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condiment Whats the difference: puree, hot sauce, salsa, etc

Been trying to find some ways on oreserving peppers but all these names is so confusing. Maybe someone can clear things up
 
Puree is blended pepper with preservative, paste is similar but often has other ingredients to enhance the flavour. Hot sauce is basically pourable paste and salsa is a specific subset of sauce based loosely on old spanish recipes, usually with a fair bit of tomato.
 
Exact definitions are hard to come by though.
 
And to add to spice freak a salsa is always perishable and needs refrigeration whereas a hotsauce is can be shelf stable not needing refrigeration and is thinner/smoother in consistency/less chunky.
 
SavinaRed said:
And to add to spice freak a salsa is always perishable and needs refrigeration whereas a hotsauce is can be shelf stable not needing refrigeration and is thinner/smoother in consistency/less chunky.
 

I don't know, I've had some pretty naff supermarket salsas that could last basically forever. My family took them to the same neighbourhood bonfire I took the coffee salsa to and we all agreed that the supermarket stuff was inedible by comparison.
Or just in general.
 
A proper salsa, however, will rarely last long outside a fridge. That much is true.
 
Semantics aside
 
Since the OP is looking to preserve peppers I think it's safe to say:
 
1. You can freeze fresh peppers
2. You can dry peppers for pods or powders (or sauce later)
3. You can make a puree which is a limited ingredient hot sauce and thick; puree, concentrate, etc.
4. You can make a hot sauce with proper pH and bottle it
5. You can make a salsa and pressure can it like any commercial salsa you buy off the shelf
 
I agree. Depends on culture. To me salsa is the chunky tomato and onion condiment. To my Hispanic friends, salsa is bottled sauce. I call it hot sauce. I also consider purée a hot sauce. Just concentrated. For me purée is my preserve of choice. I can always make a thinner, complex, bottled sauce with it. Or, I can use it as is. I freeze my peppers until I'm ready to make a batch of purée. I also keep frozen peppers on hand for cooking through the Winter.

Hope my ramblings help. LOL


Good luck with your adventures. When in doubt refrigerate.
 
dang it- had a long post written and deleted it~~~
 
 
Check out the info here-
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/49801-chile-pepper-weights-measures-and-other-things/
 
 
What's the difference between fermenting a sauce and just cooking a sauce?
In order to be considered safe to be stored for an extended period of time, sauces need to have a low pH or be pressure canned.  pH numbers indicate the levels of acidity or alkalinity in foods or other things like hydroponics, fish tanks, etc.  Neutral pH is 7.0.  Things with a pH of above 7.0 are alkaline, things below 7.0 are acidic.  Sauces should be below 4.0 (minimum), preferable below 3.5 pH, to be considered safe to process/can/bottle and be considered shelf stable using the common Hot Fill-Hold processing method.
 
2 ways to lower the pH of foods is by fermentation or by adding acids.  Fermentation uses good bacteria to eat up the natural sugars in chiles and other produce to the point where the pH is below 4.0 and considered safe.  Kimchee and sauerkraut also use fermentation for food preservation. 
 
Fermentation requires time, anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months, but once it's properly done, the resulting product has a low pH and can be processed or refrigerated without the addition of any other vinegar or acids. 
 
The other method of getting a safe pH in a sauce or product is to simply add vinegar or lemon/lime juice to pods/produce.  Using vinegar to lower the pH is quick, the sauce can be cooked, bottled and eaten immediately.   
 
Fermenting Peppers 101 is an excellent tutorial on fermentation.
 
 
 
What is a mash?
Technically, a "mash" is anything that is ground up very fine, it refers to texture and consistency.  A "mash" does not automatically mean the ground up stuff is fermented! 
 
Lots of chiles are sold commercially as "Mash" and there are any number of combinations of ground up chiles, some with salt, some without salt, some with vinegar, some without, some fermented, some not.....It's an ongoing process to make people aware that "mash" does not mean "fermented".   A lot of people assume mash=fermented, but that is not correct. 
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most think of "salsa" as being a bit chunky, dippable with a chip, could be any flavor base,  could be fresh or shelf stable.  There are tons of canned salsa out there, and by canned I'm also referring to those in jars that are not refrigerated. Most hot sauces are more pour-able, in the narrow necked bottles.  Again, could be refrigerated or shelf stable.
 
Often, here on THP we refer to AJ's Puree, which is a concentrated smooth blend of peppers and a couple other ingredients.  Brewing topics often refer to a ground up fermented thing, but not all mashes are fermented. 
 
Hope this helps~
SL
 
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