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flavor Flavors that compliment / portioning ingredients

hey all - 
 
recently started making hot sauce as a hobby. I don't usually use the superhots, mainly jalapeno and habanero. I have two questions:
 
1) When making sauce how do you know which flavors compliment one another? Is this mainly trial and error? I haven't done much cooking, as i'm new to this, but I didn't want to create waste by not having a general idea of things that would compliment one another. 
 
2) When making a sauce how do you determine the approximate portioning of ingredients (i.e, how much onion to how many peppers etc) 

I realize both of these questions are mainly "trial and error" situations, I just grew up in a large italian family that forbid food waste haha, thanks for any help!
 
Complement. :D
 
You may want to try combining two or more taste sensations.
 
Sweet
Sour
Salty
Bitter
Umami
 
You can also think of combos that already exist. Tomatoes, basil, garlic. Tequila, lime, salt, sweetener (that's from a margarita but doesn't mean it wouldn't work well in a sauce). Etc!
 
Have fun!
 
Welcome To THP.  Where in NJ are you?  I am a couple of years into making sauces and have done only pretty basic combos so far.  A generic recipe I use calls for 3/4 cup of onion for every 10 0z of peppers(not super hots).  As the boss said, make your owns and see what you like.  Good luck.
 
The first sauce I made consisted of Peppers, Garlic, Onions and Vinegar, which is a pretty simple mix that can't really go wrong
 
I'd say start with something simple, with not too many ingredients, and then the next batch you do you can add or remove things and see the taste difference for yourself
 
It won't be long until you are at your 10th batch and know what you are doing a little more
 
Some is just looking at other existing flavor combinations and putting your own twist on it and using what you have/like. 
 
Pepperfool.com has a long list of recipes of sauces that "someone/somewhere" made and liked enough to post the recipe.  Even if you don't follow the recipe exactly, it's good reading.  Just looking through a bunch of recipes will give you an idea of what flavors others like and work well together. 
 
Have Fun!
 
"Cooking" in general involves ingredients that taste good together by those consuming them
All the "recipes" in the world will not cover the diverse taste preferences of the mass's
 
From that perspective  there you can bounce off of known acceptable combinations of flavors
Cook whats good to you,after the fact focus towards those you feel closest to regarding the effort to cater their likes.
Folks are whiny ass crazy these days and they aint worth the effort!
 
I searched online for a few examples of minimal ingredient recipes (chilis, garlic, vinegar, salt, water) and used that as my starting point. I sort of averaged them all out to get an idea of garlic/vinegar/salt to chili ratios. I'm still experimenting a lot with all of my ideas. It takes a long time to get through the experimentation phase before you settle on a completed recipe. Just like learning a musical instrument, sauce making and recipe development takes practice. 
 
Speaking of music, does anyone else on here mess with multitrack audio recording? I find myself constantly comparing sauce recipe development to mixing audio tracks.
 
Big Al said:
Speaking of music, does anyone else on here mess with multitrack audio recording? I find myself constantly comparing sauce recipe development to mixing audio tracks.
 
Excellent comparison.  It's like trying to find the right balance between all the highs and lows, with the peppers out front and everything else in their proper places.
 
Add and taste in small batches when trying to develop a certain flavor profile. And don't be afraid to experiment. Some of my best sauces have come from combos that I don't normally use. And as they say, practice makes perfect. Eventually lol. As long as yer having fun :)
 
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