Best Of CLE: Fermented Hot Sauce
Killik Hot Sauce Co. kicks up the heat with three locally made fermented hot sauces.
“I call it a hot sauce because it’s made from chiles, but I’d rather call it a flavor sauce,” says owner Michael Killik, who once worked for El Carnicero and Momocho.
He churns out all three versions — Delta, Eta and Zeta — by starting with a base made with vinegar, water, salt, chile peppers, onions and garlic. Each one is then fermented for about a month with a slew of ingredients that set them apart from one another. The resulting sauces have a clean, complex taste that brings the peppers to the forefront with just 1% sodium content.
Eta is chunky enough to pass for salsa and combines jalapenos and poblanos into a green mixture that tastes fresh and tangy with just a hint of heat. Delta, Killik’s original sauce, is milder, made with Fresno chile peppers grown especially for him at Ohio City Farms. And good old Zeta brings the heat with fresh habanero peppers.
“I keep it natural and simple, because the best food is natural and simple,” says Killik. killikhsc.com
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