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Carrot (s)

TNKS

TNKS

I see alot of carrot recommendation for sauces
I understand cooking with them in general, regarding sauces, how much is to much? Without having a sauce that taste like nuclear V8 juice.
Fresh carrot
Roasted carrot
Why your preference for one of the other

Use a 5qt batch as example

Open to all suggestions
 
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Hmm. Roasted carrots are a good idea, haven't thought about that one. Some of my sauce I gave used equal parts carrot to peppers since their fermented but if cooking them and using vinegar/lime juice to get ph down then you could scale that back. With the ferments I have not noticed a carrot flavor at all. There are plenty more guys here that have made a ton more sauce than I that will be able to help more.
 
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I pretty much only use carrot when I am fermenting a mash to make a sauce.  Using fresh pods and vinegar only (like a louisiana or Frank's) I typically don't use carrot, just garlic and onion.  
 
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No many re;'s
So lets add No Vinegar to the equation
1 lb carrots shouldnt shine thru in a 5qt batch?
Im thinking roasted carrots and a good bit of garlic also roasted
Then add to an all fresh mash of garlic,onion,maters etc
 
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I use one good sized carrot in a standard batch of hot sauce (about one quart).  I haven't noticed much of a difference between roasted carrots and non-roasted.  If I am roasting them though it is because I am roasting the peppers, onion, and garlic for the sauce so the roasted flavor already comes through.
 
hot stuff said:
Go to the supermarket and look at all the hot sauces.  How many of them have carrot in them?
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Quite a few have carrot in them actually.  Carrot is a great natural thickener for sauces.
 
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Adding roasted carrot can give a sauce a great texture, it's better than raw carrot IMO.
 
I once made a sauce with carrot juice, thinking it would give the sauce a great color (which it did), but the sauce ended up tasting like "spicy vinegary carrot juice" instead of hot sauce...   I imagine the same thing could happen if too many whole carrots were used.
 
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Ok, lets look at why carrots are used in the first place. Carrots in a sauce give the sauce some consistency. It doesn't take much to get the sauce to a consistence such that it will stay where you put it and carrots won't add much towards the flavor profile so your not really changing the flavor of your sauce. For a gallon of sauce I'll typically use 3 medium carrots.
 
BUT,
 
lets not just limit ourselves to carrots. I've used Sweet Potatoes, Pumpkin, Celeriac (Celery root), Plantain, Beets and Yucca root to do the same thing. You just need to play around with it a bit to see how much you need to get the consistency you want in your sauces.
 
Cheers
 
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RocketMan said:
Ok, lets look at why carrots are used in the first place. Carrots in a sauce give the sauce some consistency. It doesn't take much to get the sauce to a consistence such that it will stay where you put it and carrots won't add much towards the flavor profile so your not really changing the flavor of your sauce. For a gallon of sauce I'll typically use 3 medium carrots.
 
BUT,
 
lets not just limit ourselves to carrots. I've used Sweet Potatoes, Pumpkin, Celeriac (Celery root), Plantain, Beets and Yucca root to do the same thing. You just need to play around with it a bit to see how much you need to get the consistency you want in your sauces.
 
Cheers
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I never thought of using some of those other ingredients. I will have to give some of those a try, 
 
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I'm wondering why you guys are needing to thicken your sauces?
 
I thicken with peppers. I like sauces where I can taste the pepper. Are you straining out the pulp or something? Don't do that. That's the pepper flesh, the actual pepper you are removing. Cook it down. Are you using only one or two peppers, like superhots? Okay then balance it out with a pound of peppers with less heat.
 
I don't see the need to add any root vegetables. It's not a stew. You can use peppers. That's just the way I like my sauce. And if you are worried about consistency/separation you can use a gum like xanthan if needed.
 
I add flavors, not fillers. If I want a mango sauce I add mango. As a bonus it thickens. But I won't add carrots unless I want a carrot sauce.
 
Intensity Academy started out with carrot sauces. They were quite tasty. But she wanted you to taste the carrot. She did a line of pepper, carrot, chai tea sauces where those flavors all melded. But that was for flavor. So add them if you want a carrot sauce or carrot in the background. If not, use peppers!!! :) Hot sauce, not stew. ;)
 
RocketMan said:
Ok, lets look at why carrots are used in the first place. Carrots in a sauce give the sauce some consistency.
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I always think FLAVOR FIRST when making a sauce. I have never found a need to thicken with a root veg. There are flavors you are already using that can do the job.
 
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Think of AJ's purees. They are thick. They are peppers, vinegar, agave nectar. They are a puree consistency, some may say too thick, more vinegar would make them saucier... there are no carrots or pumpkin... it's all peppers.
 
I think all these ingredients are cool if you want that flavor, but I really don't get the consistency issue. Hot sauce has been made for centuries with just peppers... thick, thin, and in between, silky, smooth, chunky. It just takes practice.
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
 

I always think FLAVOR FIRST when making a sauce. I have never found a need to thicken with a root veg. There are flavors you are already using that can do the job.
Click to expand...
 
as do I when I'm creating a new sauce I start with a desired flavor profile and then select what I put into the sauce based on how the flavor of the ingredient will add to that profile. So for a regular table sauce carrots will work just fine however if I going to make a Jamaican style then I want to use a more Jamaican ingredient so the sweet potato fits in better. As for why use a root veg in the sauce, in addition to giving the sauce the consistency that I want they also give it a creamer mouth feel that the gums do. Oh and I've never had anyone say that one of my sauces had a <place root veg name here> flavor. 
 
The Hot Pepper said:
Think of AJ's purees. They are thick. They are peppers, vinegar, agave nectar. They are a puree consistency, some may say too thick, more vinegar would make them saucier... there are no carrots or pumpkin... it's all peppers.
 
I think all these ingredients are cool if you want that flavor, but I really don't get the consistency issue. Hot sauce has been made for centuries with just peppers... thick, thin, and in between, silky, smooth, chunky. It just takes practice.
Click to expand...
 
One other reason for my use of them is that maybe 95% of my sauces are fermented and they give the mash the additional sugars so that the mash comes out of the fermentation process consistently at Ph 3.4. I have no need to add any additional acid to the sauce, well unless I need to add some lime, lemon or other juice to it to achieve the flavor profile I was aiming for. I'll generally stop the ferment early, say when the PH reaches 3.6, so that it's not coming out too acidic.
 
But, JMHO we all have out own likes and dislikes and ways we like to do things. That's why there are so many different sauces available :)
 
Cheers y'all 
 
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Yeah, if it works for you keep it up. Most sauces it is in I can definitely taste it. It tastes good but I don't always want it. That's why I have to wonder why when people ask how to thicken a sauce, they say "just add carrots." Umm, no, not unless you want a carrot flavor. That should not be rule #1 on thickening but I keep seeing it.
 
I do like it in Intensity Academy's sauces.
 
Also there was one that used to be really good. This one:
(Scotch Bonnet peppers, carrots, vinegar)
katos_down_south.jpg


I have to say, reminiscing over this sauce and others I've had carrot in, I definitely like the fresher taste of carrot than the cooked. The sauce above had a nice fresh consistency, not cooked down too much. Very simple ingredients and vibrant, with that "chunkier" consistency if you know what I mean.

Feisty Parrot also has the fresher consistency. Have you tried them?
(Carrot, Papaya, Celery, Onion, Apple Juice From Concentrate, Cider Vinegar, Lime Juice, Water, Tequila, Ghost Pepper, Garlic, Trinidad Scorpion Pepper, Salt, Spices, Xanthan Gum)
feisty_parrot_savage_beast.jpg


Everyone does it different. But I'll use them where I want the flavor. :)
 
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SmokenFire said:
I pretty much only use carrot when I am fermenting a mash to make a sauce.  Using fresh pods and vinegar only (like a louisiana or Frank's) I typically don't use carrot, just garlic and onion.
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FYI

Frank's and Louisiana are fermented. Louisiana style hot sauce is aged cayennes/tabascos (for Tabasco). :)

Louisiana brand is aged one year.:
"Whether described as Hot Sauce or Pepper Sauce the best sauces such as our Original Louisiana Brand Hot Sauce or our Louisiana Gold Pepper Sauce are aged to perfection using natural fermentation and blended to produce a fully natural product without preservatives, gums, or artificial ingredients found in the cheaper product forms. A good quality sauce with handpicked, perfectly ripened peppers that are ground and blended with salt to produce pepper mash and fermented and aged under controlled storage conditions at least one year, often longer before final processing and filling into containers that range from a two ounce bottle to a six thousand gallon tanker truck. Each year millions of pounds of peppers are purchased, stored and processed into finished product. Each year the tonnage handled increases as more consumers demand the spicy flavors of our wide variety of pepper products."

Franks:
"Frank's RedHot grows its peppers in both Mexico and in New Mexico. The peppers are then made into a mash and aged/stored in New Mexico. After the perfect aging process has taken place, the pepper mash is sent to our production plant in Springfield, Missouri, where the product is cooked and special spices are added to give your food an unbelievable surge of flavor."

:)
 
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been playing abit with the rabbit roots
Steamed
Grill on gas
Grill on wood
Oven roasted
Wood Smoked then dried
 
These rabbit roots are pretty busy with the variance of flavor they have,the more you finger print them the wider it gets
 
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