat is mild and steady, rather than accumulating.
Lucius scale = 3.
Sambal Olek
Please note that there are many types of Sambal, and I recommend you try as many as you can get your hands on: Sambal Matah, Sambal Ijo Padang, Sambal Terasi, Sambal Bajak, Sambal Malado. Probably more. This particular sambal is fresh, tart, and more zippy than spicy.
Lucius scale = 3.
Gochujang
Ketchup’s more interesting and way more dangerous sister. She has serious attitude and zero tomatoes. Instead, she is made of chiles, seasonings, sweet glutinous rice, and fermented soybean paste. Gochujang is packed with layers of flavor and a shit ton of umami. I love it in spicy peanut sauce, glazes, barbecue sauces and marinades. Pictured above are two brands: one without a heat grade, and the other a “hot” version (as opposed to “mild” and “very hot”). Each had a slightly different, complex flavor profile, and both were delicious.
Lucius scale = 3 and 6, respectively.
Szchuan Chili Sauce
Very smoky aroma from toasted spices and chiles. This sauce diverges from the rest with the addition of Sichuan pepper, which has a tongue-numbing effect along with sweetish, citrusy flavor. Added to this is an assortment of sweet spices like anise and cinnamon, and chile, of course. Complex, smoky, earthy.
Lucius scale = 4
Ning Chi Sauce
This is a Taiwanese version of Sichuan-style chile paste. It intrigued me by being labeled as “Taiwan’s hottest chili paste”. It’s straight up Sichuan peppercorns and chile, both steeped in its carrier oil. Plus a good dose of salt. This didn’t have the almost-burnt edge that the first did, and I preferred it slightly. A solid contender for pantry shelf space.
Lucius scale = 5
Garlic Chile Paste
Fresh, fruity chiles and sweetish (not crunchy) garlic. In contrast with the crunchy garlic sauce above, here the chile is the star and the garlic is merely a talented backup singer. Delicious, and spicy.
Lucius scale = 6
Ning Chi “Linsanity” Sauce
I assume the printers missed an apostrophe in there, but who cares when the sauce is this delicious? And fucking hot. Simple ingredients: chile, garlic, salt and sugar, but this sauce is more than the sum of its parts. Likely started with some excellent chiles.
Lucius scale = 8
Lee Kum Kee XO Sauce
I am most definitely a culinary tourist when it comes to adding seafood to a chile sauce. This sauce was a keeper, though. Thinly shaved strands of dried shrimp and scallop make this a pretty delicate tasting seafood sauce. Great umami and mild heat. It’s going in my next stock for ramen.
Lucius scale = 3
VSOP Spicy Sauce
As you can probably tell from the photo, this sauce does contain fish. A little tougher for the Western palate perhaps, at least if you are going to eat it straight out of the jar, like I did. Ingredients include black beans, soy beans, anchovies, dried shrimp, garlic and ginger. This one is more about the fish than the chile.
Lucius scale = 3