Butterfly Bakery of Vermont – Maple Wood Smoked Onion Hot Sauce

Peppers matter. Tabasco wouldn’t be the juggernaut they are today if it weren’t for the McIlhenny family’s dedication to cultivating their high quality peppers in the special soil of Avery Island from the beginning. Huy Fong learned an expensive lesson when they parted with their long-term pepper supplier, Underwood Ranch, with most enthusiasts noting that the quality of their Sriracha has declined considerably since. Quality peppers are also what makes Butterfly Bakery of Vermont sauces so special and what makes them consistently rate as some of my absolute favorite sauces. Using peppers and other ingredients from small Vermont farms within 200 miles of their operation allows them to obtain the highest quality peppers available at the peak of their season and gives their sauces a fresh and complex flavor that’s often missing in sauces which indiscriminately use industrially farmed peppers.

The two farms used in this bottle, Familia Farm and Full Moon Farm, are listed as being all-natural and certified organic respectively. Familia Farm specializes in peppers and garlic and their red jalapenos are also used in what is probably my favorite hot sauce of all time – Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s Rum Barrel Fermented Smoked Jalapeño Hot Sauce. Full Moon Farm’s onions are used in Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s Spicy Arrabbiata Tomato Sauce which is the absolute best pre-made bottled pasta sauce that I’ve ever tasted.

According to the bottle this sauce began as a one-off experiment but was so popular it eventually became a permanent fixture in the Butterfly Bakery of Vermont lineup. As with most of their sauces the ingredients list is simple in a way that belies the amount of flavor and complexity in the sauce. In this case just four ingredients – red jalapenos from Familia Farm, vinegar, maple wood smoked onions from Full Moon Farm, and salt. Smoking onions does more than just add a smoky flavor. Because onions have a high sugar content they caramelize easily, and the sulfur compounds in onions break down under heat which allows mellower and sweeter flavors to come forward.

The nose on the sauce is sweet, peppery, oniony, and a little bit smoky. This is a bit thicker than some other Butterfly Bakery of Vermont sauces but still pours well. On the palate there’s an instant blend of the red jalapeno and the onion flavor. Red jalapenos have a vegetal sweetness and just a hint of earthiness for a beautifully rounded flavor. The maple wood smoke used on the onions adds a subtle smoky flavor but is a mild enough wood that it doesn’t overpower the sauce. The Maillard reactions from the smoking process give the onions a sweeter flavor while preserving some of the traditional more pungent onion taste. There’s a good tang from the vinegar, and while not a vinegar-heavy sauce the flavor is present and provides a nice foil to the sweetness of the onions and jalapenos. What I find most interesting in the flavor of this sauce is some bitterness at the very end of the flavor profile. Perhaps it comes from some char on the onions during the smoking process, and it adds a lot of complexity to the sauce as bitter isn’t a flavor typically used in hot sauces, though it’s one I’d love to see more of.

Onions and peppers are present throughout almost every cuisine so the combination of the two does make this a very versatile sauce. It goes well with Mexican food like tacos and fajitas, it goes well on a gyro, it’s a perfect compliment to a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, and adds a great flavor when poured on some roasted potatoes. The heat level is medium-low so there’s no worry about overpowering anything you use it on with too much heat. That hint of bitterness really makes this sauce excel by adding that extra dimension of flavor.

Of course like all Butterfly Bakery of Vermont sauces this sauce is all-natural with no artificial preservatives, thickeners, flavors, or colors.

This is another winner from Butterfly Bakery of Vermont and gets a big recommendation from me. If you enjoy red jalapeno sauces and onions you can’t go wrong with this.

Ingredients: Familia Farm red jalapenos, organic white vinegar, maple wood smoked Full Moon Farm onions, salt

Heat Level: 3/10. The jalapenos make themselves known but this is medium-low heat overall and very versatile