Lingham’s Hot Sauce is more of a spicy-sweet Thai chili sauce than a typical hot sauce, but I am IN LOVE WITH IT! This is exactly as it reads on the bottle, a multi-use condiment. I have made my own (now amazing!) ketchup with this, along with more than a few salad dressings and sauces galore. Let’s take a look at what makes Lingham’s Hot Sauce “The World’s Finest Multi-Use Condiment”.
- Our Score: 4.3/5
- Heat Level: Mild
- Pros: Well balanced, very usable
- Cons: Sodium level can be deceiving
Last update on 2025-03-17. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
Video Review
Flavor
If you like that sweet and sour sauce they always serve with egg rolls then you’ll love Lingham’s Hot Sauce. The ingredients list is simple: Red chilies, sugar, vinegar, and salt. It’s so simple, yet the flavor is really out of this world. There’s a mild kick in terms of heat, followed by a delicious sweetness, and just a touch of vinegar.
The flavors are really well balanced. It’s not too peppery, not too sweet, not too vinegary – just enough on all sides to really make Lingham’s quite an addictive flavor. You can taste small bits of the peppers in this sauce, too, which adds a nice freshness to the eating experience.
In terms of sodium: You aren’t overwhelmed with a salty flavor here due to the sugar, but there’s a decent amount in Lingham’s, 110mg or 5% of your daily allowance per serving. It’s a bit deceiving in the taste, so if you’re watching your salt intake take note. This is one sauce that’s very easy to add extra (as its flavorful and mild), so that sodium can add up.
Heat Balance
The chilies provide enough of a kick for it to be noticeable but the heat doesn’t linger and isn’t distracting. When tested alone without food, you will get that chili kick, but it dissipates quickly leaving you with the sweet, addictive sugary taste.
The spice of this sauce builds as you eat it, but it never gets past the point of being considered a mild-medium heat for me. The sugar follows up so quickly behind the spice that you forget all about the hot peppers pretty quickly.
Usability
You can literally use this sauce on EVERYTHING! It’s a sauce, a marinade, a spice up addition, and the list goes on. Basically, what I said before, it’s an everyday condiment.
Lingham’s knows this too, and it gives you all sorts of ideas of what to pair it with on the bottle. One suggestion is to use it as a seafood cocktail dip. I’m a huge fan of the classic cocktail sauce so I thought this may taste odd on my shrimp, but boy I was so wrong. The sweetness actually brought out a different flavor in the shrimp and I loved it.
This is the kind of sauce that can easily become a staple condiment in your home. Seriously, it’s not hard to find things to pair this with. I’ve tried it now as a salad dressing, a steak sauce, and a chip dip, and it’s worked every time.
Best of all, Lingham’s Hot Sauce is actually a really great mixer with other condiments and sauces. I actually poured about seven tablespoons into a large bottle of ketchup. It’s a perfect marriage – Lingham’s sweetness melds right in and provides a nice bit of warmth.
In terms of the bottle: It’s made of thick glass with a long stem, allowing you to see the flow of the sauce before it hits your plate. It can come out pretty quickly once it gets going. And that’s ok, as you’ll tend to use this as a condiment, not as a dasher. It’s a beautiful red translucent color, which also makes for lovely plate decoration.
Collectibility
The label alone gives Lingham’s Hot Sauce an exotic feel, displaying the Lingham’s shield and signature just below the date (1908). It feels of another time and gives a lot of culinary authority to the bottle. When a sauce has been around that long, you know they know what they’re doing.
You’ll need to grab at least two bottles of Lingham’s, because once you start experimenting with it as a base for pretty much everything, you won’t want to ever be without it. They call it “Unique, Versatile, Delicious and 100% Natural” on the bottle and I believe every word of it. I honestly don’t think there’s a meal out there that wouldn’t taste great with this hot sauce.
The Score
Lingham’ is a delicious multi-use chili sauce with a mild heat. The sweetness is the star here and makes Lingham’s an excellent everyday condiment (and condiment enhancer.)
Last update on 2025-03-17. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
| FINAL SCORE | 4.3 |
| Overall Flavor | 4.5 |
| Heat Balance | 3.5 |
| Usability | 4 |
| Collectibility | 5 |
| X-Factor | 4.5 |
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