Notable Edibles: Cape Cod Howlin’ Hot Sauce
Stephan Marciezyk, Brewster born and raised, moved to British-owned Anguilla as a teenager when his father opened the Paradise Cafe, a restaurant perched on the beach at Shoal Bay West. While there, his father created a hot sauce that became so popular that everyone who tried it said, “You gotta bottle this!” So he did, repurposing old soda bottles and sealing them with corks and melted wax.
Fast forward to 2019, and while Marciezyk created and ran a concrete floor business on the Cape for 20 years, the idea of the hot sauce was always percolating in the back of his mind. After 30 years, he had just whipped up his first batch and got it on the shelf when the pandemic hit. In a way, it helped him, because folks were staying home and experimenting with cooking; sauces, marinades, and chutneys were huge.
“The hot sauce is unique,” Marciezyk explained, “in that it doesn’t hide the flavor of foods. It doesn’t hinder, it enhances.” In other words, there is no mouth burn rendering all that follows flavorless. “The sauce is an easy one to do for the masses, because of this factor, and the sugar in the sauce caramelizes nicely,” he added.
The sauce is a melange of lime juice, sugar, ginger, whole habanero peppers, onions and rum-soaked craisins. In Anguilla, it was rum-soaked raisins, but craisins are Marciezyk’s nod to Cape Cod. He used to use scotch bonnet peppers, but they are not as widely available, and the habaneros are more consistent heat-wise. The sauce is cooked down for about an hour and then blended until smooth. “This sauce is great for eggs to oysters, from fish to chicken,” he enthused.
Marciezyk spent time this summer attending food shows and hot sauce festivals. He has been on the road for nearly eight months in search of distributors, resulting in 800 bottles on shelves that he hopes will lead to reorders. He was on the farmers’ market circuit, but being a one-man operation, it became too labor intensive.
The sauce is made in 100-gallon batches, which equals about 1000 five-ounce bottles. Because no bottling plant is available on the Cape, it is batched and labeled in Greenfield. He has plans for a hotter version of the sauce, a barbecue sauce and individual packets for samples, picnics, etc. The sauce is available on his website but if you need it for tonight, you can get it at Friends’ Marketplace & Garden Center in Orleans, Ring Brothers in Dennis, various Luke’s Liquors locations, Cape Roots Market in Harwich Port and Fancy’s in Osterville.
When asked what the most interesting thing he has heard people put the sauce on (or in), he replied it was soup and salad. This writer humbly suggested that a few drops in hot fudge sauce would be great — and proceeded to do just that. Results were worthy of more experimentation.
Cape Cod Howlin’ Hot Sauce
capecodhowlinhotsauce.com
@capecodhowlinhot
