Hot Sauce

One of the joys of living in downtown Seattle is easy access to the Pike Place market. It is a tourist destination of the city and is known for its waaay to jolly fish throwers.  For years, I have avoided it thinking that everything there would be absurdly marked up. But I recently realized that this tourist trap is actually the home of an amazing farmer’s market; with great prices and fresher produce than a grocery store.  So, I have been making it a habit to do my produce shopping there whenever possible and then fill in the rest of my weekly requirements at a traditional grocery store.  As a bachelor, there really are only a few things that are required in your kitchen at any given time.  One of which is hot sauce.  Recently, when preparing for my weekly food run, I realized my standard issue bottle of Frank’s Red Hot was empty.  I saw this as great opportunity to truly take advantage of the market and actually make my own hot sauce!

Before we go much further, let’s talk about what my objectives were for this sauce.  I’m past the point of eating excessively spice foods just to prove myself.  I’ve met ‘The Man’ hot sauce at Bellevue’s legendary Dixie’s BBQ.  I’ve trash talked at a couple wings places and paid the price.  And I have survived 5-stars at a few Asian holes in the wall.  I’ve been to places that a swig of milk would not bring me back from.  So please don’t bother to lecture me of the potency of habaneros or whatever other pepper you select from the Scoville scale.  I wanted a good kick, and some great flavor.

I started with a simple recipe I found online and customized.  At the market, I put together a good mix of peppers; 6 japelenos, 3 serranos, and 3 fresnos.  Other than that it was mostly salt and vinegar.  In preparing the sauce, I made sure to really maximize the kick by meticulously managing the seeds and assuring they made it into the pan.  The simmering process did the trick.  When I went to bottle my results, got a little on my hand and licked it off.  My tongue burned for about 30 minutes.  Further, despite washing my hands first, rubbing my face afterwards caused the affected skin to itch.  I was on to something!  But I was going to have to wait.  The recipe called for two weeks of aging.

So, how did it turn out?  Just ok.  The heat was definitely there.  The first bite of something with the sauce will catch your attention.  And the burn will linger on your tongue.  But you sort of acclimate to the heat.  Worse, the flavor is a tad bit bland.  It is definitely worth eating, but not worth writing home about (though, uh, I guess it’s worth wrong a blog post on).

But this is a process.  Since I’ve identified how to produce the heat, I have half of t he equation.  Perhaps a little more salt?  I can also review my spice rack for the appropriate enhancement.  A friend of mine who is quite an accomplished chef recommended letting the sauce age in the sun to better unlock the flavor of the peppers.  The opportunities are unlimited.  I think round two will happen this summer.

Recipe

Homemade Red Hot Sauce: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/homemade-red-hot-sauce-recipe/index.html