La Pimenterie – Fogo
Bitter: 🟡🟡○○○
Salty: 🟡🟡○○○
Sour/Tangy:🟡🟡○○○
Sweet: 🟡🟡○○○
Umami: 🟡🟡🟡○○
Heat: 🟡🟡○○○○○○○○
Quick Flavor Notes: Rich, citrusy, warm, bright
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Medium-thin and emulsified with some spice bits
Ingredients: Red bell peppers, Onions, Cider Vinegar, Canola Oil, Lemon pulp and zest, Habanero peppers, Garlic, Salt, Cayenne peppers, Sumac, Cane Sugar, Spices
Monteal’s La Pimenterie has one of the more interesting hot sauce company origin stories I’ve read. Documentary filmmaker Julien Fréchette, the founder, had an interest in chile peppers from a young age when he’d watch his uncle turn red from using hot sauces and harissa paste with food. While making a documentary about western volunteers fighting with Kurdish soldiers against ISIS in Iraq one of the soldiers shared a quote from Hemingway that stuck with him: “Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” After returning and drinking too much wine he mused about starting a hot sauce company that featured oak aged sauces and true to the quote he committed to it. In addition to his documentary about the war Fréchette also traveled the world maki the French language documentary Chiliheads where he explored both the peppers and the people who love them.
Fogo, which is Portuguese for Fire, is La Pimenterie’s take on a Peri Peri sauce. Peri Peri was originally born out of Portuguese colonial expansion in South America and Africa. Portuguese explorers and merchants took the malagueta pepper from Brazil and transplanted them in Africa where they grew abundantly and evolved into what became known as the Piri Piri pepper or the African Birdseye. Interestingly despite the similarity in name the African Birdseye pepper and the Thai Birdseye chile are two different species – the African variety being Capsicum Frutescens while the Thai version being Capsicum Annuum. The Portuguese combined those African peppers with citrus, olive oil, and spices and Peri Peri sauce was born. From the beginning the Portuguese primarily used the sauce on grilled meats and poultry. Today one of the most common examples of the style is Nando’s brand, which is especially popular in the United Kingdom where the majority of their restaurants exist, though they’re also very popular in South Africa and Australia.
La Pimenterie took a non-traditional path with Fogo. Instead of using African Birdseye chiles they instead use a combination of habaneros and cayenne peppers for heat. Like traditional Peri Peri sauces Fogo does use lemon, in this case both the pulp and the zest, as well as garlic. There are some unnamed spices but traditional ones in Peri Peri include paprika, coriander seeds, ginger, and cardamom. They chose to use apple cider vinegar, which typically isn’t something I love in hot sauces, especially when combined with sugar as is the case here but in this sauce I didn’t find it objectionable in any way. While traditional Peri Peri sauces use olive oil La Pimenterie opted for Canola. Canola is obviously a cheaper option, but it’s also more neutral, and being a Canadian company I can give them a pass on using Canola as it is a Canadian product. For more food history, Canola stands for CANada Oil Low Acidity and was a marketing solution combined with a new cultivar of what is commonly known as rapeseed oil to make it more friendly to consumers. The most unique ingredient however, is Sumac. Sumac, the dried an ground berry of the Sumac shrub, has a fruity sour citrusy flavor similar to lemon and is commonly used in many African and Middle Eastern cuisines.
With all of the oil Fogo has a creamy emulsified texture yet still flows easily with a medium-thin consistency. The sauce is mostly smooth but you can see some spice bits. The aroma took me a while to place. There’s a maltiness that doesn’t seem to come from any of the ingredients but I couldn’t help but thing it smelled a lot like Grape Nuts cereal mixed with garlic and peppers. I’ve had Canola heavy sauces in the past where the oil tasted old or rancid and thankfully that’s not the case here. In fact, despite this being a creamy emulsified sauce it still tastes incredibly fresh and vibrant. The lemon comes through as do the fruity habaneros with another sour fruity flavor coming from the sumac. That combo of lemon plus habanero plus sumac seem to amplify each other to bring out the citrus and fruity flavors of each more than the sum of their parts would suggest. At the same time there is a strong garlic and onion flavor which gives this sauce a solid foundation. I can’t place all of the unnamed spices in this sauce, there’s some black pepper for sure, and I believe I can taste some cardamom and coriander, perhaps ginger as well, it’s a nice blend of warming spices with a nuttiness that both go well with the citrus from the lemon and sumac as well as with the aromatics and provide contrast to both. The acidity likewise is well balanced, not super tangy or vinegar forward, but enough to counteract the oil so that the sauce doesn’t taste oily or dull. Fogo as a result ends up being rich and full flavored with a great balance of flavors. Heat is on the low end of medium.
Being that Peri Peri sauces have traditionally been used with grilled chicken that had to be my first application. I threw some chicken leg quarters on the Weber kettle and brushed some of the sauce on as I grilled then used more afterwards. La Pimenterie Fogo goes amazingly well with grilled chicken as expected, the flavors all being a natural match and the oil adding to a nice crispy chicken crust from being brushed on while grilled. I also found this is a great sauce for sandwiches, I especially loved it with turkey sandwiches where it has just as much an affinity as it does with chicken. The bright citrus flavors of this sauce also worked very well on fish tacos with the spice blend also seeming like a perfect companion to seafood.
I’ve avoided Peri Peri style sauces in the past because after buying several varieties of Nando’s sauces at the grocery store over the years and never being in love with the flavor I thought I just didn’t like the style, but La Pimenterie Fogo has completely changed my mind. This sauce gets my strong recommendation, it’s delicious, well balanced, fresh, and obviously made from high quality ingredients. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
