Welcome back, everyone. It’s time once again for another Hot Sauce Battle. Long-time readers will remember that my favorite general-use hot sauce of all time has been Frank’s. It was the first hot sauce I really got into and it’s been a search ever since to find sauces that match up to it. Eventually, I tried Crystal hot sauce. The flavor of that sauce was so good, it looked like it was possibly going to de-throne Frank’s as my favorite. I decided the best way to decide was to have them go head-to-head. I had 5 wings of each and came to the conclusion that… I liked them both and had plans on using them for different applications.

Well, I have to say, in the months since, that hasn’t really panned out. I eventually finished that bottle of Crystal and I never have picked up another. Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I suddenly didn’t like Crystal as much. I just found that actually trying to do the “cook with one, finish with the other” wasn’t really working. The sauces were just too similar. I’ve since found at least one other sauce, Sweet Baby Ray’s, that could also be a close contender for being a staple sauce like Frank’s. And so, in my fridge, I’ve really just got my big bottle of Frank’s.

However, recently, as you know, I came across Marie Sharp’s sauces. That started with their Habanero Pepper Sauce. When I had that sauce, I considered that -it- might take over as my favorite hot sauce. Well, just now, I made up a pan of wings, put Frank’s on 5 and Marie’s on 5 and had dinner. Here’s the results.

Before I could eat the wings, I had to put the sauce on the wings. Now, Frank’s is just a liquid that’s been strained. It has no particulate in it. It’s slightly thickened (compared to something like Crystal, which I mentioned in that head-to-head battle), but only very. It pours readily out onto the wings. Marie Sharp’s is a lot chunkier. While not something I would really call “chunky” entirely, it’s definitely got more things in it. The sauce has seeds. It has the pulp from what I assume are the carrots. It’s got a lot in there. The little plastic stopper on the top of the bottle got in the way more than it helped. You can still get the sauce out through it, but it’s not easy. Think of it like… orange juice vs. orange juice with pulp. The pulp makes the juice flow a little slower and there’s definitely something there when you’re drinking it. Some people like pulp. Some don’t. I’m either-or, honestly. But anyway, in terms of getting sauce onto wings, the Frank’s is easier. But this isn’t a “who can pour sauce easier onto wings” test. This is a taste test.

I started with Frank’s, as it’d been a lot further back in the past that I’d had wings doused in my favorite red sauce. Granted, it’s not been too long. I remember a month or two back, I had a pan of wings with Frank’s on it just because it’d been a while and I love this sauce still. Biting in, I am reminded why. The sauce is just good. It’s got the right amount of kick, there’s a savoriness that comes from the vinegar that many other sauces don’t possess. It’s not sour or bitter like in other sauces. It’s just a nice, almost juicy flavor to it that I love.

Biting into a Marie Sharp’s wing next, I’m noticing that it’s a lot more complex than the Frank’s sauce. Frank’s is really just the peppers, vinegar, salt, and a touch of garlic. It creates a single note. A very good note, but a single note. Marie Sharp’s has much more going on. There’s the peppers. There’s the carrots. There’s the garlic. There’s onion. There’s lime juice. This sauce has a lot going on inside of it. And, obviously, that’s going to make for a much more complex flavor. The habaneros are still front and center, but there’s a lot more backing them up.

I had a couple more wings of each, going back and forth, before I dipped a wing each into blue cheese dressing (a hot wing’s best friend, if you ask me), to see how both sauces played with friends. As expected, the Frank’s did very well. The cool, creaminess does a lot to round out the flavors of the aged cayenne and vinegar. The same can be said for the Marie Sharp’s sauce. And, I mean, who doesn’t love carrots in blue cheese? (I’m sure there’s plenty of you, but in my particular case, I love it)

So, overall, who’s the winner? You know… it’s still tough. It’s really tough.

… and I think Marie edges out the Frank’s. And I’ll tell you why.

As I say above, the Frank’s is very one-note. It’s a clean, clear, crisp note that I very much enjoy, but the Marie Sharp’s has that group of flavors that gives it an overall more well-developed flavor. There’s more going on, but it’s not too much and it all does well in harmony. So, on a wing, you’re getting a more robust, more complex, and more satisfying flavor than the one note from Frank’s.

Now, obviously, Marie now taking over my favorite sauce doesn’t mean I love Frank’s any less. I’m not going to dump out the rest of that giant bottle in disgust. I still love it just as much. And I will definitely continue to use it. I do feel that, at some points, having that singular note might be beneficial. I talked about in my Frank’s Vs. Crystal review that I would use Crystal for cooking because it was a little thinner. Now, I feel Frank’s will slide into that place. It is definitely thinner than the Marie Sharp’s. And it has that single note that would go into the dish. It’s like… adding just cayenne pepper instead of chili powder. Cayenne pepper is -just- cayenne. Nothing else. It’s good. You know it. It’s straightforward and right there. Chili powder is a mix of all kinds of things. It’s also very good, but it’s got more flavors going on. Some places, you want the former over the latter. Like, when I’m making my dark chocolate brownies, and I want to add a spicy kick, I add just cayenne and not chili powder (tried it with cookies. I don’t think it turned out as well). I feel the same thing might happen here.

Now, as you’ll remember, at the start of this review, I talked about how the “use one for cooking and the other for finishing” arrangement didn’t really last and broke down. I feel this one might stick a little better, as the Frank’s and the Marie’s are much different than the Frank’s was with the Crystal. These two sauces are definitely more different than just viscosity alone.

Well, there you have it. My new favorite finishing sauce is Marie Sharp’s Habanero Pepper Sauce. Long may the queen reign.