midwest made

Those of us who love hot sauce know that it’s good on just about anything. Luckily, these Midwest makers offer different levels of heat for all of our condiment and cooking needs.

Written by rachel huffman / photography by mattheW seidel

In 2015, Joseph Gidman – who owns café cusco in Springfield, Missouri – started to officially bottle and sell his homemade Peruvian-inspired hot sauce. The Loco Roco hot sauce features raisins, brown sugar, serrano peppers, aji rocoto peppers, garlic, cilantro, Key lime juice and Himalayan salt. “It’s sweet up front, you get the heat from the serrano pepper in the middle, and about when you think it’s over, the oils from the rocoto pepper kick in,” says Gidman. He developed the hot sauce with Café Cusco’s menu in mind, incorporating ingredients that appear most consistently in his cooking, so that it complements every dish. Loco Roco is available at the restaurant on Commercial Street as well as Chabom Tea + Spices down the block. cafecusco.com

Danny Higgins and Todd Schulte launched R.J. Iguanas Hot sauce co. in Olathe, Kansas, after first connecting on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The company’s Everyday Hot Sauce is slightly sweet with mild heat to enhance your food without burning your tongue. An immediate tang of vinegar is followed by a hint of vine-ripened tomatoes, and the tingle from fresh habanero lingers just long enough for you to take your next bite. Truly an everyday condiment, you can splash it on everything from eggs to avocados to pork chops. rjiguanas.com Charlie Backer of Hot cHaRlIe’s in Oakville, Missouri, developed his original hot sauce to appeal to a wide audience. It has a more manageable heat, while the brand’s ghost pepper hot sauce reaches the same scorching level as Tabasco. St. Louis-area restaurants, including Paddy O’s and Sugarfire Smoke House, have used Hot Charlie’s products as condiments for different dishes, while Backer’s wife loves to cook with them – think garlicky green bean casserole and zesty potato salad. hotcharlies.com

Packaged in glass flask-style bottles, gRIndeRs signature hot sauces provide different levels of heat. The Wimpy sauce features garlic, mango and cayenne peppers for a milder flavor, while the BRW Molten sauce also includes habanero mash for a punchier product. Hotter still, the Near Death sauce boasts a habanero and cayenne mash, and the Death Nectar harnesses the power of capsicum and ghost peppers for an inferno-like heat. Despite being downright dangerous, the latter still has a good flavor from a combination of pineapple juice, mango purée, espresso grounds and squid ink. facebook.com/ grinderssignaturehotsauces On weekends, Joel Anderson, owner of andeRson and son PePPeR co., used to turn his home into a hot sauce laboratory. While cooking with some of the world’s spiciest peppers, his wife frequently reminded him not to touch their then-6-month-old son, and so when the time came to name the perfected recipe, Don’t Touch the Baby was only fitting. Citrusy, sweet and tangy flavors come from the habanero peppers, red bell peppers and vinegar, respectively, and agave nectar adds yet another sweet element to the small-batch hot sauce. Order bottles online or pick them up at a handful of stores in the St. Louis area. andersonpepperco.com