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My First Hot Sauce!!!

Noah Yates

Noah Yates

Hot Sauce Ingredients:

Peppers: Butch T Trinidad Scorpion; Red Bhut Jolokia; 7 Pot; Brain Strain (dried); Moruga Scorpion (dried); Scoth Bonnet; Tobasco; Cayenne; Black Pearl
Smoked/Grilled: Red Ripe Anaheim; Red Ripe Jalapeno; Red Habanero; Datil; Banana; Ancho

Fruits: Lemon, Lime, Grilled Pineapple, Grapefruit, mango, peach, orange

Vegetables: carrot, sautéed garlic/onions(no oil)

Herbs/Spices: fresh basil, black pepper, pink pepper, merlot sea salt, sumac, chipotle, wasabi, horseradish, mango amchur, vanilla bean, pickling spice ( -allspice -bay leaves -cinnamon -cloves -coriander -dill seed -chilies -mustard seed)

Vinegar: cane Vinegar

Sweetener: cane sugar, brown sugar


This is my planned list of ingredients thus far. What do you guys think?





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That recipe is way too busy.

That combination of herbs and spices is awful.

Check out the recipes in the hot sauce making forum.

Invariably the best and most flavorful sauces are very simple.

I personally limit my sauces to one or two varieties of chile.

Same for any fruit or veggies.

Good luck making that sauce and feel free to post the results with pics.

We like pics!
 
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Noah Yates said:
Hot Sauce Ingredients:

Peppers: Butch T Trinidad Scorpion; Red Bhut Jolokia; 7 Pot; Brain Strain (dried); Moruga Scorpion (dried); Scoth Bonnet; Tobasco; Cheyenne; Black Pearl
Smoked/Grilled: Red Ripe Anaheim; Red Ripe Jalapeno; Red Habanero; Datil; Banana; Ancho

Fruits: Lemon, Lime, Grilled Pineapple, Grapefruit, mango, peach, orange

Vegetables: carrot, sautéed garlic/onions(no oil)

Herbs/Spices: fresh basil, black pepper, pink pepper (pick one), merlot sea salt, sumac, chipotle, wasabi, horseradish, mango amchur(dunno what this is?), vanilla bean, pickling spice ( -allspice -bay leaves -cinnamon -cloves -coriander -dill seed -chilies -mustard seed)

Vinegar: cane Vinegar

Sweetener: cane sugar, brown sugar (pick one)


This is my planned list of ingredients thus far. What do you guys think?

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Click to expand...

pickling spices are usually really chunky, pick one of those spices if you really want that type of flavor, but use the ground version. pick one type of pepper. use all the chiles if that's what you have, just make sure they are all ripe or all green, don't mix ripes and greens. don't need both types of sugar, one sweeneter is enough.

Using fruits will make this a sweet-type sauce, I wouldn't use all the savory spices especially a pickling spice?. Fresh basil will turn black and slimy when cooked.


and WELCOME! :welcome:

Have Fun and post pics if you can!
 
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Thank you guys for the advice. Btw... the pickling spice, vanilla bean, and basil were going to be contained within cheescloth and removed from the mix after simmering. All of the spices are going to be added very sparingly. The vast bulk of the sauce will be comprised by the peppers themselves. Although this is my first official hot sauce for long term storage, I am no stranger to making purees/marinades/sauces for immediate use. In my experience, using a diversity of ingredients yields unique, complex, deep flavor profiles. Maybe I am "flavor blind" or "taste deaf" but I can imagine that these ingredients do complement each other if used in the right propotions. Economy is no issue... so brown sugar and cane sugar, which have different flavors, can be used together to impart a 'deeper' flavor than either one would if used seperately.
 
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I agree as well that simpler is better. For one it makes it easier to make changes to the recipe and be able to tell which flavor the component changes when adding or subtracting your amounts. This will also allow you to slowly make the recipe more involved as you add different components for the more subtle flavors that you are looking for with a lot less trial and error.
 
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Well... maybe I should have just posted my list of peppers and asked for advice on what i should do with them.... I have practically an entire trashbag full of peppers in the freezer... probably between one half and a full pound of each.
 
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TB stole my thunder - you've got way too many flavors going on. Like in art, less is more in hot sauce.

Why have so many peppers? You won't be able to taste any of them. Any subtlety in the smoked or roasted peppers will be burried under a mountain of fruit and savory spices.

I concur with the others - sounds like a really "busy" sauce, and I'm unconvinced that all of those ingredients will combine into something pleasing to the taste buds.

X2 on the recommendation to simplify this. Pick one dominant pepper flavor you want - go with that. Decide if you want a "roasted" sauce or a "smoked" sauce or a chipotle sauce. You listed all 3 of these and they're all pretty dominant flavors. Chipotle will totally take over the flavor profile in my experience, so I'd avoid that unless you want a chipotle sauce. And there's just way too much going on with the spice list.

Good luck, and :welcome:
 
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Ah - we cross-posted.

So suggestion: pick 1 superhot from that list. Pick 1 other pepper (not superhot) and one pepper for roasting (Anaheim is nice). There's a good solid base for peppers - the heat of the superhot tempered by the Anaheim & non-superhot.

Pick 1 fruit.

Choose 1 citrus.

Think about garlic & onion and how you want to prep each for the sauce (raw, roasted, etc)

Keep your herbs and spices list short. Obviously you'll need salt & sweet. Now decide if there's one interesting flavor that you think would work with the rest.

It's all about balance.

Just suggestions of course! Part of the fun is in the experimentation so I can't say "don't make your sauce!!!" because trial & error sometimes has awesome results. But I'd start simple And make It more complex as needed rather than starting with everything.
:cheers:

Scoville DeVille said:
What the hael do you know LDHS? :dance:
Click to expand...

Not a damn thing!
:woohoo:



(ignorance is bliss?)
 
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Were you going to use ALLLLL those chiles in this batch??? That's a LOT of pods to risk just winging a recipe.

Sounds like you have some experience with recipes, so I'm sure you know to keep accurate measurements if you want to replicate the sauce.

Knowing the herbs were going into cheesecloth- I'd revise my previous suggestion to be-
Herbs/Spices: fresh basil, black pepper, pink pepper, merlot sea salt, sumac, chipotle, wasabi, horseradish, mango amchur, vanilla bean, pickling spice ( -allspice -bay leaves -cinnamon -cloves -coriander -dill seed -chilies -mustard seed)

I'm just not "seeing" the dill, mustard, chipotle, wasabi, and horseradish with the fruit. I think the fruit and several different red chiles can work with the spices listed above. I agree with LDHS that chipotle will take over the sauce in a heartbeat. Since you plan on using some smoked/grilled chiles, let them be the focus.


The best thing is, with that many pods, you can make ANOTHER sauce with-
chiles, carrot, onion, garlic, horseradish, wasabi, pepper, dill, mustard, (or the pickling spice) vinegar, (LITTLE bit of sugar, but not too much)

And ANOTHER sauce with all roasted/grilled/smoked chiles with smoked veggies, (still wouldn't use chipotle...not needed)......





and ANOTHER sauce with....... ;) .......you get the idea.......... complex flavors are a good thing, but they still have to compliment each other. As I said, I'm just not feeling the vanilla bean with dill and wasabi. Separate them into a couple different sauces,,,,


and HAVE FUN!!!
 
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You see.... I completely disagree with this axiom of simple is necessarily better. I am not trying to preserve the flavor of any one ingredient/preperation..... I am trying to engender a synergy of flavors--- a unique amalgam of intense flavors. Have none of you ever cooked a dish that used "everything in the pantry"?---where were someone to ask you how you created it, you could not tell them because you used so many ingredients? This is something I do reguarly... and it is always the case that the more ingredients I have access to the better the dish is. I love that analogy of "like in art... less is more" because this is just what I was discussing with my freind in regard to your all's axiom of simple is better.... I find the case to be the opposite... if you are trying to create an artistic recipe, it should be more elusive to replicate because it is so complex and uniquely fashioned. I guess it comes down to a diffrence in styles-- I am not a minimalist. Like I said... economy is no issue.
 
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Well ok then.

Have fun & why ask us?

Throw the whole kitchen in there. I'm sure it'll be great.

Obviously many of us have experimented with many things. Some of us learned the hard way that it doesn't often produce good results.

Good luck, I'm out.
 
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I've made a lot of dishes just throwing it all in the pot, most of the time it turns out, but sometimes it didn't. And it's usually only one batch of soup, or whatever....not a big deal if it tanked.


My only caution is to not use all your pods in one pot. Since you mentioned having a freezer-full of all those varieties, I'm assuming you grew them all. Don't risk all your hard work on a recipe you don't know will work.

And isn't half the fun of having a whole bunch of chiles is to experiment with different combinations? Do your original recipe, see how it works, keep accurate records so if it turns out great you can replicate it. If it doesn't work, maybe try some of the other suggestions.

Whatever you do, have fun~

it's all good-
 
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Yeah. I am sorry for my outburst. Thank you all for the advice. I truly do appreciate it. I will make a batch of my sauce as proposed and a few other batches which use your all's revised formulas. I apologize once again for my reaction... I feel rotten now :tear:
 
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It's all good, post pics and let us know how it goes.
 
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Lol... upon reflection... I am so glad that I did not carry out my plan before peer review of the theory. Now I can start to really think about which simple combinations of these ingredients would work best together. No need to put all of my eggs in one basket!!! I am also thinking of making a steak sauce as well. Any pointers on that?
 
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Just did a quick google of "steak sauce recipe" and didn't see any using fresh chiles. Most were variations of catsup or butter, spices, Worchestershitshire, dijon, hot sauce..... we don't use steak sauce so I don't even have a bottle to look at for ingredients. :lol: Usually we buy a side of beef in the fall, so the meat tastes great as is, the steaks only get S&P, maybe a little garlic. Burgers get one of the (too many) bottles of hot sauce/bbq sauce/etc that's open in the fridge.
 
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hahaha of course an emaculately prepared steak doesnt necessarily need any supplementation... however, that doesnt mean supplementation wont be supplementary. A little smear of steak sauce on the edge of a steak definitely enhances any steak IMO.

Lets not let the evolution of steak sauce stagnate... if there are no steak sauce recipes that include chiles then maybe I have a million dollar idea!? I'm thinking the Butch Ts or maybe the tobasco peppers would go best in a steak sauce.
 
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