Leyton Lab Drop 002: The Impossible Chilli Oil

This chilli oil is fire. Literally 

Please note Leyton Lab Drop 002 will ship early in October

The multi-award-winning chilli oil that was never supposed to exist (was then turned out to be impossible to make at scale).

Back in 2021, The Chiltern Firehouse was burning through over 100 litres of our Smoked Hot Sauce every single month. Straining that much cooked hot sauce left us sitting on mountain-sized vats of rich, oak-smoked chilli mash—heaps of blistered skins and seeds infused with deep woodsmoke.

Throwing it in the food waste felt like a crime. So we dried it, smoked it again, and crumbled it into deep crimson flakes. Inspired by Pilpelchuma — the fiery, aromatic red chilli paste of Libyan Jewish tradition — we bloomed those smoked flakes in hot oil with crispy garlic, golden fried onions, toasted caraway and earthy cumin.

The result? Pure magic. Heavy woodsmoke, building heat, crunchy garlic-and-onion bits, and an earthy, spiced warmth. It won 2 stars at the Great Taste Awards before we even had a label for it.

Then came the fire. A stray log rolled out of the pizza oven at the Firehouse, setting off a blaze that shut down the entire hotel. Overnight, our hot sauce orders plummeted. And without making massive quantities of Smoked Hot Sauce, we had no smoked mash.

The oil was dead in the water. We couldn't make it, even if we wanted to.

For Leyton Lab Drop 002, we decided to break every rule of sensible commercial food production. We made a fresh batch of our original Smoked Hot Sauce purely to harvest the mash. We dried it, smoked it over oak, and bloomed it into an ultra-limited run of giant 750ml Kilner Jars — more than double the size of our old jars.

Because you literally can't have the oil without the sauce, every 750ml Jar comes bundled with a 150ml bottle of the Smoked Hot Sauce that made it possible.

Flavour profile

• The Nose: Heavy oak woodsmoke, toasted caraway, fragrant cumin and sweet, crisp garlic.
• The Crunch: Substantial, rustic texture—dense with double-smoked chilli flakes, crispy garlic granules and golden fried onions.
• The Heat & Flavor: Deep, lingering warmth that builds rather than burns, backed by savory umami, warm aromatic spices, and a subtle background tang that cuts through rich food.
  

Scoop liberally. Spoon it over fried eggs, drizzle it into labneh, slather it on pizza crusts, fold it into hot noodles, or eat it straight off the spoon over a late-night counter.

What’s included in the set

• 1x 750ml Kilner Jar: The Impossible Smoked Crispy Chilli Oil (Massive 750ml format)
• 1x 150ml Bottle: Shedletskys Original Smoked Hot SaucePre-order now. We'll send this out as soon as we decide it's perfect, probably early in August. Once it is gone, it is gone forever.

INGREDIENTS: Hot Sauce Flakes (Chilli, tomato, garlic, vinegar, salt, sugar), PEANUTS, onion, garlic, rapeseed oil, salt, black pepper, mixed spices

STORAGE: Store in a cool dry place and use within 6 months.Produced in a kitchen that handles allergens, please see our website for details