First I’d like to say that this pepper oil has a GREAT flavor. It is the best ever for seasoning many dishes (including fried rice as noted by another reviewer). Also like that other reviewer all my local stores stopped carrying the product, even the ones that carry other House of Tsang products. So I decided to buy a case here. That was a bad move.

Know that with this oil a little goes a long way. The case I got has a ‘best by’ date of January 2011. From when I received my product that was almost exactly six months. Now I can use a good amount of this oil pretty often, but as I said a little goes a long way. I’ll probably use perhaps 2 bottles by the end of January. If I still use up another one, well by that time the rest may not last. Anyway that means I paid about $20 per bottle when shipping is added in. I just can’t recommend ordering this product by case of twelve bottles if it only lasts six months.

The best thing I can recommend is that since this is a great product, just hound a local grocery store manager into getting it back in stock or find sonewhere to buy single bottles.

The House of Tsang’s Mongolian Fire oil is a critical and irreplaceable ingredient in my fried rice recipe, a staple of my diet which I eat nearly every day.

When my local grocery store stopped carrying it, I tried a number of other oriental pepper oils but they couldn’t hold a candle to Tsang’s. They either had way too much garlic or lacked significant “fire”.

I tried to make a similar oil starting from scratch: heating powdered cayenne pepper and fresh garlic in a mixture of canola oil and sesame oil to about 120 C for 1 hr then allowing to stand over night. After mixing and straining through a coffee filter, I got a product approaching the color of the original. The taste was better than any of the other commercial products. However, there was clearly something lacking. Perhaps using canola oil made a difference but I suspect the key lies in a secret unlisted ingredient.

Fortunately, I was able to find a source for the Fire Oil on line. It is ridiculously expensive, more than my local grocer, not to mention the cost of shipping. However, when you’ve gotta have it, you’ve got to have it!

eesnyder

If there is anyone that might be put off by the “fire” oil name, it is worth mentioning that the flavor is much more complex than simply hot pepper. In fact, it is not exceptionally hot; certainly less than the benchmark Tabasco, although they are very different condiments.

This is one condiment that makes even frozen diet dinners taste great!

The sesame oil plus the addition of a balance of garlic, onion, and ginger enhances otherwise ho-hum foods. Great for those who don’t want vinegar-based condiments.

Put it on take-out Chinese food or on scrambled eggs, burgers, etc. I’ve even used Mongolian Fire Oil to spice-up my own lasagna sauce recipe and the resulting dish received rave reviews at a church dinner.

Some people are put off by the name: “Fire Oil” but it has less bite than regular hot sauces. Try it!

I’ve enjoyed hot and spicy foods for many years, but this is, without a doubt, the best hot sauce I’ve ever tasted! The heat is complemented by a rich complex of warm flavors. I put it in or on just about anything: vegetables, soups, casseroles, meatloaf. It’s fantastic on scrambled eggs! I could almost just drink it straight from the bottle! It’s making me salivate just thinking about it.
I’m just sad that it’s no longer carried in our local grocery stores, so now I have to order it – but that’s how good it is! Nothing else in the stores even comes close – it’s worth taking the trouble to order it online!

The taste is different. Imagine you poured traditional oriental hot oil into a cast iron frying pan and overheated it: The result is a smokey component to spicey hot oil. My college kids love it. They say it makes all college food edible. I guess that is a good thing.