Hank Sauce – Camouflage

Born in St. Augustine, FL and matured into the final product in South Jersey, this brand is the result a bit of luck, some happenstance, and a lot of hard work by several friends who met in college and turned what could have remained a recipe only made and shared with friends and family to a nationwide brand.

After hearing some good things about this brand it had been on my list to try, but with my backlog of sauces being so large I didn’t want to place a large order for more. On a trip to Publix for something unrelated however I discovered that they now carry the brand, so I was able to pick up the three flavors they had locally, and couldn’t wait to tear in.

Hank Sauce describes the Camouflage Sauce as having a “hidden heat” but the ingredients listed are identical to their Cilantro Sauce, and very similar to some of the others. Perhaps there’s a difference in the pepper mash and they’re playing their cards close to their chests as trade secrets, but I’ll have to test some of them back to back to see for sure.

The sauce itself is very much in the lane of your typical Louisiana style hot sauces like Crystal, Frank’s, Louisiana, etc, but with some key differences.

First, they use aged peppers, much like Tabasco does, but which adds a great depth of flavor and complexity that you’d miss without that aging process.

Next is the addition of wine, which isn’t an ingredient I’ve seen in a hot sauce before, but which makes sense as there are flavors which are more alcohol than water soluble, so much like a vodka sauce for pasta it enhances the flavors.

Finally is the addition of a small amount of butter, which would typically make this read more like a Buffalo Style sauce, and there is absolutely that element there, but there’s not so much butter used that it becomes greasy-tasting like many pre-bottled buffalo sauces tend to be, instead it just adds some richness.

The result is both familiar and unique. There’s that salty vinegar tang you expect from a Louisiana style sauce, there’s that aged pepper complexity and funk, there’s that bougie bit of wine to add more complexity and depth of flavor, and finally that little bit of butter to give it a rich and silky finish. This one also contains cilantro, but it’s very much a background taste.

The texture is silky smooth and just a little thicker than thin, but it pours easily out of the wide mouth bottle and has quickly become my favorite sauce of this style. Not only does it go great with creamy clam chowder and creamy pasta like this style usually does, it’s also a great pairing with Mexican food as well as beans and rice.

If you like the Louisiana style of sauces but would like to try something more premium with a greater depth of flavor and complexity this is a must try.

Ingredients: Hank Base (aged peppers, distilled vinegar, salt, xanthan gum), wine, garlic, salted butter (sweet cream, salt), cilantro

Heat Level: 2/10. A little kick, but if you can handle Crystal this will be no problem for you.