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Need Hot Sauce Ideas

LunchBox

LunchBox

Hi...I'm a "salsa pro", but I want to start making my own bottles of hot sauce (like a hot pepper sauce that will stay good int he fridge for months). I've looked all over the internet, and here, but I I'm not really sure where to start. It looks like many recipes call for tomato, but I want straight peppers with some other stuff. I can mix my own variations, but it's the preserveing part that gets me...since I make fresh salsa weekly. Is it as simple as combining the blended ingredients with vinegar?

Thanks

*edit - I guess I should add that I want seeds and skins in there.
 
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LunchBox said:
Hi...I'm a "salsa pro", but I want to start making my own bottles of hot sauce (like a hot pepper sauce that will stay good int he fridge for months). I've looked all over the internet, and here, but I I'm not really sure where to start. It looks like many recipes call for tomato, but I want straight peppers with some other stuff. I can mix my own variations, but it's the preserveing part that gets me...since I make fresh salsa weekly. Is it as simple as combining the blended ingredients with vinegar?

Thanks

*edit - I guess I should add that I want seeds and skins in there.
Click to expand...

I am in a similar boat, I now make amazing salsa's but sauces have equal as many uses!
I did a lot of research on youtube tonight actually and because vinegar & water or whatever don't actually embed the chillies, you MUST simmer them for a while before blending them. Slow cook them like steak! This way the molecular structure changes completely and makes it much much smoother. When adding water, mix water with some cornstarch/corn flour before-hand to thicken it up a bit, otherwise you should use sugar, or a thick starchy vegetable such as carrots or potatoes (I haven't heard of a potato sauce before but the same principal applies).

Trial and error, I will be attempting to make some of my favourite salsa into a sauce tomorrow so I'll report on that.

It's a matter of trail and error and getting to know the methods.
Hope this helps :)
 
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when it comes to hot sauce the ingredients & flavor..theres no limit as to both for what you can use/come up with.
as for vinegar. the basic white distilled vinegar is kinda a harsh flavor, other vinegars have better flavors...I like using white wine vinegar but theres plenty of other great flavors.
you can even forget about using vinegar all together, use lime juice this works great (or lemon juice but thats rare for hot sauce) or just use salt.

theres far more hot sauces w/o tomatoes for an ingredient than those with them.
blend everything good, cook it, make sure the PH is good.
good luck & have fun in your quest in making hot sauces.
 
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chilehunter said:
when it comes to hot sauce the ingredients & flavor..theres no limit as to both for what you can use/come up with.
as for vinegar. the basic white distilled vinegar is kinda a harsh flavor, other vinegars have better flavors...I like using white wine vinegar but theres plenty of other great flavors.
you can even forget about using vinegar all together, use lime juice this works great (or lemon juice but thats rare for hot sauce) or just use salt.

theres far more hot sauces w/o tomatoes for an ingredient than those with them.
blend everything good, cook it, make sure the PH is good.
good luck & have fun in your quest in making hot sauces.
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So how do you reach that silky smooth consistency?
 
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One way, or what looks like is working that way would be to ferment the sauces. I am doing this for the first time and from what I am seeing looks AMAZING. you need to make "hooch" so you can generate the bacteria that will be added to the sauce to start the fermenting. I started a 1pnt batch in September and I give it a good shake every once in a while. From what I have seen in the last 6 months is the consistency seems to be getting that "smooth" look to it. It will even stick to the glass and just ooze down so nicely. I think I might let it sit for a full year before I make it into a sauce. Another benefit that I have heard of is that the taste also gets nice and smooth. Like I said this is my first time around but if that's what your looking for i would look into fermenting. I have heard of people only doing this process for as short as 6 weeks. But if you started your first time with a decent size batch and then continued every year with large batches then even if you have to wait a full year (or longer) you will always have sauce available during your wait. Tobasco does it for 3 years...soooo the length really is kind of up to you. Good luck
 
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crazy8 said:
One way, or what looks like is working that way would be to ferment the sauces. I am doing this for the first time and from what I am seeing looks AMAZING. you need to make "hooch" so you can generate the bacteria that will be added to the sauce to start the fermenting. I started a 1pnt batch in September and I give it a good shake every once in a while. From what I have seen in the last 6 months is the consistency seems to be getting that "smooth" look to it. It will even stick to the glass and just ooze down so nicely. I think I might let it sit for a full year before I make it into a sauce. Another benefit that I have heard of is that the taste also gets nice and smooth. Like I said this is my first time around but if that's what your looking for i would look into fermenting. I have heard of people only doing this process for as short as 6 weeks. But if you started your first time with a decent size batch and then continued every year with large batches then even if you have to wait a full year (or longer) you will always have sauce available during your wait. Tobasco does it for 3 years...soooo the length really is kind of up to you. Good luck
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Im just about to have a go at this myself with a bunch of Bih Jolokias and red and orange habs.
Id like to get an "Oak" flavor in there. What do you think about making a tea bag with a small amount of oak shavings into the mash and removed later?
 
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Sounds like a great idea. I myself have not attempted anything like that and not sure what might be a correct or incorrect way of trying to get any kind of woodsy flavor into it. One other idea may be to smoke the peppers with the oak and then turn them into a sauce and start the fermentation. The tea bag idea may work but its not one of my areas of expertise yet.
 
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Everything works if the pH is low. get a pH meter. They sell them for $11.02 on ebay with shipping included.

I have never used a pH meter because I use vinegar. I like the flavor of vinegar.

I would boil the oak chips in vinegar. then strain out the chips with a stainless steel kitchen sieve. and use the clean vinegar.

If that does not work then put a bunch of wood chips in a gallon jar and let sit with vinegar for some time. then use the vinegar.

you have to do some experimenting. You might look up information on how wine makers break in a new oak barrel for the wine. new oak gives off more tannic acid. so they want to leach out some of the strong tannic acid before useing the barrel for wine. but then they leave the wine in the barrel for years.

I would try a few wood chips first and see if the flavor comes out quickly if you boil it.

you also might try adding some green tea to the hot sauce to get a little tannic acid flavor.

Personally I think Tabasco claim to age the sauce for 3 years is a lot of sales baloney. I dont think it helps their hot sauce at all. Their hot sauce tastes like flavored vinegar. they add tons of vinegar after ageing the sauce so the ageing is changed in flavor anyway. It is all baloney. I dont believe they age it. They will not allow anyone to see the ageing. They might have aged it 150 years ago but I think they do not age it today. Waste of time ageing in my opinion. Well maybe 3 months is ok. cooking gives more than the equivalent of the 3 months of ageing in one hour.
 
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Personally I think Tabasco claim to age the sauce for 3 years is a lot of sales baloney. I dont think it helps their hot sauce at all. Their hot sauce tastes like flavored vinegar. they add tons of vinegar after ageing the sauce so the ageing is changed in flavor anyway. It is all baloney. I dont believe they age it. They will not allow anyone to see the ageing. They might have aged it 150 years ago but I think they do not age it today. Waste of time ageing in my opinion. Well maybe 3 months is ok. cooking gives more than the equivalent of the 3 months of ageing in one hour.




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On the site they up to three years so it's probably no where near that!
 
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and if you say "up to three years" and were pretty proud of your aging and over all process why would you have the "up to" part? Why not "aged for three years"? maybe what they mean to say is "we will age 6 months to 1 year but every once in a while we get a crazy batch that needs special attention so we age it for 3 years" lol Im doing my sauce for 1 year TOPS...we will see how that goes. Hopefully I don't screw up the batch.
 
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First, I'm not a professional Hot Sauce maker but, I have been through training as a chef and have helped my Grandparent's who "Canned" everything from Pickles to homemade tomato sauce and many other things for many years. My point in saying that is that I do know about what your asking but there may be other's who actually do this for a living that may know better.

LunchBox said:
I can mix my own variations, but it's the preserveing part that gets me...since I make fresh salsa weekly. Is it as simple as combining the blended ingredients with vinegar?
Click to expand...

The key here is the acid. The Acid is what helps the Ph of your sauce. In Vinegar your using Acedic Acid and with Lime or Lemon juice your using Citric Acid, which by itself has been used for as long as I can remember as a preservative and is readily available through just about any place that sells canning supplies. The Acedic Acid has more of a Bite associated with the Vinegar taste where the Citric Acid will have a tendency to take on the flavor of what your mixing it with.

Experiment: Take a teaspoon of Citric Acid and mix it into a cup of water. Pour equal amounts into small paper cups. Into one take a piece of Orange peel, bend in half and pinch it so that the oil sprays into the Citric Acid Water solution and stir. Do another one with lemon or lime peel then taste them. They will have the taste of the fruit.

So for preserving your sauce all will do the trick. The taste your going after that will tell you which one would be best. For instance I would not use Vinegar in a Mango Habinero Sauce. Actually, when I make sauces I use powdered Citric Acid and have very little modification from the pure taste. And if you want a smoother sauce after your first pass cooking the ingredients a really good blender will get you a really smooth consistencey. Just be carefull when blending "HOT" sauces and they can blow the top off and back into your face for a not very nice burn.

crazy8 said:
I was thinking the same but since he specifically specified OAK, I did mention it, but yes a good idea indeed and worth a shot.
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Please, if your going to try using woods do not use anything that you get from Home Depot, Lowes or a lumber yard. All of the lumber that they are going to sell have been treated with stuff your really don't want to injest. I would go to a Homebrew shop. You can get different kinds of wood chips that are especially for that kind of use. Also you might want to toast them before putting them into the container. This will help to release ssome of the woody flavors your looking for and can esaily be done in an oven or with a propane torch. Even getting a little char on them might not be a bad thing. Barrels that are use to age whiskeys, beers, wines etc are often chared on the inside first.

Just some thoughts here. Hope it helps.
 
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RocketMan said:
Please, if your going to try using woods do not use anything that you get from Home Depot, Lowes or a lumber yard. All of the lumber that they are going to sell have been treated with stuff your really don't want to injest. I would go to a Homebrew shop. You can get different kinds of wood chips that are especially for that kind of use. Also you might want to toast them before putting them into the container. This will help to release ssome of the woody flavors your looking for and can esaily be done in an oven or with a propane torch. Even getting a little char on them might not be a bad thing. Barrels that are use to age whiskeys, beers, wines etc are often chared on the inside first.

Just some thoughts here. Hope it helps.
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Yeah I wouldn't recommend lumber yard lumber either. Another place to check out is meat markets. i noticed a local Von Hanson's carries apple wood and other types of wood for smoking and such.
 
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Woods from a meat market might require a little cutting down to fit into your container but would work great too. I would put them into a pot of water at say a minimum of 140 degrees for about 30 minutes or so first though to take care of any ansties that could be lurking about. Most smoking woods are in their natural state and would have alot of rough surface and cracks and such where they could hide out. Also I'd have to think about whether or not to leave any bark on the wood if it was still attached.

What you'd get from a homebrew or wine shop will be in a size to fit through the mouth most containers and while it might still be a good idea to soak them in the hot water bath too, the one's I've seen I would'nt be as worrisome about. I have a 1 gallon glass container that I use for fermenting my peppers and they would fit through the opening as is. Think I might give this a shot next batch, see what happens.
 
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Oak flavor? Smoke any peppers or veggies with oak, or add a liquor aged in oak casks.
 
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