Participants in Hot Crispy Oil taste test
Hot Crispy Oil is having a moment. A local version is taking the upstate NY culinary scene by storm, the original “grumpy housewife” is back at the helm of her factory in China, and food god Kenji Lopez-Alt somehow came up with the idea of putting the stuff on ice cream. It’s time to do a taste comparison, and see which hot crispy oil reigns supreme.
Hot Crispy Oil
The concept is brilliant in its simplicity: add texture, as well as heat, to spicy chili oil and tone down the fire so you can enjoy it in volume. The local product does this with “garlic, shallot, hot peppers and spices … for a condiment that has flavors like a hot sauce but a consistency akin to a dipping oil,” according to Deanna Fox in the Times Union. John Trimble, the originator, says it’s something he tinkered with for years at his COVID-shuttered La Serre restaurant. It can be considered the aristocrat of the group if for no reason than its price: $10 for 6 ounces, vs under $4 for a larger quantity for the other sauces. But it was the only sauce where we could taste the flavor in the oil, as well as the ingredients, and the only one we’d actually use for dipping a slice of baguette.
Spicy Chili Crisp
The original Spicy Chili Crisp was invented in a Guizhuo province workshop by Tao Huabi, the widow whose dour portrait appears on every label. It’s true (at least according to Wikipedia) that the product has made her a billionaire, also true that she put her son in charge of the factory, then kicked him out when he changed the formula and sales dropped. Another morsel was recently reported in the Wall Street Journal: fraudsters pretending to represent Lao Gan Ma attempted to scam Tencent for product placement on its social network; the company offered free bottles of chili sauce to those who tip it off to similar scams. In our product comparison, Spicy Chili Crisp had a neutral but pleasant taste without a lot of heat; the large amount of crispy fried garlic chips is its most distinctive attribute.
Hot Chili Sauce
If you like Spicy Chili Crisp and want to expand your horizons, try Lao Gan Ma’s Hot Chili Sauce. The flavor profile is similar but the crispy garlic bits are reduced quite a bit and replaced by little chunks of rutabaga and whole shelled peanuts! We may like this better than Spicy Chili Crisp but, as with the flagship product, are a little unclear on how to use it. It’s too mild to be a spicy offset to Sichuan flavors like Lan Chi, our favorite chili condiment; these sauces are more of a flavor refresher along the lines of munching a pickle while you eat your Roma’s Italian Mix sub. Meanwhile, here is a recipe for peanut brittle made with Lao Gan Ma product.
House Made Chili Oil
The final component of our taste test was our own chili oil made according to instructions from Fuchsia Dunlop: chop or grind mild Sichuan dried red chilis and toast them in a wok; then slow-heat with neutral oil to infuse the flavor. This is designed as a cooking ingredient, not a condiment, and it paled in comparison to the other products, but now we’re wondering what we might end up with if we used a flavorful oil (but not sesame, which would burn) and mixed in garlic chips and maybe some grated ginger.
So do we have a winner? The olive oil in Hot Crispy Oil gives it flexibility compared the other products and it is a natural for dolloping over grilled salmon or using as the sauté oil for a mess of greens Italian style. That makes it the sauce we’d reach for first and you can order it here. On the other hand, try a couple of spoonfuls of the Lao Gan Ma sauces on a charcuterie plate, along with your bleu cheese and fig jam, and you might see some heads spin.
