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condiment Sauce vs Salsa

AlabamaJack

AlabamaJack

I made some salsa this morning fresh from garden peppers and tomatoes...store bought onion, cilantro mix, garlic powder, and sea salt....was wondering???? If I cook this down, can I make a hot sauce out of it?...and if I could, what would I have to do to make it?...never made any hot sauce to bottle before...

The peppers I used:
4 Orange Habs
4 Red Savina
6 Criolla Sella
1 Jalapeno (all I had)
10 Serrano
6 Aji Lemon
3 Orange Thai
2 Cayenne

Here is a picture of the ingredients I used...

072008b002.jpg


any advice would be greatly appreciatred...
 
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AlabamaJack said:
I made some salsa this morning fresh from garden peppers and tomatoes...store bought onion, cilantro mix, garlic powder, and sea salt....was wondering???? If I cook this down, can I make a hot sauce out of it?...and if I could, what would I have to do to make it?...never made any hot sauce to bottle before...

The peppers I used:
4 Orange Habs
4 Red Savina
6 Criolla Sella
1 Jalapeno (all I had)
10 Serrano
6 Aji Lemon
3 Orange Thai
2 Cayenne

Here is a picture of the ingredients I used...

072008b002.jpg


any advice would be greatly appreciatred...
Click to expand...

I would think you would need some vinegar and/or lime juice to get it to the right PH and maybe a little salt and maybe some sugar to balance it out. Bet that will taste good.
 
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Lose some of the tomatoes, add an acid, maybe another unique ingredient, cook it up. You'll get the hang of it.
 
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POTAWIE said:
Lose the Canada dry too:lol:
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ditto :lol:

& get rid of most of those tomatoes, except 1 small 1. & half of the onion at most. since you're dealing with those small ammount of chiles.

IMO tomatoes have no place in hot sauce, but thats me.

or better yet freeze those chiles until you have more to make a good batch of hot sauce.
 
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chuk hell said:
I don't agree with the "loose the tomatoes" comments. IF those are fresh homegrown tomatoes they will make some GREAT salsa.

Use fresh garlic and lime juice.
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Yeah, but he ain't makin' salsa ;)
 
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Thanks for the input all...the salsa is good but after doing a bit of reading I can see many threads concerning sauce making...

The wife is going to be gone next weekend so it will be a good time for me to make my first sauce...no tomatos...

As far as the Canada Dry goes...I like it better than the standard coke/pepsi and it is good with a little lemon and vodka...
 
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Seconded, tomatoes and smoked peppers are a perfect match!!! I am making a tomatoe based pasta sauce while I am typing this and since I don't have any smoked peppers atm, I am adding plenty of Pimento de la vera to add the smoky aroma.
 
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I disagree with the tomatoes and hot sauce. As long as the tomato is not the main ingredient they go pretty well together and the tomatoes give it a nice body sweetness. It is mainly a question of personal preferences.
 
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I like very little tomatoes in my sauce, so little that you wouldn't even know any where used. It is all trial and error until you find the right combination of flavor, consistency, and heat all in one woozie. Just because you tell somebody how you made your sauce doesn't mean they can reproduce, everybody cooks a little differently. Use your chiles in it.
 
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Totally agree with you on that one. It also depends on the sauce you make. For example if I make a BBQ hot sauce, I definitely will use tomatoes as my base. But for a more caribbean sauce I definitely will stay away from tomatoes.
 
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yeah less toms...what your probably looking for is just to add a unique flavor & pourability to the peppers, so they're your main thing.

By the time you blend the chilli (with just enough lime or vinegar to make it blend) theres not a lot of sauce so add onion, other flavors & then enough tom to make it pourable.

Way to check on that is to add 1 too many toms (if you want to put it through a sieve to remove the seeds now is the time) then simmer until you scoop it from the cooking pot and can run the sauce over itself in a thin layer {that bit is really hard to explain}.

Check the pH but if you added the vinegar/juice right at the start its going to be about 4...get it under 4 & you're on a winner.

Bottle & then wait a week...then you know if it worked.

thanks to Hunter S. for the writing style lol
 
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Hotpeppa said:
whats the differance with a salsa and a hot sauce ?
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Well, opinions vary but to me....

A "salsa" is made with fresh ingredients and is chunky and mainly meant for dipping tortilla chips in.

A "hot sauce" is cooked a bit and generally more of a "liquidly" consistency.

...but that's just me.
 
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Hotpeppa said:
whats the differance with a salsa and a hot sauce ?
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Salsa is Spanish for sauce. Americans shortened "salsa picante". I had a friend once that bought a can of Goya Tomato Salsa, and he said "this isn't spicy!" lol. I told him it was tomato sauce. But salsa to Americans is the chip dip stuff, and sauce is the pour on stuff. What Chuk said, but salsas can also be smooth, which I like better than chunky.
 
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Agree with what Chuck and THP said...I blend my salsa pretty much to make it "non-chunky"...blend peppers/cilantro/fresh garlic first and blend, then add onion & blend, then add tomato and blend...isn't real smooth but not chunky either...matter of fact, I am going to make some now to take to work with me today...

Thanks for the sauce tip Bent...I will be trying to make some within the next week or so...
 
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AlabamaJack said:
Agree with what Chuck and THP said...I blend my salsa pretty much to make it "non-chunky"...blend peppers/cilantro/fresh garlic first and blend, then add onion & blend, then add tomato and blend...isn't real smooth but not chunky either...matter of fact, I am going to make some now to take to work with me today...

Thanks for the sauce tip Bent...I will be trying to make some within the next week or so...
Click to expand...
Yeah, I definitely like blended a lot better than diced.
 
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