carrots carrots everywhere

[turbo]

I've noticed that many (most) hot sauce recipes have carrots in them.  I'm curious why?  Is it a taste thing?  Texture thing?  Chemical composition thing?  Because the other guy puts them in there thing?
 
This isn't a criticism of carrots.  I'm just curious why so much carrots.

 

[PrimeTime]

sugar, body/texture id say, some flavor but more sugar, body in my opinion. I use them in mashes but have stopped adding them to fresh sauce as i haven't noticed them adding anything I was looking for.

 

[daddytindell]

I was actually wondering this myself....noticed everybody was using them. i just figured it was more of a filler than anything.

 

[OCD Chilehead]

I throw carrots in my salsa. Its a flavor thing for me. It also adds some color. I think in hot sauce it's flavor as well as consistency. I'm just guessing here.

 

[turbo]

I'm glad I asked.  I've only made fresh hot sauces, never fermented ones.  I added carrots to one of my sauces once (I saw everyone else using it...peer pressure you know) and I didn't like the color it turned the sauce and didn't really notice a difference in flavor.  But I kept wondering if I was doing something wrong in my sauce process because I didn't use carrots

 

[SmokenFire]

I rarely use carrot in any fresh sauce and/or salsa, but I use em every damn time in ferments that I make.  Peppers alone don't usually have a lot of sugar available, so adding carrots and some sweet onion really helps boost available fructose for the lacto bacteria to use.  I've also had good success replacing the carrot with sweet potato.  Bottom line is that in most ferments (and also in cooked sauces) a bit of carrot tends to round out the other flavors in the dish, which is a great thing.  IMO.  

 

[salsalady]

Carrots lend sugar/sweetness to a sauce and also have emulsifying properties.  Others have mentioned consistency, and that's usually what carrots are used for, if the flavor of the carrots works with the rest of the ingredients in the sauce.  They help thicken and sweeten the sauce. 

 

[Somatic]

Carrots are a fantastic way to add sweetness to a sauce. My last sauce of habs, long reds, apple, brown onion, garlic, carrot had too much carrot though and I found the carrot overpowering until about a week later when the flavours had mellowed.
I would have thrown it out otherwise, I do not recommend carrot sauce for anything!

 

[turbo]

Sugar...who knew?  Totally makes sense.  I'm actually planning on starting my first ferment today.  I'm going with a strawberry, mango, hab, red jalapeno, manzano, and ginger mix.  Should be plenty of sugar with the fruit to sustain the fermentation process.
 
Thanks for the info everyone.  Big help!