My first hot sauce

[Chefmao]

Hi Everyone,
I've been reading a lot on the boards here, and I appreciate all the advice and recipes folks post here. I borrowed a simple recipe from **** and swapped out the habaneros for the chills I had...which I think are "Thai Hot" chills. A friend gave me the plant. Hope its OK to link to a different chili board...

So, if someone can confirm that's what I've got, it would be helpful going forward! As far as the recipe, here's what I did:

1-1/2 cups Carrot chopped (192 g or 6.75 Oz)
1 medium onion chopped (about 1 cup or 157g or 5.5oz)
1/4 cup lime juice — about 2 limes
3 cloves garlic minced (13g or 0.45 Oz)
12 thai hot chilis chopped (8g or 0.25oz)

I used a digital scale to try and keep track of actual measurements so that I could reproduce it if I liked it since I usually measure with my eyes...anyway, took all these ingredients and chopped them up, brought them to a boil and simmered for about 10 minutes, then transferred to a blender to smooth it out.

Overall, a pleasant flavor, but not hot enough. Chiliman's original recipe called for 12 habaneros, so I started with 12 of these little chills. I like heat, but I've put a single habanero into recipes and found that almost unpleasantly hot, so I figured these little ones had less heat just from their small size (I know...never judge a chili by its size!) and the fact that most sites I could find that had heat scales rated the "Thai Hot" as pretty hot...

Any suggestions would be welcome! I know I'll give this another try with more chills...until I get it to the right amount of heat

 

[SuperHot]

Nice!!

 

[Ela]

good job

 

[masschilehead]

nicely done!

You might want to scale back on the carrot, I'd say 1/2 to 3/4 cup. If that's not enough to sweeten to your taste, maybe add some honey or something. Also, with those peppers being so small, I'd go with 15 to 20.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

I used a digital scale to try and keep track of actual measurements so that I could reproduce it if I liked it since I usually measure with my eyes...

Very smart! One medium onion, or even a cup of chopped onion, will never weigh the same. The scale is the only way to go when getting serious about recipes.

 

[Smiter Q]

I am new to making sauce, but was a little surprised to see that there was no salt. Is that common among recipes?
I agree that measuring is the way to go.

 

[mrz1988]

Some people like salt some don't. Store-bought hot sauces are usually loaded with salt and vinegar so a lot of us scale back on that. I usually add salt at the end to taste as everyone likes a different amount of salt. Probably what was called for here.

 

[Chefmao]

Some people like salt some don't. Store-bought hot sauces are usually loaded with salt and vinegar so a lot of us scale back on that. I usually add salt at the end to taste as everyone likes a different amount of salt. Probably what was called for here.

The original recipe had no salt, so left it out. I don't think it suffered from the lack of salt, although maybe a little less carrot and more chilis would have been good.

 

[Dorkasaurus]

Since nobody has commented yet on the peppers I'll take a shot at it...

As far as I know there's two different peppers generally called Thai Hot. Yours look similar to ones I've grown, which is called Thai Hot Ornamental. The plants are usually about a foot tall and loaded with tiny peppers (.5")that grow upright.

The other peppers referred to as Thai Hot also grow upright afaik but are longer (1" to 1.5") and pointier.

Both are fairly spicy but I think you have the miniature or ornamental version there. If that's the case I'd put about 50 of them in your recipe + a habanero or two.

Here's a pic of some dried ones:

They're a little smaller since they're dried out but not too much smaller. Sorry I'm feeling too lazy to go out and pick a few fresh pods for comparison.

 

[kauaidundee]

I too started out with too much carrot! Some guys say don't use any carrot at all. There are lots of subsitutes. All depends on YOUR taste. I personally would put about 15 scorps in there, but that's just me. Have fun!

 

[RocketMan]

+1 to all suggestions here so far.

1 1/2 cups of carrots is a little excessive for your recipe. As the carrots mostly give the sauce a good consistency and just a touch of flavor, I'd say that 2 oz would do the job.

If the heat of 1 Hab is too much in some recipes I'd try using 24 of your Thai's in your next batch. It will give you a good check point to further refine your recipe. If it's still not hot enough you'll know how much of an increase in heat you'll get from 12 additional peppers and if it's too hot then try just using 18 peppers in the next one and adjust using this bracketing till you get it where you want it.

Don't sweat the salt too much. A touch of salt can enhance the flavor but if you don't want it, no worries. I have high blood pressure and typically use very little salt when I cook and in my sauces.

Hope this is helpful.
Cheers,
RM