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misc How do you create your recipes?

HellfireFarm

HellfireFarm

eXtreme
Just curious how you go about coming up with recipes?

I see a lot of pretty great ideas here and I'm often left thinking "how did they even think of doing that?", so I'm wondering where you get your inspiration?
 
I usually just start in a general direction and see where it takes me.
For instance, maybe I’ll have a handful of scotch bonnets and a couple peaches. Pretty easy pairing. I usually start with some sweated, maybe browned, onion snd garlic. Peaches make me think of nutmeg and cloves so I throw them into the sauté with maybe some ginger. Now I need some acid. Cider vinegar will support the fruitiness, so will wine vinegar but in a different way. If I just want vinegar without a lot of flavor I’ll use rice vinegar. Now citrus. Lime is too assertive in this case, lemon is nice and neutral, orange might work but I don’t want to use more than is needed to support the flavor that I already have going. I don’t want it to taste like oranges. For sugar, molasses or dark brown sugar will go with the sort of tropical feel or maybe I’ll use something lighter if I just want to take the bite out of the acid.
Then it’s just tweaking and straining and adjusting.
There you have it - my stream of consciousness hot sauce recipe. I just pick a flavor, usually based on a particular chile and build on it.
 
Norman said:
I usually just start in a general direction and see where it takes me.
For instance, maybe I’ll have a handful of scotch bonnets and a couple peaches. Pretty easy pairing. I usually start with some sweated, maybe browned, onion snd garlic. Peaches make me think of nutmeg and cloves so I throw them into the sauté with maybe some ginger. Now I need some acid. Cider vinegar will support the fruitiness, so will wine vinegar but in a different way. If I just want vinegar without a lot of flavor I’ll use rice vinegar. Now citrus. Lime is too assertive in this case, lemon is nice and neutral, orange might work but I don’t want to use more than is needed to support the flavor that I already have going. I don’t want it to taste like oranges. For sugar, molasses or dark brown sugar will go with the sort of tropical feel or maybe I’ll use something lighter if I just want to take the bite out of the acid.
Then it’s just tweaking and straining and adjusting.
There you have it - my stream of consciousness hot sauce recipe. I just pick a flavor, usually based on a particular chile and build on it.
Click to expand...
This is another method. It's the stream of consciousness method. You start with apple, you think cinnamon, then you think caramel, etc. You hop from flavor to flavor based on dishes (like apple pie).
 
After that I’ll make another batch, hopefully correcting any mistakes, and actually writing down what I did. The third batch usually seals the deal.
Failures abound of course, but they’re usually at least edible, and they can be worked into something later or Hail Mary fermented. This explains why the second refrigerator I got for curing charcuterie is now full of half finished hot sauce.
Whatever I’m making, I almost always start with onion and garlic, vinegar and citrus, salt and sugar. I make the base, purée and strain it, and work from there.
 
There are different approaches how to start.

Is it to be the hottest sauce ever known to mankind?
Is it a beautiful mild orange/purple/green/yellow/blue??? colored sauce?
Edit- is it a beautifully colored hot as shit sauce? :lol:
Is it a copy cat of a commercially available sauce?
Is it to be a fruit specific flavor?
Is it to honor or highlight an ethnic heritage?
Is it using some garden surplus veggies and peppers at the end of the growing season for preservation of your hard work all summer?
 
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Make a basic sauce, taste it, see what it "needs." This is the best way to start. You may find a basic hab recipe, make it, and want less garlic. Or more salt. Or you may want it sweet, in which case you start experimenting with sugar, pineapple juice, or apples. Then carrots to thicken as well as flavor, and add color. Just start.
 
Personally, I start with a strong, minimal sauce (by weight):

60% whatever pepper, stemmed, halved, seeded, and roasted
20% white vinegar
17% water
3% salt

This gives me a good idea of the essential “whatever pepper” sauce flavor. After that, I embellish depending on the theme of the sauce, like “island style”, “Yucatán inspired”, or whatever.
 
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From these comments I think my question is actually more like

"How do you decide what you want your sauce to taste like"?

Which is a VERY different question...
 
Yes and no?

I'm not even sure I want to do more than I'm doing. I have a handful of sauces that I make each harvest - enough to last until next year. But there's such a variety of sauces and types of sauces. Stuff with fruit, asian flavors, jamacian flavors, salsas, roasted, not roasted, vinegar, fermented, etc., and I love playing with recipes. Almost like there's too many ideas!
 
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