consistency natural thickening

[CAUDLE]

what do you guys use to thicken your hot sauce?

 

[dragonsfire]

Dont, I use dried peppers/fruit to suck up extra moisture, but in general I dont get thin sauces. If one puts too much water in their then if you cooking it some people use Xanthan gum.

 

[CAUDLE]

Okay thank you, i need to take out water from recipe 

 

[MikeUSMC]

Just cook it down to the consistency that you like. Remember that it'll still thicken up a little bit after it cools down

 

[Gorizza]

Okay thank you, i need to take out water from recipe 

 
Haha, yep. If you add water its gunna be wet.
 
 
Thats good advice about using dry ingredients where possible though. I hadn't considered dehydrating my fruits before adding them to the sauce.

 

[salsalady]

Lots of ingredients have natural thick being traits. Carrot, apple, yam, squash, pumpkin, okra...And lots of those will help the flavor of the sauce also. If you need to add liquid, try to add something that will help the flavor like fruit juice or a different flavor vinegar.

Have fun!
SL

 

[geeme]

Just one point about using ingredients vs. cooking down. Cooking down will generally dullen the colors and reduce the heat level. IMO, better to keep the color as bright as possible and why in the world would anyone want to reduce the heat more than needed????    So yah, I'll second using other ingredients instead of cooking down. 

 

[MikeUSMC]

why in the world would anyone want to reduce the heat more than needed????    So yah, I'll second using other ingredients instead of cooking down.

Won't adding more ingredients reduce the heat more too? Unless you're adding more pods? You'd still be lowering the ratio of peppers in the total volume of the batch, as a whole, right? Plus, when you cook it, you're cooking the water and capsaicin out, on top of that. It's like you're scaling the heat back in 2 different ways

I'm just saying, when I want to tone down the heat of a sauce, I add more (non-pepper) ingredients to "bulk it up" a little
Not trying to be difficult!

Salsalady's got a good list of thickeners up there, and you could also add parsnips and sweet potato. I still stand by my vote to cook it down/reduce it

 

[CAUDLE]

Just one point about using ingredients vs. cooking down. Cooking down will generally dullen the colors and reduce the heat level. IMO, better to keep the color as bright as possible and why in the world would anyone want to reduce the heat more than needed????    So yah, I'll second using other ingredients instead of cooking dow
thank you very much.I do not want to cook I would rather keep the heat than not. I want to keep it as natural as possible also. I think i added to much water on this batch 

 

[salsalady]

Unless the sauce is straight reapers, which isn't really a sauce just pepper puree... There is always another hotter pepper that can be thrown in the pot to counter any perceived loss of heat from adding other ingredients.

If you're making a jalapeño sauce with apples, toss in one habanero, a pinch of 7 Pot, one nice fatalii or other. One or two pods shouldn't change the flavor significantly but the heat boost will make ya feel better.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Won't adding more ingredients reduce the heat more too? Unless you're adding more pods?

 
Yup adding more mass will reduce the heat by volume more than any would escape through cooking.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Okay thank you, i need to take out water from recipe

 
You could be using too much vinegar. Vinegar is 5% acetic acid diluted with 95% water. If you want to share your recipe we can help.

 

[ColdSmoke]

try fruit pectin