O’Malley’s Hot Sauce – Elf

Bitter: 🟡🟡○○○

Salty: 🟡🟡○○○

Sour/Tangy:🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡

Sweet: 🟡🟡○○○

Umami: 🟡🟡🟡○○

Heat: 🟡🟡🟡○○○○○○○

Quick Flavor Notes: Lemongrass, Bright, Sour

Recommended: Yes

Texture: Medium-thin and mostly smooth

Ingredients: Thai Chiles, Red Jalapenos, Rice Vinegar, Lemongrass, Lime Peel, Bocquerones, Organic Cane Sugar, Xanthan Gum (E415)

O’Malley’s Hot Sauce is a new hot sauce company based out of Dallas, TX. The owner is a trained chef who attended the French Culinary Institute and worked at the two Michelin star Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant which focuses on farm-to-table new American fare. Taking that concept towards his hot sauce all O’Malley’s sauces are small batch and focus on quality ingredients. The four sauces available now are all named after fantasy creatures – Dwarf, Orc, Elf, and Dragon. I initially heard about this sauce on a Reddit post and it was the Elf sauce that caught my eye and made me decide to order the set. Somehow the box got shuffled under the bed in my spare bedroom so it took me a while to rediscover it but when I did of course I had to open up Elf first.

The ingredient that made me interested in opening up Elf first is towards the end of the list – Bocquerones. Bocquerones are Spanish white anchovies, renowned for having a rich, subtle, umami-packed flavor. While this isn’t the first hot sauce that I’ve tried that uses a fish product, that honor goes to Gindo’s Nam Jim Jaew Hot Sauce, which, coincidentally is also a Thai style. Speaking of that Thai style this sauces features Thai chile peppers as well as red jalapenos for heat and adds the aromatics of lemongrass and lime peel to give the Thai flavors. While the website doesn’t explicitly state it currently based on previous descriptions they had posted on their sauces I believe this sauce uses fermented peppers (which seems to be backed up by the flavor) and also uses rice vinegar to add extra acidity. A bit of sugar rounds things out. Combining Thai chiles, which have a sharp and sour flavor, and red jalapenos, which are sweeter and fruitier, seems like a smart call to me as both can round each other out. Interestingly the company’s website suggests that this sauce contains ginger but it isn’t listed on the ingredients label. The label also says 0 sodium which I don’t believe is correct as there is definitely a salty flavor. O’Malley’s Hot Sauce Elf is medium-thin in texture and while not chunky there are some small bits of spices and aromatics floating in the sauce. The aroma is sharp with the lemongrass in particular standing out.

I have a love-hate relationship with wax dipped hot sauce bottles. On one hand they are visually striking and attractive, on another it’s difficult to remove all of the wax and sauce tends to collect on it when using the bottle which leads to some gunk buildup. Opening the bottle for a spoonful to taste it I was shocked by how aggressively sour and bright O’Malley’s Hot Sauce Elf is. There’s a lot of variety in terms of Thai inspired hot sauces out there. Some, like Torchbearer’s Torchedstone Thai go for a tropical sweet heat. Some, like Seed Ranch’s Hot Thai Green go for fresh and herbaceous. Gindo’s Nam Jim Jaew is perhaps the most overall balanced I’ve had and which also packs a big umami wallop. Elf is closest to Bottle Fed’s Thai Fire in leaning into sour and Thai aromatics but takes it to the next level. With Elf there’s the sourness and slight smokiness of the Thai chiles, the aggressively citrusy and sharp gingery flavory of lemongrass, the bright intensity of the lime peel, and the sourness of the fermentation combined with the rice vinegar. The Bocquerones then are a genius addition as they give this sauce not just some much needed umami to counter all of that brightness, but also a subtle buttery richness and brininess that adds depth beneath the bright fresh sour onslaught. Much like the bright intense flavor the heat comes on quick but doesn’t have much of a tail, this sauce is all about a quick punch to the mouth. I do think it could be improved by upping the quantity of the red jalapenos to give me a more rounded pepper flavor as well as perhaps adding a bit of onion and garlic to help fill out the middle of the flavor range.

After my first taste I wasn’t sure how flexible this sauce would be in terms of pairing. The O’Malley’s website suggests options such as noodle dishes and soups, sushi, and other Asian options which did make sense. I’d recently tried making a one-put rice cooker Chinese dish with lap cheong, mushrooms, and rice which turned out to be much earthier than I’d expected. O’Malley’s Hot Sauce Elf was the perfect remedy to brighten it up and add the acidity and fresh flavors I was missing from it. Sticking with Asian I tried this with some rather generic instant ramen and again I liked the additional sourness and brightness that it brought to the table plus a nice upgrade to heat. Trying this out on western food I tried this out with a Wawa cheesesteak and bacon cheddar fries. While it was effective at cutting through the fat and cheese in the cheesesteak I don’t know if the Asian flavors really melded well. I did enjoy it much more on the fries which needed that hit of acidity and freshness to combat the bacon and cheese sauce.

All in all I’ll give O’Malley’s Hot Sauce Elf my recommendation. Be warned that it is very aggressive in its sourness and brightness. Imagine the brightness of Garlic Reaper combined with the aggressive acidity and bit of funk of Tabasco but with more lactic type of sourness than just pure vinegar plus some citrusy floral Asian influences going on and you’ll have a rough idea. If you’re looking for a bright fresh Asian style hot sauce this is a great one to try.