Help me find a good first sauce recipe

Scuba_Steve · Jul 17, 2015

This is my first sauce. I want to make a pineapple based sauce. No oranges. My wife is allergic.

I have 8 ripe 7 pots I just picked for the pepper portion. I don't need to use them all, but that is what I have.

Bottling will be in 5 oz bottles. I have dripper caps too if needed.

I prefer it to be shelf stable. I have a cheap pH meter as well.

Also I prefer to keep this as simple as possible.

I do not care if I have to ferment or not.

Thanks!

SavinaRed · Jul 17, 2015

Do you want to have a yellow, red or an orange sauce ?

salsalady · Jul 17, 2015

what heat level do you want?

Scuba_Steve · Jul 17, 2015

Color doesn't matter much, but I suppose red or yellow. Heat level should be pretty high, but not excruciating. I'm hoping for 3 bottles, so about 2 cups.
Also, I want to stay as fluid as possible.
If I need to quantify the heat I would say between 500k-800k.

salsalady · Jul 17, 2015

to get a 500k-800k sauce, 3/4 of the stuff in the sauce would have to be 7 Pot pods. With the 8 you have, that would be maybe one bottle. Not to worry, though, those 7 pods will still light up 3 bottles, probably more than what you may expect.

Using fresh pineapple will give it quite a bit of fiber and you said you wanted a more liquid sauce. If you don't have a pineapple that needs to be used up so it doesn't go to waste, I'd use pineapple juice.

1 1/2 cups pineapple juice
1/8 cup minced shallot or onion
2 garlic cloves
1 yellow bell pepper (small) or 1/2 a bell pepper and 1/2 a carrot
1/2 tsp salt
all the 7 Pots
1/3 cup rice vinegar (unseasoned)
1/8 tsp ginger powder or a piece of fresh ginger about the size of a quarter in diameter and 1/8th inch thick
1 Tbsp sugar (optional)

Follow the direcions in Hot Sauce 101. Cook it up well, blender the snot out of it, run it through a food mill if you don't want the pulp....

Let us know how it goes, post pics!

Scuba_Steve · Jul 17, 2015

Thank you very much! Sounds delicious. I will start working on it tomorrow and post back here! Hopefully quite a few of my 7 pots still on the plant will finish ripening up so I could include more. They were very close a few days ago. If so I will cut back on the bell slightly to compensate.

SmokenFire · Jul 17, 2015

That's a killer recipe you gave out SL. Very well done.

salsalady · Jul 17, 2015

Thanks SnF. Just winged it.

Scuba~ with this small of a batch, it would be very easy for you to stick it in the refer overnight to see what the flavors are the next day. Tweak it if needed, then bottle. Sometimes with larger batches, dealing with cooling and reheating is a pita, but with 3 bottles worth, easy to do. \

PS- Disclaimer- This is not a recipe I have actully made, but is similar to many I've made and similar to recipes others have posted. This is what I would start out with, but make adjustments as you like.

OH! Also, for a slightly sweeter sauce, use apple instead of yellow bell.

apple with carrot would still make a beautifully colored sauce.

FROG DOG · Jul 18, 2015

for your fist sauce i would go with the KISS method....the more you add to it the harder it will be to understand what you like or don't like in the sauce, the simpler the recipe the easier it will be to know what to add to the sauce next time. It could be as simple as Pineapple juice, salt, vinegar, chile.

I don't know but this is how i started

SavinaRed · Jul 18, 2015

Sometimes simple is better. Today my son really liked my Caribbean Red sauce I made. All I used was about 30 peppers, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar,4 tomatoes from the garden, onion, garlic and salt. He liked it because it wasn't sweet or fruity like I normally make my sauces and the flavor of the pepper really stood out more than anything else.

SavinaRed · Jul 18, 2015

This is one of the things I enjoy the most with growing peppers is making sauces out of them. Enjoy the hot sauce making as you will experiment with many ingredients to come up with your own sauce that you enjoy using with your food.

Scuba_Steve · Jul 18, 2015

Here they are! Turns out after straining to make a liquid sauce and reducing I only got 2 bottles worth. The apple I started with more but ended up with even less. In my little taste test they both taste very good. Also they both turned out orange, but I really could care less.

Pineapple Grenade:
10 whole 7 Pot Red Peppers destemmed
1 whole Yellow Bell Pepper destemmed and deseeded
1.5 cups Pineapple Juice
1/3 cup Unseasoned Rice Vinegar
1/8 cup Minced Shallots
2 cloves Garlic
1 small piece of fresh Ginger
1 tbsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt

Apple Explosion:
3 Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate Peppers destemmed
1 Carrot peeled
1 cup Pure Apple Juice
3/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tbsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt

salsalady · Jul 19, 2015

Very Nice! Looks nice and smooth and the color is great.

SmokenFire · Jul 19, 2015

Glad you tried a could different recipes SS. Both look good - which one do you like better?

tsurrie · Jul 19, 2015

Tasty looking sauce - both of them. Very good first sauce making.

I don't know why but I often make sauces too dense. Gotta shake the bottle so hard for it to poor out or use a spoon for the ones in jars.
Maybe I should use less carrot?

Scuba_Steve · Jul 19, 2015

I think I like the apple more. It is hotter as well, even though it only had 3 peppers vs the 10 in the pineapple. They were a lot larger peppers though.

As for the density, I strained all solids out. I am using drippers on the top of the bottles and the thickness is perfect for them.

salsalady · Jul 19, 2015

tsurrie said:
Tasty looking sauce - both of them. Very good first sauce making.

I don't know why but I often make sauces too dense. Gotta shake the bottle so hard for it to poor out or use a spoon for the ones in jars.
Maybe I should use less carrot?

carrots and apples are natural thickeners along with squash/pumpkin, and yams. Probably yes, use a bit less, or add more liquid (juice, water, vinegar,?)

tsurrie · Jul 19, 2015

salsalady said:
carrots and apples are natural thickeners along with squash/pumpkin, and yams. Probably yes, use a bit less, or add more liquid (juice, water, vinegar,?)

yeah, but I always fear it would not be as hot as I'd like, so there's my problem solver - use less carrots or add more peppers and liquid