Why You Should Always Keep Hot Sauce In Your Pantry
If you're not into spicy food, you might be inclined to steer clear of overwhelmingly fiery hot sauces. However, there are plenty of milder hot sauces that are great for more than just heat. And since you control how much you add to your dish, with a little intuition you can splash on just enough to give your meal a kick rather than blow out your palate.
Hot sauce has been around for centuries. According to Whalebone Magazine, the first hot sauce appeared around 7000 B.C. — the Aztecs would reportedly combine chili peppers and water to create a spicy sauce, which they'd use for food and medicine. There are reports of it being used during warfare, too. Today, there are many popular hot sauce varieties on store shelves, including Frank's and Tabasco. Hot sauce is not to be confused with buffalo sauce, though, which often contains butter to achieve a thicker consistency. In addition to its flavor, there is another big reason to keep hot sauce in your pantry at all times.
Hot sauce adds flavor and nutrients to your recipes
Of course, the clearest reason to add hot sauce to your dish is to boost its flavor. Kevan Vetter, executive chef and director of culinary development for McCormick, says the heat and flavor from hot sauce "is a great way to add excitement to your everyday repertoire of meals," per MSN, pointing out that it can be used on breakfast dishes, such as eggs, as well as almost anything for lunch or dinner.
But hot sauce adds more than just flavor. It is also loaded with hot peppers, which are a great source of capsaicin. According to Healthline, capsaicin can potentially work wonders to improve your overall health. It's known to be a pain reliever, as well as promote weight loss and prevent inflammation. Healthline also mentions preliminary studies that seem to suggest that capsaicin can slow the growth of certain cancers. If there is anything to potentially watch out for in hot sauce, it's the sodium content. Certain sauces contain a lot of salt, so make sure to check out the nutrition facts on the bottle before consuming.