Hot sauce recipe

If it’s simple Tabasco or Texas Pete hot sauce you mean, I’ve got a simple recipe. I usually start with about 2 cups rough chopped peppers (chopped with gloves on), seeds and all. I use chili, habenero, chipotle, and piquin when I can find them. Throw them in the blender and puree with enough vinegar to make a liquid, maybe add ¼ tsp. salt. Take that and simmer it on the stove about 2 hours, adding vinegar as you go to keep it liquid. Once cooled, I strain it through a fine mesh strainer and bottle. You can also strain through cheesecloth or a coffee filter if you don’t like too many solids. It will separate if you only strained through a strainer, but a quick shake takes care of that. Sometimes I throw in some red bell pepper or a roma tomato to cut it down a bit if I think the pepper are too hot (obviously, this isn't a taste-as-you-go thing).

I don’t use any sugar, but like your idea of adding raisins. That would make Sriracha sauce (a traditional Thai hot sauce).

And like Tom says, it does improve with age.

I see this as one of those projects where there is now a disconnect because now a days people just buy it off the store shelf. I can't believe how many people can't make spaghetti for example. I love cooking by scratch, using all fresh ingredients.

Oh 100% agreement there! We scratch cook as much as possible. Its also eco-friendly! Amazing how much less plastic and cardboard packaging we go through not buying pre-made stuff. We recently started making marinara from scratch and it's so much better than any jar sauce we've ever had. Went out and bought a "boat motor" (immersion blender) just for that - love that tool!

I also love my garden. Love to be cooking and going out side to pick the ingredients. Wish I had a bigger yard.
I know what you mean about the marinara sauce being the best you have ever had.
Could I have your marinara recipe?

Basically its 2 lbs. diced tomatoes (or two 16 oz. cans)
One medium onion finely chopped
½ green bell pepper finely chopped
6 cloves garlic minced
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbl. Oregano
1 Tbl. Basil
3 Bay leaves
Olive oil
Sautee onions, pepper and garlic in olive oil, add tomatoes and spices, simmer 1 hour, remove bay leaves, blend with immersion blender (or cool and use blender), then replace bay leaves and simmer another hour or more. we use the bell pepper to sweeten it, I've also used carrots.

Making your sauce right now.

Lemme know how it comes out and what changes you made.

2 table spoons brown sugar is the only change.

I will try this. Still have enchilada's from last night. I just copied and pasted it and emailed it to my self. For Later in the week.

I really want to try your recipe now. I already made too much on my last batch because it goes so far.

In my neck of the woods we also have what’s called “finishing sauce” – basically a pepper vinegar we put on pulled pork.

1 cup cider vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cayenne or course black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Simmer all for about 30 minutes, cool and bottle without straining.

Sounds promising. I will email it to my self for later.

Thank you Nick.
I got the raisins from my attempt at making A-1 sauce. I got all the ingredients in, but didn't think the raisins were important. I couldn't get it right. Once I broke down and put in purried raisins, it came out "perfect"

Just looked on my bottle and it has them listed. Did not know that. Interesting thanks. Now I'll see what I can use this new fangled raisin puree in.

It might improve as it ages, like fine wines
Tom

I didn't think about that Old-N-grey-n-wiser. I will keep that in mind and see if it gets better. The recipe I used called for a cup of vinegar.
Also, it called for a table spoon of white sugar. I replaced this with two table spoons of raisins (dried grapes) forgot how to spell it.

do you like more of a pepper taste or a tomato taste? How bold do you like your flavors?

Love all the flavors, blended in. Making the Super bowl salsa right now. But if I drop any of the ingredients or put too little or too much, it doesn't work out right. There really is a perfect ratio of the ingredients. (but each time you make it the ingredients are different, so the ratio is different)

Yeah, i gave up on a consistent salsa. Whatever I can find is how it turns out. Had a friend make some out of fresh tomatillos - called it green gasoline. Thought he was trying to kill me but it was crazy tasty.

Green gasoline sounds interesting!

Wasn't real sure about it since tomatillos are a member of the nightshade family, but I lived through a quart :)

so are tomatoes a member of the nightshade family, and as I recall white potatoes are too. One doesn't want to eat a part of any of those plants except the fruits/tubers

The nightshade family is also known as the "potato" family. I read where today's tomatos and potatos have actually been bred out of the"family", but the tomatillo still remains (as well as tobacco, chili pepers and some paprika). Yo're right James, scary stuff we humans eat!

Isn't this also why "love apples" as tomatoes were called in colonial times were considered poisonous?

They were considered poisonous, because the acid would desolve the metals from the dish's they ate from. The dish's were made of lead and other metals. So they thought the tomatoes were poisonous, being unaware of the metals.

So that's how it got started. Interesting!

for the longest time folks didn't eat tomatoes because they were considered poisonous because of their kinship to nightshade

Yes.

Yes to you both. There are still some strains of heirlooms out there (held by seed savers) that are still genetically nightshade. The term love apple came from the french because they thought apples had an aphrodisiac power. More information from culinary school I never thought I'd use.

Carol here we are getting into "hybrids" yet again.

Sure are! But at least these aren't all genetically modified ones … more like crossbreeding of plants not grafting of something foreign to a plant.

I really don't know the "taste" I am looking for. I mean how do you categorize it? I like Miguel's hot sauce, but I know you have never been there. I guess I want the classical hot sauce. and I can adjust from there.

How hot do you like it? :)

I like it hot. I know you can use test strips to see how hot it is. I haven't gone that far.

What taste are you trying to get, besides "hot"?

I do have a very good Salsa recipe (classical) if any one wants it.

Sure!

Classic Salsa for Caroltoo,
4 tomatoes
1 cup of onion
2 garlic cloves,
1 cilantro bunch,
juice from 2 limes
Jalapeno's I put in 4 medium sized ones and it is hot.
Salt and pepper to your taste.
I have made it a few times now and it is always a little different even if I keep the ingredients in the same ratio's.