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Water or no water ?

SavinaRed

SavinaRed

I'm one of those who never uses water in his sauces. My tomatoes have plenty of liquid for my red sauces and I use carrot juice for my orange sauces. Or I use various other fruit juices in place of water along with apple cider vinegar. Are there any others out there who do not use water ?
 
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Yup.  I almost never use water anymore in my sauces.  I prefer vinegar based sauces in the first place, and if a sauce needs to be thinned out or the vinegar needs to be toned down a bit, I tend to use fresh pressed apple juice.  Its got good acidity, but doesn't taste very acidic.  I do like the idea of using carrot juice.  I may have to try that.
 
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My first sauce I added a little water in addition to tomato juice and vinegar but it was more of a barbecue sauce.  Now I'm in the process of making a fermented hot sauce with only a little water added.  I used a bell pepper instead
 
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Considering vinegar is flavored water (when it says 5% acidity it means 5% acetic acid diluted with 95% water) you are using water, or in other ingredients as well. And if cooking a long time it can be useful if you are cooking down and don't want to add any other flavors or sweeten. Cooking down from thin to thick with water can richen all the flavors. And the water evaporates so you are not using it, but if you used pineapple juice the sugars would be left behind. Water is the #1 neutral ingredient, don't be skeerd. 

Genetikx said:
I use distilled water because I want more sauce and don't want to sweeten anything up. Best sauces I've eaten only have peppers, vinegar, water and xantham gum to emulsify. Keeping it simple is the way to go for me
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Bingo. Carrots, juice, and all this stuff, people forget good sauces can be simple. Scared of water, and even vinegar. I'm also a "pepper sauce" person. I like all sauce types but a lot have limited uses. 
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
Considering vinegar is flavored water (when it says 5% acidity it means 5% acetic acid diluted with 95% water) you are using water, or in other ingredients as well. And if cooking a long time it can be useful if you are cooking down and don't want to add any other flavors or sweeten. Cooking down from thin to thick with water can richen all the flavors. And the water evaporates so you are not using it, but if you used pineapple juice the sugars would be left behind. Water is the #1 neutral ingredient, don't be skeerd. 

 
Bingo. Carrots, juice, and all this stuff, people forget good sauces can be simple. Scared of water, and even vinegar. I'm also a "pepper sauce" person. I like all sauce types but a lot have limited uses. 
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I agree the last sauce I made only had Caribbean Reds(30 peppers) 3 tomatoes from the garden, garlic That I grew,some walla walla onion,1/4 cu of apple cider vinegar and a pinch of Mediterranean sea salt. It tastes really good.
 
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Suezotiger said:
My first sauce I added a little water in addition to tomato juice and vinegar but it was more of a barbecue sauce.  Now I'm in the process of making a fermented hot sauce with only a little water added.  I used a bell pepper instead
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What's the bell pepper for?
 
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And if your sauce tastes perfect but is too thick, or was just right, and you cooked it until it was too thick, just add water. Because that's what was cooked out. I don't get the "anti-water" stance. How else do you thin a sauce when you don't want to add any more flavors to your perfect sauce? The idea of using apple juice because you have a stance against water baffles me. Water is neutral, and in almost every ingredient you used anyway. Like I said when you add vinegar, you are adding 95% water, but maybe you don't want more acid. Color me confused.
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
And if your sauce tastes perfect but is too thick, or was just right, and you cooked it until it was too thick, just add water. Because that's what was cooked out. I don't get the "anti-water" stance. How else do you thin a sauce when you don't want to add any more flavors to your perfect sauce? The idea of using apple juice because you have a stance against water baffles me. Water is neutral, and in almost every ingredient you used anyway. Like I said when you add vinegar, you are adding 95% water, but maybe you don't want more acid. Color me confused.
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I've been quietly wondering the same thing. Quietly only because I haven't made HS yet.
 
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Kitchen sink syndrome. The more that's in there the better and water is "plain" so must add flavor! Why add water when I could be adding __________?

I'm coining Kitchen sink syndrome. It's like KISS but KSS. ;)
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
Kitchen sink syndrome. The more that's in there the better and water is "plain" so must add flavor! Why add water when I could be adding __________?

I'm coining Kitchen sink syndrome. It's like KISS but KSS. ;)
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I was listening to a guy (John Palmer) discuss "clarity of flavor" (fewer ingredients) versus flavor complexity, earlier this morning ... essentially the same concept.
 
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Clarity of flavor, very nice. I use water in many recipes for more than just hot sauce perfect neutral medium. For thinning without changing flavor profile. Or just adding volume ,just can't go haywire.
Kss yes! Many of my favorite recipes are the ones using a few quality ingredients but produce monumental flavor. That's why I love tapas!!! So simple yet so explosive, really amazing :)
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
And if your sauce tastes perfect but is too thick, or was just right, and you cooked it until it was too thick, just add water. Because that's what was cooked out. I don't get the "anti-water" stance. How else do you thin a sauce when you don't want to add any more flavors to your perfect sauce? The idea of using apple juice because you have a stance against water baffles me. Water is neutral, and in almost every ingredient you used anyway. Like I said when you add vinegar, you are adding 95% water, but maybe you don't want more acid. Color me confused.
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+1. This is exactly where I've used additional water before. Plus, in ferments, I like to add a 5.2% salted brine, which of course has water in it. Works out great for me.
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
And if your sauce tastes perfect but is too thick, or was just right, and you cooked it until it was too thick, just add water. Because that's what was cooked out. I don't get the "anti-water" stance. How else do you thin a sauce when you don't want to add any more flavors to your perfect sauce? The idea of using apple juice because you have a stance against water baffles me. Water is neutral, and in almost every ingredient you used anyway. Like I said when you add vinegar, you are adding 95% water, but maybe you don't want more acid. Color me confused.
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Great point about the use of water and its effect on flavor.  The reason I'm so big on apple juice is to keep the pH down while thinning out a thick sauce.  I don't ferment all that often, so most of the time I use vinegar to lower the pH.  I've found that just vinegar (especially white vinegar) gives my sauces too strong a bite (for me) when I get the pH down to shelf stable levels. 
 
It's also worth noting that my tap water has a really high pH (9.1), so my argument for using apple juice over water is pretty specific to just me.  :rolleyes:  I guess I could just go buy some distilled water at the grocery store.
 
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