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recipe-help Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce - Imitation Recipe?

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Pharthan

So, I decided yesterday that I wanted to try to make an imitation Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce. My wife tried it in Thailand and was hooked on it. She's not a fan of other hot sauces, and I'd like to make something she'd eat as well.

I'm making a small batch as a trial run.
So far, I've decided upon the following:
 

  • ~150 g red Pickled Thai Chili Peppers
  • 3/4 cups white vinegar
  • 3/4 cups water
  • 1/2 cups sugar
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon grated ginger
  • Xanthan Gum

Biggest thing to figure out is the vinegar-water-sugar balance. Most recipes I see seem to be all over the place.
I've got a few days to wait for to make this recipe. Most imitation recipes I see don't call for pickling the peppers, but Mae Ploy does list in in their ingredients list, so yesterday I set about pickling the peppers:

Pickling Recipe -

- ~15 Thai Chilis, Dried & Roasted
-1 cup distilled water
-1 cup distilled white vinegar
-1 Tbsp Pickling Salt
-1/2 Jalapeno
-Black peppercorns, Garlic Powder
-3 cloves garlic

Should be good in just over a week. If I want to add the jalapenos, I might wait longer since they're thicker skinned.
 
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salsalady said:
Well, I'm the only one who responded to the OP recipe request so :razz: on the rest of you.
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Dammit you got me there. I'm going for the award too you know.
 
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In the name of science if you have a pH meter one thing you can do is measure Mae Ploy. When you make yours, get it exactly the same. Since vinegar is the only acid you will be replicating the content so your sweet/sour balance should be close.
 
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Pharthan, you can get pretty close using the percentages as listed on the label by weight. From there, cook up the base batch, take some out for your Lovely, then add a few more hotter chilies, more ginger, mango, whatever sounds good.
Like Boss said, a ph meter can help also.

Most important...Have Fun!!!!
SL
 
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He said ginger in the OP, I added mango to mine. Is it like the original MP Sauce? No, it is not.
Would it be really freaking delicious? You bet your little grass skirt it would!!!

(Crap! Channeling Sue Akins again! I gotta knock off the binge watching.....next year... I got 6 more days of Vaca~~~~)
 
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So, first batch was a functional success, but copy-cat failure.
Mid process wound up upping the water to about double, and the sugar by 50%. 
I chose to go with rice vinegar instead of white vinegar. I think that was actually a great idea, in hindsight.

Fresh thai chilis? Too hot. Going to try again with the pickled ones I have going, once they're done. 
It's got an excellent heat, which is unfortunately not what I was going for.

Also:
Mine has a great flavor, actually. I'll be using it quite a bit, but...
I'm fairly certain Mae Ploy isn't fully honest about their ingredients. I'm definitely getting a more sweet, fruity flavor (like plum, as I have seen online) than what one would get with just the chilis when I do a taste comparison. Or they use some interesting chilis, or pickle them with plum or something. 

It also makes more sense as to why some recipes would add... ketchup *shudder*

Also: This required a lot more xanthan gum than I would have expected.
 
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Online sauce sellers show the ingredient as "pickled red chilli" which could be anything from a pimento to a bird's eye.

I had good results using Fresno chiles, only fresh red Chile available to me right now. Milder heat compared to Thais, but with enough pulp to get the reddish look of the sauce. The sugar cut the heat to that medium-ish level.

If using thai peppers, I would only use a few and add to the red with some red bell peppers.


I used corn starch. It set up thicker than desired when cooled. Part of the learning curve~
 
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I copied Mae Ploy.
 
Once.
 
It tasted even better.
 
Than the original.
 
I did the same with Huy Fong.
 
Sriracha.
 
And for my next trick....
 
I'll make Viagra better.
 
I'll take Shit That Never Happens for $500 Alex!
 
 
 
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texas blues said:
I copied Mae Ploy.
 
Once.
 
It tasted even better.
 
Than the original.
 
I did the same with Huy Fong.
 
Sriracha.
 
And for my next trick....
 
I'll make Viagra better.
 
I'll take Shit That Never Happens for $500 Alex!
 
 
Click to expand...
 
Not going to lie, I feel like making a better sriracha than Huy Fong wouldn't be incredibly hard. I like the stuff, but, I dunno. I feel like it's missing something. Then again, perhaps I just don't like that style of sriracha.

Though I just realized that my failed attempt at replicating Mae Ploy actually is a sriracha, while Huy Fong's is not.

Next tactic for the Sweet Chili Sauce:

1. Wait for pickled chilis to finish pickling.
2. Add plum.
3. Deseed 50% of chilis.
4. ???
5. Win.
 
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So glad I thought to look at this before another attempt!
Didn't realize I needed to de-seed half the peppers.

This time around, doing a lot more peppers (180g) all from my garden... which I realize I haven't posted up here since I had the planets in solo-cups.
 
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Scoville DeVille said:
That's a good point too. No one makes their own ketchup. Maybe some do but it's not the same or as good. And it's also cheap!

Weirdly, Heinz and Mae Ploy both have a tricky balance of sugar and Vinegar.
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Don't speak for me.   I make my own ketchup, as do a number of my friends, and the flavor is leagues ahead of the common commercial crap on the market, most of which are loaded with corn syrup and inferior ingredients.   Vine-ripened San Marzanos make all the difference.  So does getting rid of the corn syrup (which is often listed as the number one ingredient.)
 
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Here's a recipe we did in a making hot sauce class a few years ago.  I'm not sure how 'authentic' it is, but it was dang tasty!
 
[SIZE=14pt]Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]8c rice vinegar, plain[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]15c water[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]7c sugar[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]3c garlic cloves fresh[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]5# red peppers (fresno, jalapeno)- use red bell peppers with some red Superhots[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]8 Tbsp (1/2c) corn starch[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]10 Tb (2/3c) minced ginger[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]5 bags frozen mango chunks[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=14pt]Mix corn starch with ½ the water, set aside.  In a food processor, grind the garlic until fairly small.  Use some of the liquids as needed.  Pulse the red chiles until small bits, but not pureed.  Pulse the mango to small bits.  Add everything except corn starch slurry to sauce pan.  Bring up to simmer, cook for 15-20 minutes.  Stir up the corn starch and add to sauce all at once, immediately stir well.  Simmer until corn starch is cooked and the sauce is translucent.  [/SIZE]
 
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Why does it say 5 pounds of red jalapenos and fresnos, and then tells us to use bells and superhots?
 
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The ketchup recipe looks pretty good. Personally I would not add celery seed, and I like mine a silkier texture and less like marinara but it does look good.
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
Why does it say 5 pounds of red jalapenos and fresnos, and then tells us to use bells and superhots?
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This recipe was for the community Making Hot Sauce class.  Someone could use 5# of red jalapenos or 4.5-ish pound of red bells and 1/2-ish pounds of HOTS to kind of get to the same heat level.  We talked about this in the class, how to use other peppers to achieve the heat level desired and others as fillers.  That didn't all make it into the recipe I copy/pasted into the discussion.
 
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