Re: [CH] need hot sauce recipe help (UPDATE)

Jim Graham (spooky130@cox.net)
Thu, 3 Jul 2008 15:48:33 -0500 

On Thu, Jul 03, 2008 at 10:51:16AM -0700, Rael64 wrote:
> Depending upon the size of the neck/opening of your bottles, the seeds
> may clog them up

I doubt that would happen with these bottles, but I'll heed the advice
and clean out as many seeds as I can (by hand).

Btw, to answer a question asked off-list, I do have a blender...as of
a little while ago (couldn't afford it, but bought one anyways).

> As for pH, yeah, one of Those in the Know will have to answer that one.

Turns out it's going to be guesswork anyways...I couldn't find my
test strips from my brewing stuff (which means they're still in
storage), nor could I find any locally (at least, not where I looked,
and my bad knee was starting to give out, so I had to stop looking).

> BTW, my experience has been that habs pulled while still green will
> often ripen off the vine;

Around here, my experience has been that, once picked (and sometimes
even before), they start to go bad.  I've been meaning to ask about
that here, but haven't gotten that far yet...oh, I guess I just did!


> I'd probably use malt vinegar since it's a mild vinegar (one guy was
> making hot sauce a few years back (decade?) who's products used malt
> vinegar;

I ended up going with a white vinegar recommended to me by the
always-kind Thai lady at Thai Market.  I'd picked a different one,
and asked about it relative to what you said above (plus the Japanese
sushi vinegar you mentioned).  I didn't understand everything she
said, but I did hear "Japanese vinegar" before she said something
like, "you making hot sauce, this the one I use" and she directed me
to a 32 oz bottle of vinegar in what looks like a bottle for bottled
water.  The label says:

              DISTILLED VINEGAR
             GOLDEN MOUNTAIN (r)
                 5% ACIDITY
                  DAM TRANG

She said it has a lot more flavor.  I got to my next stop,
opened it, and put a dab on my finger and tasted it.  Definitely a
better vinegar.  Very similar initial flavor, but without the sour
bite that follows.  We'll see, but I think it's going to work nicely.

Thai Market didn't have any peppers (except dried) yet---all still
on the plants...not a hint of red on 'em), so I bought two packs of
habs from Albertsons to add to mine.

So, based on various e-mails, here's how it's looking:

2 average sized white onions
1 bag baby carrots (peeled)
juice of 1 lime (I might add the fruit, too, just because it's there)
3 cups of the above vinegar (5% acidity...whatever that amounts to)
all of my cayenne and a bunch of habs
water ... maybe

Any last-minute comments/suggestions before I get started?

Thanks,
   --jim

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