Hit a little over a pound of pods from my first Habanero plant, and it was a Friday evening… so, here we go.
More to follow.
More to follow.
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in-the-kitchen First Habanero-based sauce is in the pot.
- Thread starter INTLgunMonkey
- Start date
So, here’s how I got from there to here.
Habaneros are new for me (previous hitters were cayenne and Tabasco, some Thais), and I’ve never tried to do a sauce in the fruity space- so I was kind of starting over in my notebook.
My goal was a catsup-thick, spoon/fork sauce, that was in the fruity space rather than the onion/garlic space I normally play, to start to learn what habaneros were all about.
I went to my current cayenne-sriracha type thing’s page to get a starting point on the acids. I kept mixing and tasting until I kinda burnt myself out and stopped adjusting for rev.1.
I ended up at, before my tongue was no longer really useful:
1.1# Habaneros, chopped, seeds in
15oz canned peaches, juice not syrup, drianed
1 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp all-spice
Habaneros are new for me (previous hitters were cayenne and Tabasco, some Thais), and I’ve never tried to do a sauce in the fruity space- so I was kind of starting over in my notebook.
My goal was a catsup-thick, spoon/fork sauce, that was in the fruity space rather than the onion/garlic space I normally play, to start to learn what habaneros were all about.
I went to my current cayenne-sriracha type thing’s page to get a starting point on the acids. I kept mixing and tasting until I kinda burnt myself out and stopped adjusting for rev.1.
I ended up at, before my tongue was no longer really useful:
1.1# Habaneros, chopped, seeds in
15oz canned peaches, juice not syrup, drianed
1 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp all-spice
Blended, but not cooked or separated, that came out to 3.8ph, so I decided I was OK to start cooking and would end up in a good place.
Total volume was 5 cups. I brought it to a boil, and simmered for 45 minutes- ran an immersion blender in it a couple times to help it break down.
At that point, I put it through the food mill, on the medium plate, and the only thing that got stopped was the crunched up seeds. I took my sample to chill for a final ph check and room-temp tasting while the rest simmered for canning.
I ended up at 3.7
The final taste was at least mostly what I was aiming for- but maybe a bit too much fruit.
It’s not sweet, but the initial taste is almost 100% fruit. Like, you could play some mean tricks on people with this. Your nose and tongue say “peach” (or at least mine did after a couple hours of hot sauce tasting and smelling), but after about 2 seconds, the heat starts to come on, and it’s no slouch- at least it’s hotter than anything I’ve ever made.
I ended up with six 1/4pts.
That puts about 5 whole habaneros in each jar.
I almost added some brown sugar in the initial mix, just on gut, but I’m glad I didn’t. I could totally see how a lot of people would prefer that, and I’m certain my wife’s feedback is going to point to some added sugar, but I tend not to like sweetness where I don’t think sweetness belongs.
Tomorrow, after my tongue recovers and I get to use this, I’ll start to make notes for rev.2.
Open to input from anyone who’s gone down the fruityhot path in their own notebooks.
Total volume was 5 cups. I brought it to a boil, and simmered for 45 minutes- ran an immersion blender in it a couple times to help it break down.
At that point, I put it through the food mill, on the medium plate, and the only thing that got stopped was the crunched up seeds. I took my sample to chill for a final ph check and room-temp tasting while the rest simmered for canning.
I ended up at 3.7
The final taste was at least mostly what I was aiming for- but maybe a bit too much fruit.
It’s not sweet, but the initial taste is almost 100% fruit. Like, you could play some mean tricks on people with this. Your nose and tongue say “peach” (or at least mine did after a couple hours of hot sauce tasting and smelling), but after about 2 seconds, the heat starts to come on, and it’s no slouch- at least it’s hotter than anything I’ve ever made.
I ended up with six 1/4pts.
That puts about 5 whole habaneros in each jar.
I almost added some brown sugar in the initial mix, just on gut, but I’m glad I didn’t. I could totally see how a lot of people would prefer that, and I’m certain my wife’s feedback is going to point to some added sugar, but I tend not to like sweetness where I don’t think sweetness belongs.
Tomorrow, after my tongue recovers and I get to use this, I’ll start to make notes for rev.2.
Open to input from anyone who’s gone down the fruityhot path in their own notebooks.
Looks great!
Not much input except I prefer fresh fruit (or frozen) over canned. Not a snobby type thing, it's that certain canned fruits like peaches and pears when pureed into sauce can taste like baby food. You have to add more acid to get away from that, so it's really tangy, or you have to kick up the savory. I find when using fresh fruit, even when you can't get the really ripe stuff , or in season stuff, it works a lot better for hot sauce, and if I need it sweeter I caramelize it on a griddle or grill (which I like to do anyway). As an example of a canned sauce that works wonders in hot sauce; pineapple. Peaches, the canned stuff, never really liked. I'd try your version in a second though!
Try frozen peach slices!
Interesting.
I’m not sure I understand the tasting like baby food part. Like, I would normally think of that descriptor to mean bland. If anything, in this case, I’ve got more vivid fruit flavor than I think I wanted.
As it is, the initial bite is like peach-applesauce… and then it lights up. Is that maybe the baby food aspect you’re talking about? Because I do think baby food when I think applesauce.
Regardless the source, I think v2 will have at least 25% less fruit. The cinnamon and allspice are about good where they’re at, but I may adjust them slightly.
You’re totally right about pineapple. If I’d had that, I probably would have tried it. I think I’d also like to try apricot. Crazy thing is that I had one good sized homegrown nectarine in the fridge left, but totally forgot about it.
Regardless, I think this is going to be notes at this point. I’m pretty sure my 2nd experiment is going to be with yellow-mustard.
Event since these habaneros started coming in a couple weeks ago, I’ve been chopping it up and adding it to mustard for brats, hot dogs, hamburgers and eggs (we have chickens, so eat lots of eggs), and can’t get enough of it. I think I want to try the inverse, a savory habanero sauce cut with mustard, rather than the other way around.
Pretty much!
That's a Caribbean style hot sauce. Scotch bonnets or habaneros with mustard.