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Basic hot sauce question

crazy8

crazy8

So quite a few weeks ago I made my own sauce. Since then I have been looking for xanthan gum and have not found it in any of my local grocery stores yet. Before I get into that that, let me tell you about my sauce. Its just made out of Cayenne I fallowed a very simple basic recipe and just through it in a pot after running the peppers through a food processor.

After the cayenne was ready I used a cheese cloth and poured all the peppers into it and then wrapped it up in a ball and squeezed all of the juice out so that I was left with the juice only. I ended up keeping the juice and the left over solids, but in separate jars.

I noticed the other day in my hot sauce jar that it had separated. There is, what appears to be, an oil on the top layer and real nice orange/red stuff settled on the bottom layer. So here was my thoughts.

1) What are the substances in each layer?
2) Is the top layer just some kind of oil and the bottom layer where all the heat and flavor is?
3) Should I add xanthan gum so that everything holds together and not separate?
4) Can/should I remove the substance at the top layer and just use the good looking stuff that has settled on the bottom as my hot sauce?
5) Does anyone know of a reliable online source to purchase xanthan gum?
6) Is it worth keeping the solids I have sealed in a jar? Can it be used for anything or should I just toss it? How long would it be good for is I have sealed it in a jar?


Hopefully this isn't a lot to ask. This is my first attempt at hot sauce, hence all the questions and VERY simple recipe/methods used. So it would be nice to use this first attempt as a learning experience since I would love to make more sauces.
 
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Wait, so you separated the solids and liquids? Then which is the sauce? I don't get it.
 
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He is using the liquid part as the sauce and the solid part he asked hoW he could use that. You could probably dry it out and use it as powder but yeah why separate them in the first place, they add texture and flavour to the sauce AFAIK.
 
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That's weird man! A sauce is peppers, not pepper liquid. You need to cook the sauce longer until it is one.
 
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Co-signed with the above. Grind it more (maybe a blender is better) and cook it and leave the solids in there.

Yeah, xanthan gum will help prevent separation. The lager gourmet grocery stores should carry it.

Keep it in the fridge. If plenty of vinegar it should last a year or more... if kept in the fridge.
 
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chuk hell said:
Co-signed with the above. Grind it more (maybe a blender is better) and cook it and leave the solids in there.

Yeah, xanthan gum will help prevent separation. The lager gourmet grocery stores should carry it.

Keep it in the fridge. If plenty of vinegar it should last a year or more... if kept in the fridge.
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chuck,

thanks for the tip.(about xanthum gum). I was hesitating to use it but since you are better experienced than me , I will take your advice blindly.
Next batch of DEAD MOUTH sauce will be with xanthum gum.

I usually use off my sauce before they had a chance to get divorced into different layers.
But since I have some commercial idea in mind, your tip is most useful.

Thanks buddy

NJA
 
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Some sauces will seperate over time but in this case it likely seperating right away since all the solids/pulp is taken out leaving just thin pepper juices and vinegar
 
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wow all sorts of great info. Well just to clear it up I know I should have used a blender so I will be sure to do that next time. I also know that in most cases you want to leave the solids mixed in but the chunks may have been slightly bigger then I would have liked and I also was shooting for a buffalo kind of sauce when is why I used only cayenne and only the liquid. I also dont currently have it in a fridge so perhaps I will do that when I get back from my weekend of hunting :D
 
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Buffalo style sauce isn't pepper liquid separated from pepper solids. It's aged cayenne peppers (fermented) mixed with vinegar.
 
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As they all said before, its just a simple seperation of the pepper liquid and your other ingredients such as vinegar.

When/if you use xantham gum, as I tell all people use it wisely and very very little. A pinch can go a long way.
 
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Novacastrian said:
He is using the liquid part as the sauce and the solid part he asked hoW he could use that. You could probably dry it out and use it as powder but yeah why separate them in the first place, they add texture and flavour to the sauce AFAIK.
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thehotpepper.com said:
That's weird man! A sauce is peppers, not pepper liquid. You need to cook the sauce longer until it is one.
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I'm kinda new to sauce making myself so, just for clarity, you guys don't filter/strain your sauce at all? You blend it enough to pulverize everything, including the seeds?
 
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DownRiver said:
I'm kinda new to sauce making myself so, just for clarity, you guys don't filter/strain your sauce at all? You blend it enough to pulverize everything, including the seeds?
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There really is no reason for filtering or straining sauce. You want to leave all that goodness in there. If something needs to be filtered out, it probably shouldn't have been used to begin with.
 
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Well I will be sure to get one of those really good blenders, hopefully I dont need to drop hundreds on it, and that way I will be able to whack the hell out it. Thanks again for all the input. Maybe I can marry the solids back with the liquid in my blender and see if that helps.
 
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