Weird Combinations?

[AndyW]

I've seen a lot of really interesting fruit-pepper combinations recently, like blueberry ghost and peach/mango hab, and even pineapple with anything. But do you have any flavor combinations that you like that aren't all that common (unless it's an unreleased sauce project you'd rather keep under wraps).

Right now I have a reaper-banana sauce in the fridge that I thought about fermenting, but ran out of jars. The other two are, I think, lemondrop pineapple and manzano, hab, pineapple. I'm just doing 16oz batches because I really don't know what I'm doing. It's been fun so far though.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Berries work great with chipotle. I would say especially raspberry.
 
Weird combos that work? Hmm. Well orange works good in BBQ but not weird. Smoked onion is kinda weird as a main ingredient but made a killer sauce by Butterfly Bakery of Vermont. They use maple and smoke a lot.
 
I've had bananas in sauce (Dirty Dick's Hot Sauce). All kinds of berries, ctirus, whatever. Nothing sticks out as weird.

 

[Edmick]

Queen majesty makes a coffee hot sauce that is pretty good. I've also had some house made hot sauce at a bbq joint in texas that had coffee in it and it was also very good.

 

[karoo]

Pomegranate and red Aji jelly ,  not weird ,  just different ,  like me.
 
All my red Ajis, Colorado , Valle de Canca, Bubba.

 

[AndyW]

Maybe different is a better way to put it. I just hadn't heard of banana in any other sauces.

And those coffee sauces sound really good and interesting.

 

[SmokenFire]

I have a sauce running now with ground cherries, peaches, scotch brains and trin seasoning peppers.  Over the years I have used literally all kinds of stuff in my test batches; dragonfruit (really great when ripe - bulks up a sauce nicely), starfruit, jackfruit, papaya, passionfruit, figs, bitter melon, gooseberries, kumquat, lychee, quince, elderberries, persimmon, mullberries, etc.  The only berry I really don't care for in sauce is strawberry as those seeds are a real b!tch to get out of the sauce after blending.  Seedless strawberry jam though - pretty awesome.  
 
Whenever I come across new stuff at the grocers I always buy a couple to taste them.  And then I'm all like "I wonder what peppers would pair well with this in a hot sauce?" 

 

[AndyW]

I could definitely see a lot of those going well in a hot sauce! Star fruit and papaya sound like they'd be pretty unique.

I think ground cherries would work really well for something like a pineapple salsa in addition to tomatoes or even tomatillos since that extra sweetness is there.

 

[Edmick]

Anyone tried soda in a sauce? Was poking around the web and found a recipe that used dr pepper in a wing sauce. Seems like it could work.

 

[SmokenFire]

Anyone tried soda in a sauce? Was poking around the web and found a recipe that used dr pepper in a wing sauce. Seems like it could work.

 
Never even thought of it, but I imagine it could be good.  Especially for a wing sauce.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Dr. Pepper sauces were popular like 10 years ago. They even went commercial. Cola, cherry cola too.
 
Real ginger ale works good too, not the fake stuff tho. Ginger beer.
 

 

[Ashen]

Red jalapeno, vanilla and rosemary.

Without sugar, vanilla is actually a crazy intense savoury flavour enhancer.

 

[MikeUSMC]

Weirdest combinations?

Water and salt. Hands down

 

[jesseo715]

I just made a sugar rush/scotch bonnet/aji limo sauce with lemon, ginger, and garlic. I don't know that I've seen ginger in many sauces.

 

[Thegreenchilemonster]

Aji charapita, naranjilla, passion fruit, and citrus.

 

[Thegreenchilemonster]

Cashew apple, guava, blackberry, tons of citrus flavor and aromatic root veggies, 10 different varieties of dried peppers, and fermented rocoto mash.

 

[D3monic]

Ive used cherry coke, barqs rootbeer and dr pepper in bbq sauce. They work well especially cooked down

 

[SmokenFire]

How did those last two sauces turn out GCM?  And are you able to get fresh cashew apple?  I've never seen it around these parts, but have had a liquer made with it.

 

[Thegreenchilemonster]

How did those last two sauces turn out GCM?  And are you able to get fresh cashew apple?  I've never seen it around these parts, but have had a liquer made with it.

They both came out very well. The naranjilla/passion fruit combo really compliments aji charapita very well. In Peru they use cocona fruit in combination with aji charapita for salsa. Since I can't get cocona fruit here, I subbed naranjilla, which has a similar flavor profile.

I used marañon pulp(cashew apple pulp), in the other sauce. I'm a big fan of the exotic flavor of the fruit. In my area I can get whole cashew apples frozen, and cashew apple pulp, but not fresh cashew apples.

 

[Rajun Gardener]

I've got persimmon trees dead ripe and could probably fill up 2 wheelbarrows. I looked for a persimmon hot sauce and found this old thread. Does anyone have other recipes I can use?
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/52084-any-ideas-for-a-persimmon-hot-sauce/

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Find a recipe with peaches and substitute, I image it would come out pretty good. Never had persimmon tho.