Chilli Sauce Reviews - Page 010

Reviews of chilli sauce products by an former industry-insider

Traffic Light Scoring System

0-3/10 = crap, 4-6/10 = average, 7-10/10 = great!

Nando's Garlic Peri Peri

Name: Nando's Garli Peri Peri

Manufacturer: Nando's

Style Classification: Peri-Peri (African/Portuguese) Variation

Appearance: ?/10

As mentioned before, Nando's packaging is attractive and the brand instantly recognisable now that it's in 26 countries around the world, it obviously works. Nothing stunning, but very professional.

The sauce itself is a not unappealing opaque pale orange/yellow with visible pieces of ingredient throughout. However, this is clearly a highly processed sauce base that, once thickened, then has the ingredient pieces added, in contrast to once that has been simply mixed together and cooked down (e.g. Disaster Bay).

Ingredients: 7/10

Water, white vinegar, onion, lemon, garlic, sunflower oil (3%), serrano chillies, cayenne chillies, African bird's eye chilli (peri peri), stabilisers (415, 405).

Stabiliser 405 is propylene glycol alginate - basically a seaweed derivative that has then been chemically modified. It's a thickener. No documented issues.

Stabiliser 415 is xantham gum, a product derived from the fermentation of sugar by a certain bacteria. Another thickener.

No major concerns here. There are a very small percentage of people that have an allergy to Xanthan gum.

Aroma: 7/10

Vinegar, chilli, and a hint of garlic was what I picked up in the sniff test. The vinegar was not overpowering which can be a good sign that the taste is good. Would have been nice to be able to pick up more of the garlic as well, particularly as this is a garlic sauce.

Flavour: 6/10

You do get that weird taste/sensation of thickened liquids when you push your tongue to the roof of your mouth, though you'll only notice this if you eat the sauce on it's own - not a common occurrence.

Overall: 6-7/10

Overall, I couldn't decide whether to make it a 6 or a 7 - it's in that ballpark - a basically good sauce at quite reasonable price.

Improvements: As with the Lemon Peri Peri, lose some of the liquid and hence the need for some of the thickener, resulting in more flavour through greater presence of the food ingredients.

Matching it with food;

• I cooked with it twice and was a little disappointed as the flavour definitely cooks away quickly - a reflection on the water/thickener content.
• However, as a pour-over sauce this is pretty good cooked over cooked meat or vegetables, particularly, as you'd expect, over chicken. It sticks to the food and the flavour works well.

Heat: 4/10 (doesn't affect Overall Score.

A front of palate heat lasting for 30-60 seconds. Nice.

Ingredient Alert: Minor - Xanthan gum (see ingredient review above)