Encona Hot Pepper Sauce

After kicking off with a disappointing show by Dilita, I thought I'd compensate with one of my long-time favourites: Encona. Apparently the full title of this little number is "Encona West Indian Original Hot Pepper Sauce", but it'll always be "Encona" to me. While I'm pleased to say that it's been gaining popularity (along with other "world cuisine" brands) in recent years, Encona has a long pedigree in the Afro-Caribbean community, with it's maker Enco going back to the 1930's. Enco's recent expansion has probably been driven by it's 2007 takeover by a larger Caribbean food company Grace; the takeover was marked by a rebranding of Encona and an expansion of their sauce range.




Encona was my first taste of the super-hot Capsicum chinense chillies (made with Scotch bonnets and Habaneros) and I'd be surprised if I've spent more than a few weeks without a bottle in my kitchen ever since. Also, being the first chilli sauce I really took a liking to, I do slightly regard this as the benchmark by which other sauces should be judged - Darth Naga at the ChileFoundry is a little less impressed. Also, this is definitely an "old fashioned" chilli sauce that was presumably intended to be a replacement for C. chinenese for those who couldn't get a hold of it, rather than a sauce in it's own right. So in many ways, it's kind of fighting different battles to "modern" hot pepper sauce, like comparing cooking chocolate to Dairy Milk. So with that in mind, here's my thoughts.

Tasting Notes: The sauce is bright orange, and has a strong rich smell that's dominated by the chillies, although there's a strong acid bite to it. The spices are definitely there, it's salty and a bit sharp, but they really compliment the Scotch bonnet's characteristic flavour rather than adding to it. To some extent that's all there is to this sauce: chillies with preservatives like salt and vinegar, so it probably loses on complexity. It has plenty of texture to it, with lots of chilli mash in there - although this is a downside if you buy the squeezy bottle, as it frequently jams the rubber nozzle - there's a knack to getting the amount you want, but be careful when you first use it, or you could end up with your food drenched in it. And you do want to be careful, because it's hot; but unlike other sauces in this heat range, it doesn't compromise on flavour - the rich flavour of the chillies is foremost.

What it's Good For: Would it be trite to say "everything"? Seriously, this is a staple in my kitchen for a reason: it's incredibly versatile. It works well as a table sauce, and can stand up to strong flavours - I find it's great with ketchup on bacon sandwiches. It's also hot enough to use in cooking without getting lost, and gives that lovely habanero flavour to sauces. I've been known to mix it with sour cream to tone down the heat, just to get that lovely chilli taste - and you know you've found a good sauce when you can take the heat out and it's still nice. That said, it has a bit of an acid bite that make it a little unpalatable on it's own, so I do tend to have it in combination with other stuff, unlike more inventive sauces that could stand better on their own.

Final Thoughts: Hot, tasty, versatile, readily available. If you haven't tried it, give it a shot - you might just find you keep a bottle in your kitchen cupboard too. On the downside, though, it really is a bit of a one trick pony: there's not a great deal of artifice here except letting the peppers shine. If this was the only bottle in your kitchen cupboard, it'd be a pretty boring collection, so be prepared to mix it with other stuff to get the best out of it. Still, it is a damn good trick.

The Verdict: My essential chilli sauce.

As mentioned, Encona do have a broad range of other sauces, but on the whole I've found them disappointing and unmemorable compared to the "original". At some point I might get round to doing the others, but don't hold your breath.