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Help! my sauce is very bitter. What can I do?

J

jend404

Hello I recently harvested 200+ habaneros from my garden. I made a sauce with them

Recipe
Water, Fresh Habaneros, Smoked Habaneros, Tequila, White Vinegar, Pomegranate Vinegar, Sea Salt.

All boiled down and pureed

The finish is quite bitter. I think because the peppers themselves are a bit bitter. It is my first year in NC and the soil here is very acidic and a lot of the fruits peppers, tomatoes, etc... have come out quite tart.

Question is though, what can I do about this flavor? I tried sugar on a small portion and it just makes it bitter-sweet.

Help! I have a huge batch and really wanted to gift basket this year at Xmas

thanks!
Jen
 
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the pomegranate vinegar isnt helping the bitterness, that's for sure. i would add some garlic, onion, and as THP said...salt. Maybe some honey. Also, have you considered a fat? Try adding a little olive oil to some and see how that goes. Maybe some other full flavor oil?
 
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add some honey - not only will it sweeten the sauce but it is a natural preservative (honey never goes out of date!)

with two types of vinegar and salt it's not surprising your sauce has a sharp taste to it. white vinegar is harsh at the best of times.

welcome to THP - you came to the right place!!!
 
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I am a total chili head and I am addicted to hot and spicy!! I am so very glad to be here thank you!!!

But I think the "bitter" is not related to the "sour" of the vinegars.

Do you know how to combat this?

thanks
jen
 
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okie joe said:
When I do some of my sauces and I want to calm the hab taste down and not lose any heat add carrots. It will amaze you what they will do
Click to expand...
I am kinda new to making sauces myself but I have added carrots like Okie Joe said and it works.I also add a sweet type of pepper(ie sweet red bell sweet orange bell etc etc) of the same color as the sauce to off set some of the bitterness.But thats just me!!
As a matter of fact I made a grren hot sauce with Jalapenos
Numex Big Jims and some green Tabascos today and I offset it with some green Tollies sweet Italian peppers and It came out good.Used garlic and onion as well.
 
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jend404 said:
Recipe
Water, Fresh Habaneros, Smoked Habaneros, Tequila, White Vinegar, Pomegranate Vinegar, Sea Salt.

The finish is quite bitter. I think because the peppers themselves are a bit bitter. It is my first year in NC and the soil here is very acidic and a lot of the fruits peppers, tomatoes, etc... have come out quite tart.

Question is though, what can I do about this flavor?

Help! I have a huge batch and really wanted to gift basket this year at Xmas
Click to expand...

well it sounds like your out of luck IMO, you already made the sauce. IMO use that sauce for yourself & make a new batch.

I highly doubt that taste came from the soil!
more likely it came from the tequila, cheap basic white vinegar & pomegranate vinegar.

- get rid of the tequila or use very little of it for taste if you really want it.
- stop using that cheap basic vinegar, try using wine vinegar or apple vinegar or some other better flavored vinegars!
- pomegranate vinegar, didnt know they made that, but they're kinda tart tasting.

- lime juice works kinda like vinegar & has a better flavor, but still add some better vinegar to your sauce for the added protection.
- the list of ingredients could go on & on as for what you could add to your sauce to have a better flavor.
look around on this forum as to what others use, then take what you like & try that out, its all trial & error when it comes to hot sauce.

but if you want to use tequila, I'm just guessing now never did tequila sauce. get rid of the cheap vinegar & do white wine vinegar w/fresh lime juice, salt, cilantro , garlic, onion, honey ? (I just like a little honey flavor) & get rid of the pomegranate vinegar.

best of luck to you & hope you get it all figured out so you can give some great X-mas hot sauce.



chilliman64 said:
add some honey - not only will it sweeten the sauce but it is a natural preservative (honey never goes out of date!)
Click to expand...


well thats pure honey, yes pure honey doesnt spoil.
I dont know about honey mixed with other ingredients & dont know if honey is really any kind of preservative.
 
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HotPeppersFlyFishing said:
I am kinda new to making sauces myself but I have added carrots like Okie Joe said and it works.I also add a sweet type of pepper(ie sweet red bell sweet orange bell etc etc) of the same color as the sauce to off set some of the bitterness.But thats just me!!
As a matter of fact I made a grren hot sauce with Jalapenos
Numex Big Jims and some green Tabascos today and I offset it with some green Tollies sweet Italian peppers and It came out good.Used garlic and onion as well.
Click to expand...

yep, mixing with carrots is good. onions are good too. and, I have to also agree that I used sweet capsicums in my last sauce and that turned out to be a good result also.
 
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If you have "Vidalia" onions available to you where you live, (here in North Florida, they're a major crop), I've found that when I blend them to a pulp and then dehydrate them and re-blend them into powder. The resulting powder is almost as sweet as sugar. I add that to quite a few things that I make to sweeten them some without sugar since I'm Diabetic. It works fantastic.

During the summer here, the Vidalias are so abundant that they almost give them away. I keep my dehydrator running for weeks.
 
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jend404 said:
Hello I recently harvested 200+ habaneros from my garden. I made a sauce with them

Recipe
Water, Fresh Habaneros, Smoked Habaneros, Tequila, White Vinegar, Pomegranate Vinegar, Sea Salt.

All boiled down and pureed

The finish is quite bitter. I think because the peppers themselves are a bit bitter. It is my first year in NC and the soil here is very acidic and a lot of the fruits peppers, tomatoes, etc... have come out quite tart.

I would think that tequila boiled down would turn extremely bitter, maybe a more neutral alchohol, or none at all?
Click to expand...
 
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