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New to sauce making

L

LO619

Hey, new guy here. I have been lurking the site for over a week. For years I have always wanted to make my own hot sauce and finally I found a place with all the information I need. Most of the processes seem pretty fun, I would have thought it to be much more challenging. Anyway, I wont be growing my own peppers anytime soon, for now I am planning on buying my peppers locally. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks I'm planning on making my first cooked sauce.

Since, this is my first time I want to ask the experienced guys for what I should go with and the amount of each ingredient. I want my ingredients to go something like this: habaneros or scotch bonnets (whatever the market has), pineapple, orange, garlic and onion and whatever you guys suggest. What type of vinegar should I use? Any other suggestions? I want it hot, i'm thinking hotter than ass kickin, but not quite blairs after death on the heat scale. I will also look into buying a PH meter before I make my sauce to stay safe.
 
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welcome to the forum LO619!

Your ingredients sound just fine, dash of salt, some acid of some kind (vinegar, lemon/lime juice) cook it, blender it, and off you go!

Start with a small batch, say a couple cups, just to get started. Once it's cooked, keep it refrigerated and you won't have to worry about the pH so much to start with. Just plan on using it up quickly. Of Course, if you want to and can afford it, a pH meter is a great tool to have.

Lots of posts on recipes and ingredients around here... read, read, read~~~

Have Fun and post pics! We LUV pics!

SL
 
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Hi. I'm a newbie sauce maker too, and the only things I can suggest are maybe some cilantro and spices, depending on what you are shooting for. Allspice and/or cinnamon give it a Carribean kick, which seem to go with your orange, pineapple mix. Asian spices would work too. As for vinegars, I'd suggest basalmic and possibly cider vinegar. The white stuff is good for cleaning or when you need some volume, but the taste is harsh. But like I said, I'm a newbie sauce maker and I will yield to the superior knowledge on this board.
 
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Use your imagination when it comes to ingredients, not other people's opinions. It's your sauce so make it the way you want to. The only way to learn what you like is to experiment. Start out with flavors you're familiar with and go from there.

Good luck to ya LO619.
 
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I'm new to the forum myself and I agree 100% about using your imagination.

I haven't made sauces in a few years but when I did my friends and neighbors would constantly ask me for sauces. I have close to 10 different sauces that I made. Some of which I've just used my imagination and took risks.

One of the biggest things I've done was tried different flavors such as banana and mango as well as mixing with different alcohols such as rum and tequila. To my surprise they've turned out well. Looking at my recipes I use white vinegar and I find no problems at all with the harshness of taste.

I hope I can be of some help to you, good luck in your first batch.
 
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thanx to everyone for the replies. I think I will go with distilled white since most sauces out there seem to use it and i guess gauge the ingredients by taste.
 
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Why not experiment with different types of vinegars. I've used the following singularly or in a combination and can really make a difference in the sauce taste (besides the peppers of course).

Plain old white distilled (never cider vinegar, don't care for the taste in sauce).
Balsamic Vinegar - good in sauces that have a tomato base, just be judicious in use as it can be somewhat over powering.
White and red wine vinegar - depending on the mood.
Rice wine vinegar - particularly if I'm doing Caribbean style.
Malt Vinegar
Cane Vinegar - I've not personally used this one, but I see it listed as a ingredient on commercial sauce labels all the time. I have not found it at retail locally; I may have to obtain via m.o.
http://www.simplycajun.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=62
Fresh squeezed lime (lots of limes) juice - when I do not want to use any vinegar.

Experimentation is the fun of it all. Google search for recipes, this forum, reading commercial labels, etc. gives you different ideas to try, then go from there. As a starting point, try this one:
http://www.pepperfool.com/recipes/hotsauce_idx.html
Good luck!!
 
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MIPEPPERGUY said:
Why not experiment with different types of vinegars. I've used the following singularly or in a combination and can really make a difference in the sauce taste (besides the peppers of course).

Plain old white distilled (never cider vinegar, don't care for the taste in sauce).
Balsamic Vinegar - good in sauces that have a tomato base, just be judicious in use as it can be somewhat over powering.
White and red wine vinegar - depending on the mood.
Rice wine vinegar - particularly if I'm doing Caribbean style.
Malt Vinegar
Cane Vinegar - I've not personally used this one, but I see it listed as a ingredient on commercial sauce labels all the time. I have not found it at retail locally; I may have to obtain via m.o.
http://www.simplycajun.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=62
Fresh squeezed lime (lots of limes) juice - when I do not want to use any vinegar.

Experimentation is the fun of it all. Google search for recipes, this forum, reading commercial labels, etc. gives you different ideas to try, then go from there. As a starting point, try this one:
http://www.pepperfool.com/recipes/hotsauce_idx.html
Good luck!!
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I will keep this in mind. I'm actually going for a caribbean style sauce, but the pineapple and orange just sound good. I haven't had as many sauces as most here, but a couple of my favs are Walkerswood Jonkanoo and Econa West Indian original. If my sauce is anything as good as those i'll be happy!
 
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When creating sauces, the sky is the limit! Experiment with different ingredients, acids, spices, etc... If immediate consumption is desired, then things like ph is not that important. But if you desire food safety and shelf-life stability and longevity, then there's a lot to take into consideration, such as the ph level, how the sauce is processed and bottled, etc. Making sauces is exciting - especially when other people love your creations. On the way to creating your version of a masterpiece sauce, you'll run into recipe disasters, such as sauces that taste like pickles (that happened to me once :lol: ). Like SL said, read read read! And, of course, do a lot of experimenting. Sounds like you're off to a great start!
 
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Alright guys, I got some orange habs in the fridge, ate one and nothing I can't handle so I'll probably throw quite a few in the mix to keep the heat up. I want to rush to the store and buy some ingredients now, but I'm gonna look up some recipies and see what sounds good! I will probably eat the sauce pretty fast but I want to be able to trow it in the fridge and keep for at least 3 weeks.
 
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just remember to go easy on the garlic. It may taste good "NOW" but after a few weeks the garlic flavour really comes out - i made that mistake when i 1st tried a sauce :lol:
 
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bennoz said:
just remember to go easy on the garlic. It may taste good "NOW" but after a few weeks the garlic flavour really comes out - i made that mistake when i 1st tried a sauce :lol:
Click to expand...

I slightly copied "joes island sauce" and he called for 6 cloves, is that too much? I'm cooking the ingredients up as I type this.
 
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This is my ingredients and method of cooking.

9 orange habs
1 onion
3 carrots
6 cloves of garlic

Boiling them as we speak til tender, then i'm going to drain and blend, add the salt, pepper and vinegar. I am also adding the juice of one lemon. Should I re-boil all the ingredients and then throw it all in a jar?
 
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LO619 said:
This is my ingredients and method of cooking.

9 orange habs
1 onion
3 carrots
6 cloves of garlic

Boiling them as we speak til tender, then i'm going to drain and blend, add the salt, pepper and vinegar. I am also adding the juice of one lemon. Should I re-boil all the ingredients and then throw it all in a jar?
Click to expand...

How long do you see this sauce lasting you? It is a pretty small quantity so definitely consider leaving out the vinegar. (Unless you really like the taste of vinegar) Since your using everyday ingredients you bought at the store you can just whip up a fresh batch every week or two (if it even last that long) with out worry. Can’t wait to hear how it came out. I make fresh hot sauce every Sunday night…. Need to get creative again, have been making the same stuff for several months.
 
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Beaglestorm said:
How long do you see this sauce lasting you? It is a pretty small quantity so definitely consider leaving out the vinegar. (Unless you really like the taste of vinegar) Since your using everyday ingredients you bought at the store you can just whip up a fresh batch every week or two (if it even last that long) with out worry. Can’t wait to hear how it came out. I make fresh hot sauce every Sunday night…. Need to get creative again, have been making the same stuff for several months.
Click to expand...


Well, It's in the fridge. In the end I juiced a lemon and added about 9 spoons of white vinegar aswell. Only because I'm not to sure about how these things last and the recipe called for 8tbs. it's not amazing, but isn't bad and I will probably use it up pretty quick. I really don't like the white pepper, I think it throws everything off and makes it taste a little weird. What it needs in place of that is sugar, more garlic and alot more heat, 9 orange habs wasn't enough. I was being cautious with the peppers because I wanted to use it up quick I didn't want it to be insane hot. I also kind of made the stupid mistake of putting a wooden spoon in the blender for a second. I kind of knew it was going to happen (not the first time) and a small piece came off, half of it i got out and the other half mixed in with the sauce to give it that extra wood flavor! haha!

So, now I have a jar of alright hot sauce in the fridge and I already know my next sauce is going to be better.

I think to be fair I need to taste this stuff after it's cooled down and all the flavors have mixed in over night in the fridge.
 
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habsauce.jpg


Here's a pic. sorry my hands were dirty from work lol
 
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