Crushed red pepper flakes

Realizing I don’t really care for any of the jars I have in my spice cabinet, all are kind of bland or lacking in flavor. I actually prefer the little packets I can get with Jets pizza more than these. Have also tried the McCormick organic gourmet variety and simple truth organic. Primarily I use on pizza but sometimes in recipes to add some zip. I’ve got two other flavor Flatirons and really like their dark & smoky flakes but not for pizza.

You have any red pepper flakes that are your go to favorite?

Google "venom salt". Sea salt infused with Trinidad Scorpion peppers. Amazing flavor & a pinch sprinkled on a slice of pizza is heavenly.

I fought a cayenne pepper plant last summer and it produces like crazy. I throw em in my dehydrator for 12 hrs then crush em up. They are great. I also boil the dried peppers and strain em for homemade tobasco

I make my own reaper flakes.

I’ve been very impressed with the pepper powders from Hellfire Farms, and they’re local, too.

Dehydrator and crush my own. Tabasco pepper plants are a nice little plant you can pretty easily keep inside. Cayennes and habaneros dried and crushed are nice as well.

I just use whatever is easy to find at Ingles. But, when I want to have the shrimp scampi to myself, I do the cooking and load it up with that stuff. The wife and kids generally end up with buttered noodles those nights.

#AITA?

Tim said:

I just use whatever is easy to find at Ingles. But, when I want to have the shrimp scampi to myself, I do the cooking and load it up with that stuff. The wife and kids generally end up with buttered noodles those nights.

#AITA?

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Our youngest went off to school about 6 weeks ago. It’s oddly quiet and boring, but not having to cook 2 or 3 versions of every meal is a bonus. Life is so much simpler.

Interesting. I never considered there was more flavor full or more heat "crushed" red pepper flakes. Most commercial "flakes" look like seeds to me.

CZfool68 said:

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How old is that Vesta?
Here’s a 6yo and new ‘Very Hot’ bottle. Very good stuff.

Get Off My Lawn said:

How old is that Vesta?
Here’s a 6yo and new ‘Very Hot’ bottle. Very good stuff.
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i have zero clue. Probably pretty old. I have a few bottle and I know that is their old packaging. Hell I ate some canned Brunswick stew in the Fall that expired in 2018, so my dry good could be from the 90’s.

I rock the wild side, I use McCormick's

I was going to say to try Flatiron. They have various levels of heat, and some have smoke.

One thing I have def found by buying they jugs at Costco- they lose their potency over time.

yellolab said:

One thing I have def found by buying they jugs at Costco- they lose their potency over time.

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I'll second this. My big shaker jug from BJ's is pretty much just for looks/crunch at this point.

Yep, with something like this that is questionable if I'll like it and will take a couple years to go through, not worth it.

I like the Flatiron smoky (black) & hatch (green) varieties for cooking and will buy more of those. Just don't care much for the red ones. They have a hotter version of the red, but if its just hotter with the same flavor it's an expensive gamble.

I thought I’d update this post with a recommendation.

I tried Trader Joe’s crushed red pepper flakes at a friend’s house and they were decent. Not perfect but passable. I was planning to buy some next trip there.

However I was in the international / Hispanic food aisle at Harris Teeter looking for a whole nutmeg packed by Badia (I guess a lot of their spices are Hispanic focused so they just put them all there) and on the top shelf I spied this baby.

At $2.99 it was cheap enough to roll the dice and I came up lucky. It’s really good! Plus it’s a double size spice jar 4.5 oz so a great value. For comparison McCormicks 2.62 oz is $4.49, and this bottle is still a buck cheaper than the generic Harris Teeter bottle of the same size on sale this week at $3.99.

Recommend

DaveInCLT said:

However I was in the international / Hispanic food aisle at Harris Teeter looking for a whole nutmeg packed by Badia (I guess a lot of their spices are Hispanic focused so they just put them all there) and on the top shelf I spied this baby.

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I almost always look for the Badia spice options before going to the regular baking / spice isle. The quality is good and the price is better.

This isn't cooking and I don't want to derail the thread, but if you have a squirrel problem-they kept trying to get in the attic. Old guy I met up here told me to mix some red pepper flakes with sugar and a little water till it's a paste and paint it around where they are getting in. I have not seen or heard any more squirrels!

DaveInCLT said:

You have any red pepper flakes that are your go to favorite?

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Aleppo