Hello all. I am fortunate enough to harvest elderberries, huckleberries, blackberries, wild muscadine grapes, mulberries, wild plums and persimmons annually for experimenting with hot sauce ingredients. I just found a HUGE passionflower vine LOADED with passion fruit which should be ripe in a little bit. Has anyone used any of these in the making of your hot sauces? I just made an awesome Sumac lemonade and am going to try it's tart berries as a possible acidic substitute in sauces...I never stopped to look around and use a little imagination in what grows on my property as unique ingredients and flavorings in hot sauces!
-
If you have a question about commercial production or the hot sauce business, please post in The Food Biz.
Utilizing wild fruits on found on property!
- Thread starter Peppermoto
- Start date
Welcome to THP!
Sounds like you have lots to play with! I've used passion fruit in spicy jams but not sauce. It is very sweet (juice) and not a lot of mass per fruit, for your effort. Also used wild plums, wild grapes, and persimmons for jam. I do love to try different ingredients in ferments for hot sauce.
Best of luck with your persuits! I can also say that a hungry perch will go for mulberry's! I spent alot of my child/teen years in SW Missouri and North central Arkansas.
Mike
Sounds like you have lots to play with! I've used passion fruit in spicy jams but not sauce. It is very sweet (juice) and not a lot of mass per fruit, for your effort. Also used wild plums, wild grapes, and persimmons for jam. I do love to try different ingredients in ferments for hot sauce.
Best of luck with your persuits! I can also say that a hungry perch will go for mulberry's! I spent alot of my child/teen years in SW Missouri and North central Arkansas.
Mike
i think you have a perfect scenario for doing some fun fermentations, all kinds of potential there. non-fermented ones would be great too, but i bet you have tons of wild yeast and bacteria on the fruits that may bring some interesting depth of flavor. i think you could do blends with some of the berries and then do a passion fruit one with pineapple or mango... or by itself. have fun and be sure to let us know what you're up to!
Passion fruit and Manzano hot sauce has been made by PexPeppers in the past. It`s the best hot sauce I`ve ever had, bar none!!! I`ve used elderberries in the past, too. Our Californian ones are not black, though, but green with a pale blueish blush. I`ve also used elderflowers, to give a slight floral-anise-sweet flavour
Welcome and I`m very jealous of the bounty you can find close by.
Welcome and I`m very jealous of the bounty you can find close by.
Swellcat, it seems like forever now I've eaten off the land. Not out of necessity, but rather as getting back in touch with my Native American roots (no pun intended) and experimenting with foods that were, for them, survival. People tell me that Sumac is poisonous, and yes, POISON Sumac is. However, trying to explain to these know it alls that staghorn, dwarf, winged, smooth, etc. Sumacs were a staple of early American fare. I take 2 pods off the top, steep it in ice water for 30 minutes, and strain it through a coffee filter. I add about a 1/4 cup sugar per quart of raw juice, and it tastes better than any pink lemonade bought off the shelf! I find it fascinating and intriguing to research and sample the many wild foods right on our back yards; apparently, the majority of the populace has forgotten that all processed foods and foods purchased in stores use the natural source as the basis for flavors and canned goods, not to mention the medicinal values of much of these plants.
Nigel, yes I'm quite lucky to live where I do. With my property and relatives and friends, I have access to over 5,000 acres to run rampant looking for natures bounty (whether it be plants or animals). Speaking with "old timers" and the likes through the years I remain in AWE at the amount and variety of delicious, wild plants just there for the taking. Whether by themselves or used in recipes (the reason I posted this, as I hope to share with everyone some wild concoctions as I tinker with different flavors), what most people see as gross or inedible is only viewed that way because of the constant fast food ads shoved down our throat. Stay tuned, I'll be posting some strange combinations pretty soon!
I have a lot of blackberries in the freezer and I am looking for a sauce using them. They have a great depth of flavor, but being new to all this, creating the right sauce is proving to be tough.
elderberries are a bitter fruit. Makes an AWESOME jelly.
Got wild persimmons and they are rough to work with. Gotta let them get frosted and look nasty before they are ready to go.
I prefer my raspberries on their own...they are just that good.
Good luck on your pursuits and I look forward to reading them.
elderberries are a bitter fruit. Makes an AWESOME jelly.
Got wild persimmons and they are rough to work with. Gotta let them get frosted and look nasty before they are ready to go.
I prefer my raspberries on their own...they are just that good.
Good luck on your pursuits and I look forward to reading them.