Cocktails with Tabasco sauce
Tabasco is a trademarked American hot sauce made from aged red tabasco peppers, salt, and distilled vinegar.
How it's used
It seasons savory and tomato drinks by the dash, adding chili heat and a vinegar bite without adding volume. In Bloody Mary–style drinks it usually sits beside Worcestershire.
Substitutes for Tabasco sauce
Thin red vinegar-based sauce
Crystal is close in heat, just slightly milder, so add one extra drop. Louisiana Hot Sauce and Frank's RedHot are much milder and require several times the amount, which also makes the cocktail saltier.
Cayenne pepper
Without sauce, a tiny pinch of dry pepper gives the heat, but leaves out the vinegar tang.
Sriracha and chili pastes
Last resort. A few drops bring the heat, but thicken the texture and add sweetness.
Description
The peppers are mashed with salt and aged for up to three years in oak barrels, then blended with vinegar. The aging is where the sauce gets its depth.
Storage
Aged, salted and vinegared, it keeps for years unopened and long after opening. Over time the color shifts from bright red toward brown and the fresh-pepper aroma fades, but the heat holds.
