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Hot Sauce question

habaneroheat81

habaneroheat81

I have been making a hot sauce for about 4 years and the people that order it love it on their eggs, chicken wings, burgers etc. However, I have been told by a few people, that seem to have more knoweledge than I do on hot sauces, that it is missing something that would make the sauce great and be marketable. I have taken their advice and have tried numerous fruits that may help. It is a roasted pepper sauce with fresh roasted tomatoes. I have tried strawberries but they were to sweet; raspberries but to bitter; black berries and blueberries but they were just awful; even kiwis and appricots but they did nothing for the flavor and really mellowed out the heat. I even tried to mix the raspberry and strawberry together and it went ok, but not great. I use Apple Cider vinegar to lower ph and still give it a little flavor. I tried mandarines and it worked alright but i was still told that it needed more flavor. Organes are to sweet also. If anyone has an idea of an ingredient that I have not mentioned that wouldn't over power the roasted flavor of the sauce that would be great. Thanks,
Aaron
 
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If you want a fruity taste maybe pears,apple and figs. Wouldn't hurt to even try a small amount of puree'd prune for depth.

Or a large amount of fresh herb's with a soft taste like apple or pear?

Have you ever tried dragon fruit? Not something that would be commercially viable but it sounds like your keen on the fruit theme.


I'd try a reduction of caramelized onion and mushrooms, artichoke hearts, flat leaf parsley, roasted tomato and roasted peppers. That's if its a breakfast sauce for eggs. yuuum
 
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Have you tired roasted onions and garlic to add some depth to the peppers and tomatoes? Do you think it needs salt? Try red wine vinegar in this also, instead of ACV. ACV is my least favorite for hot sauce.
 
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Thanks for the advice. As you have mentioned, Timmmy newbie, the dragon fruit is not a commercial fruit so I never really considered it. Next time I am at the farmers market I will see if they have some there. I do roast fresh garlic cloves with my peppers plus I carmelize my onions. I will try red wine vinegar instead of ACV the next time I make a batch. I did however try roasting a pineapple and put some of that in there and I tried fresh pineapple. The roasted pineapple tasted much better than anything so far.
I think I just stumbled onto something people could eat for eggs or chicken wings by "accident" but I was more looking for a wing sauce. If after I finish this sauce it happens to be good on eggs then awesome. Personally I don't like anything for breakfast unless its smothered in gravy and some sort of heat like a sauce or chili powder :drooling: . I will keep trying, next papaya. I made a 3 gallon batch just so I can try different things with it. 1 gallon down, two more to go.
 
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Wing sauces have a fat element like butter or cream, and have a good tang from the vinegar.
 
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Hi, I would assume that you already use sliced or grated carrot, this time of year you can also find the yellow and red varieties, thats a key element and gives natural sweetness and body in most of my thicker sauces, I'm also found of Cane vinegar and evapoated cane juice if you can find, as already said and I agree ACV is also my least favorite, I've tried Malt vinegar in some caribbean sauces and Rice Wine vinegar with either apple, pear or pineapple based, its actually pretty good. My food mill is a "gem" when using raisens, prunes, blueberries, or anything with a skin, that helps make the sauce smooth...hope this info helps... theres alot of good help and ideas on this site...good luck and have fun
 
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Lots of great suggestions, pineapple, mango, papaya, all great sauce ingredients but what is the flavor profile your looking for? What is the flavor that comes into your mind when you think if your sauce? Is it a sweet or a fruity sweetness? Do you want a sauce that is more sweet or more savory but with some underlying sweetness? There are a lot of way to accomplish the same thing and without knowing your ingredients it's hard to suggest what you should try. If you have tried all of those fruits and none of them work then maybe you just need a little honey or Agave Nectar. Loose the ACV and try Lime or Lemon juice to reduce ph. You'll get the fruitiness from them with sweet form the honey / agave. What are you using to get the consistency, carrots, try sweet potatoes instead. A lot of different ways to achieve your goal.

When I'm working on a new sauce idea I always keep the flavor profile in the front of my mind and as I think about what I'm adding I pull that flavor into that profile and try to imagine how it adds to or takes away from it. Once I have the base for my sauce it's just a matter of tweaking it and don't forget that alot of difference can come from just a little salt or lime juice. Once you have it dialed in write it down so you don't ever forget. I like to keep a journal so I can not down a note when I change something.

Cheers,
RM
 
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The flavor I was looking for was never supposed to be sweet. That's probably why I have been having such a hard time. Wasn't supposed to be fruity either. When I started making this sauce I wanted to do something that was different. That's when I decided to roast most the ingredients. Then I wanted to add to the roasted flavor. After i took the peppers, tomatoes, and garlic out I chopped them and let them simmer in ACV and tomato juice meanwhile I caramelized my onions and threw them in to simmer as well. Then pureed and seasoned. Oh and no seeds. As it is I have sold a gallon of this sauce to an individual already, but that doesn't mean its a marketable sauce. The other problem I have is that not to many people at the establishment I work at can handle the heat. Which is odd because the hottest Pepper in it is habaneros. Hopefully I answered/commented on all the questions and thanks for all continued advice.
Aaron
 
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Hmmm maybe the tomatoes and veggies are throwing it off for you. Does it taste Italian, or like V8? Try ditching the tomatoes and some of the veggies and making it pepper-based.

One other thing, maybe you are after smokiness. Have you tried smoking instead of roasting?
 
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+1 boss
it could be that the sweetness your looking for is what you would get from some sweet peppers. You could do as the boss suggested and ditch the toms or reducing the amount and substitute with fire roasted peppers. Red Bell Peppers or Pimintos would be nice and sweet, add to the consistency and color of the sauce.

IMHO you should try it with out the ACV too, unless you really love the flavor of it, as it could be the vinegar flavor thats messing it up. Lime juice will do the same thing. I had a couple of sauces that I used ACV in before I started fermenting that when I switched it made all the difference to the flavor.

Cheers,
RM
 
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Dropping the tomato and not replacing will bring up the pepper ration and your co-workers will really burn then. Try lime or lemon juice as suggested and as also suggested some sweet peppers to balance out the heat and give it body.
 
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Sounds like your on to a good start, but it's going to be hard getting to the finish line if your not sure what flavor profile your looking for. I have a cabinet dedicated just to spices, herbs, and seasonings so when I make a sauce I typically start off with a "spice mix" first and then add that to my pepper concentrate and then decide on a base. It seems like you have a sauce that's looking for a flavor profile instead of the other way around.

For example my buddy really wanted to make a sweet pineapple BBQ sauce to use for an up and coming hidden dinner he was hosting. What we did was start off with a spice mix that had the flavor profile he was looking for and then we built up the sauce around that.

Here is the dry or rub we ingredients we started off with.

minced sweet onion
dried apricots
dried pineapple
ginger powder
fresh minced garlic
cumin
dried molasses powder
white pepper
Sweet Hawaiian Pineapple Mustard
White truffle salt

Then we mixed it all up adding a bit of this and a bit of that until he was happy with the flavor profile. Now that he had the flavor he was looking for it was time to decide on what peppers to use.

He wanted it hot so we decided on fatalli, ahi lemon, and ahi pineapple peppers. The fatalli gave it the heat and the others the flavor.

Then he added that to a fresh pineapple and tomato base. He decided to go with a small amount of sweet vinegar and lemon to lower the pH for his sauce.

At the last minute he added some vanilla oil which really added a bit a light creaminess to the sauce and when we put it over some apple smoked pork chops covered with pineapple it was heaven!!

The key is everything worked together down to the type of wood we smoked the chops with. It had an amazing balance and although could be used with a variety of other meats it was sublime when used on his chops. The where a BIG hit at his hidden dinner and he had tons of request for the sauce.

Based on what you mentioned so far I think some Baharat seasoning with a hint of Chinese 5 spice would work great!

Good luck.
 
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If I stuck with the roasting technique but lowered the amount of tomatoes I put in the sauce and added fresh Datils or mini sweets (deseeded) and substitute ACV for Lemons sound better? Obvioulsly I would have to play a little bit with ratios and possibley add a bit of water to get a nice consistency. I wanted a "rustic" or more "robust" flavor. Not a fruity or sweeter flavor. Smoking would definantly do that. However, I'm doing it at my place of business and there isn't a bar-b-que of any kind here; maybe I'll do it as a side project at my house.
 
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Lemon will brighten the flavor as well as add tartness, however, you get a better "tang" from vinegar. You said you wanted a wing sauce right? Vinegar is not the enemy, too may people talk about replacing it. It is a staple in a wing sauce.
 
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