Mushroom Mayhem — our venture into savory steak sauce territory — is July's SotM and we thought you might like to know how it came to be!
Freed by Fungus
We've wanted to make a hearty, umami-centric steak-style sauce for a long time but were never quite sure how to stand out. You have your A-1s and your HPs, which are fine and very tasty in their own right, but that thinner vinegar style has been done to death at this point.
So what were we to do? We didn't want to go the straight tomato route, since only the worst people put ketchup on a good steak. We weren't too keen on doing anything too garlicky or sweet either. Then somebody said, "I don't really care about sauce; just make sure my steak is covered in mushrooms" and that turned the lightbulb on.
Why not kick traditional steak sauces to the curb and go for umami-rich mushroom flavor?
Cordyceps Chaos
We settled on two super tasty mushrooms, shitake and portabella, gave it some tang with red wine vinegar, and burned the backend with a healthy dose of scorpion peppers. It definitely took some balancing and plenty of trial and error, but the result was a rich, tasty sauce that was great for steak and burgers and landed us another season on Hot Ones!
Our label artist, Rich, loved it too because he could draw little living mushrooms being attacked by our kitchen manager's flamethrower. Art can be fun AND therapeutic!
Toadstool Triumph
Mushroom Mayhem may be one of our weirdest sauces to date, at least as far as ingredients go. It also isn't really a "throw it on everything" sauce the way Sultry or Garlic Habanero may be. But what this sauce lacks in mass compatibility, it more than makes up for in what it does enhance. The taste is so smooth, rich, and savory with an eye-opening heat at the finish, you will be dreaming of steaks smothered in it for many nights to come.
