Ideas for hot sauces w/BOUNTY fatali, choc habs, 7 P yellows etc.

[annie57]

Okay folks: got any weird ideas?

I pressure can everything but ph is still a factor.

I make pretty pure Tabasco sauce: very little ACV, little brown sugar, maybe touch of lime, some onion, garlic: really thick sauce. Only pure sauce (without base) I make because . . . just do.

Last year I used Ram's Horn for a "Fall Sauce" with butternut squash. A "ghost" sauce--red bhut jolokias w/laugh if will: fruit cocktail as a base, Thai sauce with a touch of tomato as base, regular hab sauce with pineapple as base, as it works well with chicken, poultry, shrimp.

This year have so so many along with Tabasco, Jalapeno, Cayenne, Poblano--they're kinda warm and Anaheim--the warmer strain--all red ripe now, Harold St. Bart's, Caribbean Reds, Fatali, Naga Morich, Yellow Bhut, 7 Pod/t Yellow, and Chocolate Habs. All are ripe enough to make a lot of sauce, a lot of dried powders. (And have sold/given some to people who want to bet their friends:-))

While I have tolerance built, am not all about just heat. Want some flavor and needless to say, the heat will be present.

Have thought about using figs as they'll be getting ripe soon with the chocolate habs, but just don't know. What's throwing me is that we had that cooling off period in August in NC with more rain than usual and all the peppers seem sweeter to me than usual.

The yellow bhuts are much nicer than red bhuts I grew last year--more of a pear-pineappley taste, but kind of smokey like the St. Bart's. If strawberries were remotely in season I'd honestly think about those as base with Carib Reds. Ironically, the half of yellow 7 pod I had a few minutes ago was nice, really. Sweet. Hot? Uh, yeah.

I want to do one sauce with mango as a base: not opposed to going to store as mangoes don't grow in NC. And here's hilarious moment: got a freakin bushel of apples in one refrigerator and was just wondering how they could come into play. Have been eating these things with apple cider trying to decide if they should. Pears I get, butternut squash, carrots, pineapple but would be grateful for any ideas. Thanks! Ann

 

[PIC 1]

Hey annie,

It seems like you're pressure canning into jars, so a pourable consistancy is probably not what you're searching for. Mangoes are a great fruit base for a citric sauce. Figs, Tamarind, Rasins....etc are also unique but fiborous. I often use all the above when the sauce making is in full swing. If you don't have one I'd highly recommend a SS food mill.
Imerson blenders work to an extent, my vitamix does a great job but the food mill leaves you will all the flavor but removes the strains of pulp. Bitter melon ,pineapple, and honey or agave works nicely for a starter base. Well you also need your heat preference and the herbage...
Good luck with your ventures........think autumn colors...

Greg

 

[RocketMan]

Hi Ann, first off welcome to the THP!

You have a geat begining there with all that you have at hand or available. A few thoughts that came to me are:

Apples, make Apple Butter. I just made a batch of Bourbon Fatalii Apple Butter and it is, well as we say in the south, Slap your mama good!

Pears and Figs always go good together, add some Orange Zest for a really great flavor profile. Add some Butternut for consistency.

Mango and Rum, Cuban or Jamaican, are really great together and some carrot or sweet potato for consistency.

Have fun with it and don't forget to post what your doing back here with lots of pics.

Cheers,
RM

 

[annie57]

Thanks guys: apologies for getting back late; my father's been sick so the sauce making begins in earnest tomorrow. Have Tab up first, kind of no-brainer there aside from "do not leave pressure canner unattended."

Really love that apple butter thought, RM I actually canned too much apple butter--2nd bushel-round with apples--friend's father owns orchard. Great thought and wonder if spiced rum would work--partner's friend left it after a "man-cave" scream match at Carolina Panthers--have to try some with abutter and see. (Maybe I should tell him to forbid anything but bourbon'n beer in house for a possible Panthers luck-out?) But if doing that, might try it with choc habs, for giggles. Raisins would seem to work with that as well, Greg. Ya know, apples and raisins. (Just add oats for "fibrousity" ha!) Mango and rum is definitely happening, so may have to help the Panthers with some bourbon and try RM's idea there with bourbon and the abutter. Sounds delicious and winesap apples have gone gloriously beyond fuji good-tasting (given an expanded time).

Yes; have SS food mill but tend to use my grandmother's SS sieve--huge deep V with stand, wooden, well aged, wooden dowel. Amazing. More work, yeah but really doesn't interfere with taste at all. I like to imagine that it improves it. I clean the dowel with Clorox and rinse, repeat. I also have a C-art food processor but a gazillion year old Waring blender, once I get the peppers, onions, garlic, ginger, cilantro--which is still growing well--depending on taste, for Part 1: soften via simmer, let completely drain in sieve, into blender, then back into sieve again--I want to taste the pure stuff after cooked down once. That's a piece of this that has surprised me and sent me to rethink a few times because after the peppers (or chilies) cook, they do taste different just from being heated to simmer a while). I use stainless or enamel over anodized aluminum not to mess w/taste but still astounds me sometimes the difference just heating them makes. And truly RM orange zest just works: can transform an orange hab (they always need transformation imo) and although I'm in love with those St. Barts for flavor, just to make sure, might cook with some orange zest pre-strain'n blend'n strain.

Part 2 is back into stockpot, short simmer with desired flavors/bases/consistencies. Agave, honey--bought several quarts of honey at local fair in August--and molasses, yes Greg!--helped cook down some locally made, "eatin'" or green mollasses; for tending the fire and stirring, these ole timers around here will offer a few quarts of it--great stuff. (But bitter melon? More on that please?) Quick blend and am likely done, aside from Pt. 3., canning, if tastes good.

At this point I'm pondering some red-hots not used for cinnamon-apple jelly. (Yes; am having fun with this!) Could be just lovely with those Naga Morich. Or not. Imitation Tiger Sauce on steroids type thing? If that one works, it's going in quart jars for a glaze.

Will post pics, though these be in pint jars, aside from "Tiger Sauce," if attempted, in quarts, will post. I do want to know more about the use of bitter melon in hot sauces, Greg.

Again, thanks and peace,

Annie

 

[annie57]

Okay so finished the fermented Tab sauce and onto more this weekend.

Ground Tabs or began grinding those that were "baton rouge" in late July in sea salt--smushing them down in glass gallon container, in their own juices. 1 tabl. sea salt to the only quart of d-chlorinated water needed (used a pint of brine, really), covered with layers of cheesecloth, rubber band around lid to keep junk out, pint jar with water in baggie sealed, to weigh it all down, then put in tad white vinegar, not much, sealed--but still had spillage as it fermented--took off a little gunk--not much, smelled great--post-gunk. Last peppers went in to mash late August, so was only a month ferment but . . . really want to try RM's method with hootch with whatever remains in garden after these next sauces, partially fermented, same method but did add some roasted garlic, smoked onion, carrot to mash. More sugars to ferment (?).

Anyhow, poured off water, vinegar in Tab mash, cooked it down with roasted garlic, smoked Vidalia onion--mmm.

Got a wonderful puree out of this--a lot of puree. (Thinned with homemade hot, spiced tomato soup juice [gave a quart to a friend who called and told me it was "nuclear soup, not juice"] from San Marzanos this year.) Added at most 1 tablespoon lt. brown sugar, 1 cup rice vinegar, < 1 cup lime juice, a little blue agave, very little, touch of celery salt, and of course, cumin. (I gotta have it with the thought of Tabasco.) After 3 cooks and one long simmer--added a few more cloves garlic to initial cook--got it to 200 F., then pressure canned. It's thick, tastes wonderful--can't wait to try the ferments with tater sourdough starter, RM. Made 5 pints.

Now, to peruse uni junior essays and can already tell wanna shoot one of my fav students. Que lastima.

Suerte, y'all, looking forward to weekend sauces, and thank you so much, esp. Bill for advice on A-butter-bourbon fatalii's!
Annie