Chile Chapters
Hell Flakes - A Pepper Blend for Every Chilehead’s Spice Rack
Hell Flakes shaker bottle
Hell Flakes by Todd Wilbur’s Top Secret Recipes, is a blend of five types of dried chile peppers, for use as a condiment to spice up your bland food, or in your cooking. The peppers in the blend vary in heat from bell pepper, to habanero. Yes, there's definitely habanero. This is some pretty hot stuff, and I’m impressed with this product.
Pepper blend closeup
Recently I grew some Jamaican Hot Chocolate habanero plants, which produced quite a few chiles. I dried them, and ran them through a Magic Bullet blender to create my own homemade habanero flakes. They now inhabit an old red pepper container. I figured they would work well in comparison.
The Hell flakes have a nice mix between more finely grated peppers (more powderish), and some that are larger flakes. It has a hellacious bright red color:
Habanero flakes and Hell Flakes, poured out
I have to say that these taste a lot better than my homemade flakes. There is more variety in what flavor you can taste outside of the heat, and a tiny pinch of natural sweetness/sugar. Whereas my habanero flakes are a bit..how to say...gamier? My drying process caused them to lose a bit of freshness I think.
Let’s talk about how hot this pepper blend is. The level of heat is no joke. It’s very similar to the straight habanero flakes; maybe slightly less hot because of the other sweeter peppers. Very slightly. The great thing about these flakes is that you can use a single shake to spice up a dish. Or a lackluster Cuban sandwich. I’ve started using these on most things I cook, in replacement of red pepper.
As a side note, the labeling and logo are A+ work. The labeling couldn’t be any better I think, and the extra brand sticker on the cap is a nice touch. The Top Secret Recipes theme is carried over to the image of a masked spy with a chef’s hat. For Hell Flakes, he’s been given an extra set of horns and a pitchfork.
Because of the intensity and how little you have to use, a bottle of Hell Flakes should last you for a while. I swear I’ve been using them all the time, but I’ve barely scratched the surface.