My sauce is "blah" - Help requested

[Halbrust]

I made a sauce last week, and tasted it for the first time last night.
Here's what I did:
First, two 12 oz bottles of Negra Modelo beer were reduced by 1/2
Added to that:
12 oz of red wine vinegar(4%)
5 jalapenos
7 yellow peppers (cascabella)
Whole head of garlic
 
Everything was cooked and blended several times before being hot filled into a swing-top bottle.
 
The color was a nasty brownish, but I didn't care. It's for my consumption, not selling, so the look isn't very important.
 
I tasted it last night for the first time. It was flat, and just not good.
Very edible, and the heat level was OK (low, but OK). But not good at all. It is fairly sweet due to the reduced beer, but has a one note acidic fruit flavor. Almost mango like, but doesn't at all taste like mango.
 
I forgot salt
When I fix that, what else should I add? Will a little carrot or sweet potatoe broaden the the taste?

 

[juanitos]

maybe some citrus like lime could help lift him up

 

[beerbreath81]

IMHO non quality ingrediants=non quality sauce
 
Lets start at the begining....
 
1. Negra Modelo Beer---beer with simple flavor profile mainly water, something like a "meal" beer, an oatmeal stout, a porter, or a samuel smiths strawberry ale would work here, or a dark sweet red wine.
2. 12 oz of red wine vinegar which basically equates to 1.5 cups (i think) so 3 cups beer to 1.5 cups vinegar, seems a little much to me.
3. 5 jalapenos....Good Choice on that one
4. 7 Yellow Casabella peppers...if fresh or dried, good job. I would bet you used the ones out of the jar though huh....not so good choice.
5. Head of Garlic---good choice.
 
so your recipe in short would look like this....
water
vinegar
peppers
& garlic
=blah or No bueno!!
 
You DO have the basics down, when i go to making a sauce i think of three components, the base, acid, and heat. Then build of that, adding extras.
 
base--pepper, tomato, or fruit
acid--lactic acid or vinegar
heat--back to base or is additional needed
 
I can give you some ideas on how to fix your sauce but i think your better of spending some time in the hot sauce section of this forum to get some ideas and chalking this one up to learning.
 
Good luck on your future sauces and keep us posted.

 

[PrimeTime]

Negro Modelo is a fine example of a vienna lager, i see no problem with that choice, somehow fresher than a sams boston….
 
Id reduce it down a lot more if you want that to be a major flavor component. Hard to say. When i reduce beer or wine or whatever in a food recipe 12 oz goes to very little, an ounce or two.
 
Good luck tweaking and have fun!

 

[RocketMan]

Hey Joe, yep bb81 kind of captured it but it doesn't mean that you need to pitch it yet. Ok so your going to add a little salt, good. Carrot and Sweet Potato will give it a bit of sweetness but more importantly it will add consistency, probably give it about a medium thickness so it will be run when poured and will stay where you put it.  As for flavor well, first i wouldn't have used Red Wine Vinegar with Beer, Rice or Coconut Vinegar would have worked better. Now lets see what can be done. to your sauce I'd add 2 medium peeled and shredded carrots, 6 oz pouch of smoked Sundried Tomatoes, medium onion, 1 tsp salt (adjust later to taste).
 
Put it all in a pot and bring to a simmer of about 45 minutes, run it through the blender, simmer 30 minutes, blender again and pour back into pot through a fine mesh wire strainer and heat to 195 for 15 minutes and bottle into your clean and sterile bottle.
 
Give it a week to get all happy with itself again and give it a taste.
 
Good luck and post it back up. Oh, and the rule here is no pics, didn't happen so..... 
 
Take lots of pics

 

[Halbrust]

I really don't want to sound ungrateful, but I have to complain a little. And ask for a little clarification
 

1. Negro Modelo Beer---beer with simple flavor profile mainly water, something like a "meal" beer, an oatmeal stout, a porter, or a smilthwicks strawberry ale would work here, or a dark sweet red wine.
2. 12 oz of red wine vinegar which basically equates to 1.5 cups (i think) so 3 cups beer to 1.5 cups vinegar, seems a little much to me.
4. 7 Yellow Casabella peppers...if fresh or dried, good job. I would bet you used the ones out of the jar though huh....not so good choice.

 
1. Negra Modelo is a quality Viena Lager. It's not an in-your-face beer, it has a nice soft maltiness with some sweetness. I would never drink the three choices you suggested, so I would never use them in a sauce.
2. The beer to vinegar ratio was 1:1 because the beer was reduced by half before any other ingredients were added.
3. They were the yellow peppers from the grocery store. I put cascabellas in parentheses because that is what I was told here thaey most likely are.
 
I hate "chalking things up to a loss", because I don't learn anything that way.
 
In this instance, I like all the flavors I put into the sauce (not really a fan of red wine vinegar, but this brand tastes better than most, and the flavor of the vinegar is not present in th efinal sauce) but don't like the sauce as a whole. If I don't know where the *problem* is, how will I know to not make the same mistake again?
 
Again in defense of the beer: I made a sauce previously with this beer and it was the best hot sauce I've had to date. So while the use of it in this recipe may not be a good choice, the use of Negra Modelo in a hot sauce is not a bad one as a whole.
 
I hope this is/was read as I meant it, and that no one equates my statements as "I'm asking for help, but don't want to hear your help"

 

[PrimeTime]

It is pretty much the standard for vienna lager and when i do have one it is always fresh. Sorry to not offer much beyond that but i do have to stand up for the quality your choice of brew.

 

[ivplay]

First thing to do is add the salt, then have fun with it from there.  The reason I say this is that over the years of making salsa at home, I have found that if the salsa just seems a bit bland and not really flavorful, adding some salt will almost always pick it up.  Salt is an enhancer, not just a flavor in itself.  It brings out the flavors of everything else in the sauce and makes it all come together on your palate.  A quick google search on why resulted in this:
 
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/09/why-salt-enhances-flavor/
 
With this in mind, I would add salt first, see how that makes your sauce pop, and then start bringing in other things as suggested above to add additional flavors to your sauce.

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

If you ever watch cooking shows, the number one complaint is lack of seasoning AKA salt! 

 

[The Hot Pepper]

One of the problems is ratios, look at all that liquid, two beers, 12 oz of vinegar... and 12 peppers? Looks more like a beverage, a flavored vinegary beer, than a hot sauce.

 

[Pepperjack91]

One of the problems is ratios, look at all that liquid, two beers, 12 oz of vinegar... and 12 peppers? Looks more like a beverage, a flavored vinegary beer, than a hot sauce.

 
Yeah i would add more peppers to it for sure. I put two ounces of peppers in the sauce I just made. In that whole batch of sauce was about two ounces of all the other ingredients. And it is......kinda hot?? So my point is it may take a lot of peppers. I guess it depends on the type of pepper and other ingredients used.

 

[Nigel]

As far as I can see you have reduced beer (I like Negra Modelo a lot) that gives a very malty-sweet start to the sauce, with a hint of bitterness from the hops. The red wine vinegar adds some acid to balance the sweetness and malt. For what it`s worth, my opinion is that this is the issue with the sauce being a bit flat. Nothing wrong with the starting point, although 24oz of liquid might be a bit too much in volume. 
 
The peppers and garlic - great. My personal preference is to roast the head of garlic first, but that`s just me. Roasting the peppers also helps add a bit of smoky sweetness and takes away the "raw" flavor. Again, just personal preference. 
 
My Brother is a chef who has cooked for Royalty, we grew up in the restaurant biz and I`ve cooked all my life since the age of 8. First rule of food is taste it, then taste it some more etc etc etc. No criticism intended, but learn to taste as you go along (clean spoon every time!) and you`ll develop a good sense of how to alter flavour combos to suit you. 
 
With the malty, sweet and vinegar background you need to try to round out the flavours. Ways to do this include the use of fruit. Pan-roasted stone fruit would fit in here, I think. Peaches, Plums, Nectarines, Apricots. Again, pan-roasting gives a more rounded flavor, brings out sweet and caramel notes, deepens the flavor of the fruit etc. You can do the same with pineapple, but it can dominate the flavor a bit too much if you are not careful. 
 
I`d also add more peppers. Probably another 6 or 7 Jalapeños, minimally. 
 
Tomato is obviously another good fruit to add, but do roast them first. 
 
Any fruit you add will help with consistency, too. So when you add fruit, check the consistency as you go along. 

 

[Happy Harry Habanero]

Maybe some chipotle or ancho and guajillo peppers?  After you steep them use just enough of the water to get them to blend.. Add it to a bowl then try yours with some added in.  If it don't work for you, you are still good...you have the start of a mole' sauce........it's el pollo mole' time!

 

[beerbreath81]

I really don't want to sound ungrateful, but I have to complain a little. And ask for a little clarification
 


 
1. Negra Modelo is a quality Viena Lager. It's not an in-your-face beer, it has a nice soft maltiness with some sweetness. I would never drink the three choices you suggested, so I would never use them in a sauce.
2. The beer to vinegar ratio was 1:1 because the beer was reduced by half before any other ingredients were added.
3. They were the yellow peppers from the grocery store. I put cascabellas in parentheses because that is what I was told here thaey most likely are.
 
I hate "chalking things up to a loss", because I don't learn anything that way.
 
In this instance, I like all the flavors I put into the sauce (not really a fan of red wine vinegar, but this brand tastes better than most, and the flavor of the vinegar is not present in th efinal sauce) but don't like the sauce as a whole. If I don't know where the *problem* is, how will I know to not make the same mistake again?
 
Again in defense of the beer: I made a sauce previously with this beer and it was the best hot sauce I've had to date. So while the use of it in this recipe may not be a good choice, the use of Negra Modelo in a hot sauce is not a bad one as a whole.
 
I hope this is/was read as I meant it, and that no one equates my statements as "I'm asking for help, but don't want to hear your help"

Before i start know this is on tablet so excuse typos....
Ok just getting back to this.. look like you have got a lot of tips on how to correct your sauce so i will leave that alone. I suggested that you leave this one alone and try again because i really wasnt sure what type of hot sauce you were after. The "problem" as i saw it was a lack of ingrediants, and those used do not really complement each other. I like garlic, negra modelo, jalapenos, and the yellow peepers you added i just dont think they are good starting points for a sauce. Rather than offer a recipe i wanted to get your gears turning on how to build a sauce which will really open the door to a bunch of posiblities. As it sits your "base" is a beer (yes, negra modelo is not a bad beer...look at my name i am pationate about beer too) ...good on ya for reducing it and trying to get the sugars and the bitterness out of it but when i suggested to use a "meal" beer it was only to give you a better base in terms of hot sauce. I would guess that if you use negra modelo by the time you get done adding all other ingrediants it is no longer the base of the hot sauce. If you have used thus in the past maybe you can comment on whether or not the beer has a presence in you sauce.

I admire your persistance on wanting to fix the sauce and hope with all the info u got it turns out in your favor...let us know