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Last Habaneros of 2011! Time to make some sauce (pics inside)

Many thanks to user InCider for inspiring me to do this tonight. He made a delicious looking sauce that is similar last week

So I had 110 grams of red habs and I really, really like Torchbearer #42 Slaughter sauce. I figured that this was a great evening to try and replicate the sauce. It turned out really well and here is how it went:


I looked at the ingredients on the side of the bottle to get an idea of proportions. All ingredients are listed on food products in order of weight (first ingredient has the highest mass in the recipe). The only thing I didn't know was "natural spices", but it was listed last and I figured it wouldn't make too much of a difference (especially with red habs being the first ingredient!). My other frame of reference was the position of vinegar in the ingredient list and knowing how much 5% vinegar to use to get the pH below 4.5 by proportion. Lastly, Torchbearer states that their #42 sauce is around 67,000 Scoville Units out of the bottle, so if I reduced the moisture of the mixture by around 40%, I would end up with a product of very similar heat. So this is what I put in a small pot:

Red Habaneros - 110 grams
Mandarin Oranges - 100 grams
Carrots - 100 grams
Onions - 90 grams
Tomatoes - 80 grams
Vinegar - 75 grams/milliliters
Garlic - 50 grams
Sugar - 15 grams
Salt - 2 grams

For a total of 622 grams.

So I cut up the peppers and all the other ingredients:
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50 grams of garlic! Bring on the vampire breath!

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Decided to use white wine vinegar since I had a fresh bottle in the cabinet. This ended up tasting very nice.

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Everything chopped up and in the saucepan


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Fired it up on the stove and let it simmer for about 90 minutes.


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After what looked like around a 40% reduction, I put the softened "stew" into the food processor.

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Torchbearer #42 on the left. It is slightly redder than what I made. I'm thinking there is something that influences color like a very red paprika or something. Any input on this would be great.

Now the good news: It tastes almost identical!!! I am very happy. Same flavor. Same heat.

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Since 'Dad' was making it in the kitchen, the Mastiff thinks it must be good.......

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She actually licked a dot of it off my finger and wagged her tail. Then she hit the water bowl. She is a tough cookie. Once the UPS man came up the driveway in the summer with his door open. She doesn't like the UPS man and can look a little scary (100 lbs and 35 mph sprint, she's a Cane Corso, literally "Running Dog" in Italian). he whipped out the pepper spray and hit her in the face with a short burst. She turned her head, licked her lips, and gave an expression of "hmmmm....spicy!", and then proceeded to tried to attack him by jumping into the brown truck. Luckily he closed the door in time and got her back in the house. Ever since then I am REALLY nice to our friendly UPS man. Good thing he has a sense of humor.



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Amazingly, I guessed correctly and ended up with around 375 grams of final product. This is about a 40% reduction. I will definitely be making this again.

It was around 20 minutes of actual work and 90 minutes of simmering, so essentially 2 hours from start to finish.


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Wishing 'Dad' a "job well done". If there is any activity in the kitchen, she is within 5 feet. The nice thing about owning a Mastiff is you never have to pick up food off the floor. Half the time something falls off the counter, it never even makes it to the floor with her around.

Take care,

Busamadman
 
Good point Pablo, mashes always are redder and have "deeper" flavor.

I sure do like vinegar based sauces though this wasn't very "vinegary" (still delicious)

After pounding through a good amount of this sauce this evening with pita, hummus and my new shiny sauce, I've come to the conclusion that it is slightly less hot than #42 (I'd say about 85% as hot, so pretty hot), but more 'citrus-y'. Its burn is sharper, but not as long-lived as #42. I think I'm going to like it on Asian dishes in particular (pad thai, sesame ginger noodles, etc.), but can't wait to try it out with spinach enchiladas tomorrow night (break out the tomatillos!)
 
Just been drooling over the pics.... :onfire: and the secret ingredient... Garlic! ;) I'll get my saucing on this weekend and knock up my smoked hab with mango or pinapple... now if I can borrow your Mastiff helper... ? :)
 
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