Re: [CH] Hot Sauce
danceswithcarp (dcombs@bloomington.in.us)
Thu, 15 Jul 1999 10:57:38 -0500 (EST)
On Thu, 15 Jul 1999, [iso-8859-1] Leif Rasmussen wrote:
> How do I make a sauce out of it. I would like to make
> the simple ones with chile, vinegar and salt. But how
> much of each ingredient? and do I first make the chile
> into powder?
If you use 5% vinegar, then the amount of salt you use is up to your taste
buds and blood pressure; the vinegar is the preservative and the salt is
an added preservative but also is a taste enhancer. Normally we use an old
McIllhenny Island-type recipe: 1 gallon of vinegar/1 major handful (cup)
of salt (this is approximately 10% brine mix using water instead of
vinegar).
We make our vinegar/salt/habenero/red savina sauce by the gallons every
year (I want to go 2 years with our next batch) and we have done it
several ways. Now our cycle runs from Christmas to Christmas, and we use
half habeneros that we've dehydrated. We don't dehydrate to crispness,
just to tough leather, then we seal in airlock bags until xmas when we
bottle/can up the previous year's mix for family and friend presents.
We dump the dried habs in a pot and shake and stir them around until
they've settled out as dense as they can. Then we pour vinegar in to
about 1 inch below the tops of the habs. Then we raise the vinegar's temp
to a low simmer (NOT A BOIL--you'll mess with the acidity) until the habs
have reydrated and are firm. If you overheat/hydrate the habs will fall
apart which won't hirt anything, but for looks I like whole halves.
Once the peppers are at the right consistency pour the mix in a stone jar
or crock or clean plastic bucket and add the salt and garlic or whatever
and mix. Because of the hydrating the peppers should be flexible and have
collapsed enough to be covered by the vinegar you've used. If not, add
vinegar until you've got them covered.
Here's where you get to make more choices. A vinegar-brine mix that just
barely covers the peppers will obviously become hotter than a mix that is
greater than the amount of chiles. We do both. Right now the crock we
have aging has about 2 times the vinegar depth as peppers. That's partly
because it's red savina heavy, and partly because I don't like to make
screaming hot sauce out of habs. The 2/1 ratio gives a liquid that is
about a 3-3.5 after a year, and it is *mellow*.
After we've made the mix we cover it with plastic cling wrap with the
plastic placed right on the surface of the liquid. This keeps the
creatures away and seems to keep oxidation discoloration down (it'll turn
clear brown if left to the open air). Then we set it off to the side and
keep it at 70F or so until the next xmas. We drain all of the liquid off
and strainand squeeze the pulp through a clean Handiwipe and can it. Then
we take the pulp, puree it, and can it too for our own use. You can
actually reuse the pureed pulp after its year of soaking (if it's hab/red
savina) and put another dose of vinegar on it. The pureeing opens up more
surface area and the sauce is quite mellow--just don't use more vinegar
than pulp the second time through.
If you do get oxidation (doesn't hirt the taste) get some pure vegetable
food coloring and add red and yellow. This should bring it back to the
normal color, which is a purplish looking clear for red habs and red
savinas. I have been told by The Bread Master that this purple color may
be because of the iodine in the salt.
Oh, yeah, use canning salt or Kosher salt. Don't use any salt that's been
treated to be free flowing; it will give you a cloudy mix. And if you use
a plastic bucket don't make the lid airtight or the fermentation may give
you a pressure buildup.
I hope this helped. Our son named our mix "The Brew." It is so mellow
that you feel a glow when you eat it; good for eggs, salads, anything.
I think I'll have some now.
carp