The Last Bottle of Inner Beauty Real Hot Sauce

[Taylor]

Chris was kind enough to send me some of the Inner Beauty that he made and it was quite good. It has been about 7 years since I had the real version, so it's tough to know exactly how similar it is, but as soon as I smelled it I remembered the old Inner Beauty. I finally gave it a try and it was very flavorfull. Reminded me just like Inner Beauty. The one thing is I don't think it was as hot as IB, but I could be just wrong about that.

Anyways, I finally got all the ingredients and am going to give it a try tomorrow. Thanks Chris!

[Chris Amirault]

My pleasure, Taylor. Do report on your results.

I seem to remember that Inner Beauty had two different strengths, didn't it? In any event, I've definitely scaled the heat back from my wicked-pissah-hot preferences to just wicked-hot. Guests, children, you know. Maybe I need to make a WPH batch next.....

[Rebecca263]

Gee, Chris, I know how you must have felt about that last bottle of IB. Soup is my favorite comfort food. Before my #1Boy had to leave last year, he made me lots of soups, a different one every day, for months. Once he was gone, he told me to look in the freezer. Wow! There was a tiny army of small plastic containers, each with a different bit of soup ensconced in it's translucent uniform, little soldiers- all waiting in formation, to comfort me. Well, it was like this, I woudn't share one bit. At first I only had one cup every week, then on my birthday I ate 3 different cups in one day! Each time I had a cup of soup, I remembered his face over the steaming bowls, and his hours in the kitchen, making soup was how he busied himself while I slept after radiation therapy. Finally, when there were only a dozen or so left, I just ate them, anytime that I felt like it. There was one day that he had achieved the peak of mushroom barley soup meals, I had scraped the pot from it; he had even saved a cupful of THAT one. The soldiers lasted one week more. I just ate and felt forlorn, and ate and felt loved. If you can't get more of something, I think that it's just better to eat and enjoy at will, and then enjoy the memory.

[Taylor]

My pleasure, Taylor. Do report on your results.

I seem to remember that Inner Beauty had two different strengths, didn't it? In any event, I've definitely scaled the heat back from my wicked-pissah-hot preferences to just wicked-hot. Guests, children, you know. Maybe I need to make a WPH batch next.....

←

Alright, I literally just finished making it and, as of now, have only smelled it and had a small taste of it.

Firstly, Inner Beauty did have two different strengths, but your version was the hotter one as I believe the two versions were Inner Beauty Hot Sauce and Inner Beauty Real Hot Sauce.

As for my sauce, I am pleased with it, but I must admit that I think yours might have been a bit more flavorful and a bit more comparable to the original. Mine is definitely hotter, which isn't a surprise as I used 16 Habanero Peppers and did not seed them at all.

The recipe I tried to use was the one from the Serious Eats website. I used:

16 peppers (took stems out but kept all seeds in)

1/2 cup of White Vinegar

A tiny bit less than 1/2 cup of canola oil

1/2 cup of pineapple juice

a little less than 1/4 cup of OJ

1 fresh mango chopped up into parts

a bit less than 1/4 a cup of honey

A bit less than 1/4 a cup of molasses

About 1/8th a cup of brown sugar (I wanted to use more but my sugar was rock hard and a pain to get out)

A bit more than 1 cup of the cheap yellow mustard (I think I should have used a bit less than 1 cup here)

A Tablespoon of each of Cumin, Chili Powder, Curry Powder, Turmeric, and All Spice, along with some pepper and salt.

Chris, your hot sauce looked a tiny bit darker than mine, which I think had to do with the mustard I used. Also, I did not cook my ingredients and just took all those ingredients and threw them in a blender.

Anyways, this was a lot of fun. Given that I now have about 40 ounces of hot sauce, I probably won't try for another batch for a while, but if anyone wants to try some of mine, I'll be happy to send some over. I just need to get a smaller jar to send.

[Sony]

I'm wondering how the flavor of the homemade sauce changes over time, and if the way it potentially changes depends on how it's stored......anyone?

If it doesn't change much or improves, I might just go for a full batch and let it hang around (I've never tried Inner Beauty, but I'm a hot sauce fiend ). If not, I'll figure out hot to scale down, but I'd rather not do that if it's not necessary- handling scotch bonnets is not my favorite kitchen activity!

[Taylor]

I'm wondering how the flavor of the homemade sauce changes over time, and if the way it potentially changes depends on how it's stored......anyone?

If it doesn't change much or improves, I might just go for a full batch and let it hang around (I've never tried Inner Beauty, but I'm a hot sauce fiend  ). If not, I'll figure out hot to scale down, but I'd rather not do that if it's not necessary- handling scotch bonnets is not my favorite kitchen activity!

←

My first fear was where the hell I would store this and how long it would last. I do believe that it will last for a while no matter what, but I do have a plan to ensure that.

As a wine drinker, I own one of those wine cork pump stoppers. Just a rubber cork type thing that you put in your half bottle of wine and then pump it to get all the air out. Since I had a finished bottle of wine laying around, I washed it out and poured my sauce in there and the plan is to use one of those corks and pump it every time. Doing this, the sauce should literally last a lifetime.

By the way, using the cooking latex gloves made handling the habanero peppers like handling anything. I just bought a huge supply of them for cooking and think that they were well worth the money ($18 for 300). Here's the ones I got: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FKJPD8

[Chris Amirault]

The flavor does change but not in a bad way, and it's pretty subtle, fewer bright notes at the top but still deep and long. The sauce I made above in Sept has been doing fine on the shelf, and based on the very long life of the open IBs I had down through the years, I don't expect any problems with the homemade stuff.

[Taylor]

I did a side by side comparison of Chris's and my hot sauce. I must admit, Chris's is better. I am pretty sure it is because I used too much mustard, which covers up some of the other great flavors the sauce has.

[jmcgrath]

Another way to get to Chile-Heads  home page,

Mark's home page

You should really check out his barbecue photos.

or

email Mark at    mstevens@exit109.com

←

This brought back some fond memories. See 9th Semi-Annual Concord BBQ/Hotluck in the Photo Gallery. It's been a few years, so perhaps it's time for another hotluck. I think I have an unopened bottle of Inner Beauty floating around. We could do a taste comparison with homemade versions. I also have a bottle of the original (made in Belize) Melinda's. We could do a comparison with the Costa Rican version.

Jim

[Chris Amirault]

Well how about this! 

 

I gave up hope for sating my Inner Beauty jones long ago... until this morning!!

[scubadoo97]

Well that's pretty darn cool! Or hot as the case may be

[lindag]

My current favorite (and I have many different brands) is Dirty Dick's Hot Sauce. 

Tried it side-by-side with a bunch of others and it was the clear favorite.

[chromedome]

On 01/12/2016 at 11:20 AM, Chris Amirault said:

I gave up hope for sating my Inner Beauty jones long ago... until this morning!!

 

Now *that* is customer service done right.

[LPShanet]

On 12/1/2016 at 10:20 AM, Chris Amirault said:

Well how about this! 

 

I gave up hope for sating my Inner Beauty jones long ago... until this morning!!

So what's the report? Does it taste like the original? And are any of the same people involved or did someone just buy the rights to the name (or steal it)? Also, is it meant to be like the IB Hot Sauce or the IB Real Hot Sauce? The two had different flavor profiles, not just heat levels. Any info greatly appreciated, since I was also a HUGE IB hot sauce fan (especially the Real Hot Sauce). 

[Chris Amirault]

My memory is not as good as yours, I fear, but it seems to be based on the IBRHS. It's very good, to be sure! I went through one bottle quickly but am saving the next. When I crack it open I'll report back. 

[LPShanet]

1 hour ago, Chris Amirault said:

My memory is not as good as yours, I fear, but it seems to be based on the IBRHS. It's very good, to be sure! I went through one bottle quickly but am saving the next. When I crack it open I'll report back. 

 

And how does the new one compare to your homemade version?

[natasha1270]

I am so impressed - You've already received and finished one bottle?! That is some true hot sauce love right there. Glad they have rebooted the brand.

[Chris Amirault]

It's better than my homemade version, which truth be told I haven't made for a while.....

[Susie Q]

On 9/16/2007 at 5:39 PM, Chris Amirault said:

Well, it took a few months, but my habanero plant finally bore enough fruit to make a batch of ersatz Inner Beauty. Here's the recipe, which looks like this in the bottle with a few left-over chiles:

I've not yet done a side-by-side, but they're pretty darned close. I'd love comments on the recipe, particularly from those who've had the elixir that is the subject of this topic.

 

I wouldn't mind trying Chris' recipe but the link doesn't work any more. Can anyone provide a link or pm me a copy of the recipe?

 Thanks.

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, Susie Q said:

 

I wouldn't mind trying Chris' recipe but the link doesn't work any more. Can anyone provide a link or pm me a copy of the recipe?

 Thanks.

 

I think it's this one:  Inner Beauty Hot Sauce Knock-off

[Susie Q]

Thanks. The link wouldn't work for me. My fiancé is a pepper head so I wanted to surprise him with this. I'll have to also get a commercial bottle of the sauce just to compare.

 

Edited to Add:  One of the original questions posed was what do you believe you have the last of. I'm sure there are other private stashes out there but I have two cases of original formula Campari. I use the new formula for parties.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Susie Q (log)

[innerbooty]

Hi,

  This is my first post on this board. I'm chiming in because, as others on this thread have experienced, my perhaps once-every-couple-of-years random Google search for Inner Beauty hot sauce actually bore fruit a couple of weeks ago, and I also bought a couple of bottles of the aforementioned Todd's re-creation. (My last batches were bought off the internet in the early 2000's) I give Todd's version a big Thumbs Up! It tastes almost exactly as I recall it tasting, from my days living in Cambridge in the 90's. Very exciting for me. I've exchanged a couple of emails with Todd, extending my thanks. But I wanted to ask anyone on this thread, who may have been around in the Boston area "back in the day", if they recall another variation of Chris's sauce, in a similarly designed bottle, called "Sweet Papaya Mustard". I loved it, and I was mentioning it to Todd, hoping me might be able to make that one as well, but he didn't know about it. And I can find exactly zero mention of it when I do Google searches. I know it existed. And I know it was really good, not nearly as hot as Inner Beauty, but very delicious. A bar in Cambridge my friends and I used to spend way too much time at called the Miracle of Science used to have bottles of both sauces on all the tables. Was I hallucinating, or did such a sauce really exist? Any tips, thoughts or leads would be greatly appreciated. But in the meantime, I've just excited to have Inner Beauty Hot Sauce back in my life.

  Thanks! - Steve

[Thanks for the Crepes]

5 hours ago, innerbooty said:

Hi,

  This is my first post on this board. I'm chiming in because, as others on this thread have experienced, my perhaps once-every-couple-of-years random Google search for Inner Beauty hot sauce actually bore fruit a couple of weeks ago, and I also bought a couple of bottles of the aforementioned Todd's re-creation. (My last batches were bought off the internet in the early 2000's) I give Todd's version a big Thumbs Up! It tastes almost exactly as I recall it tasting, from my days living in Cambridge in the 90's. Very exciting for me. I've exchanged a couple of emails with Todd, extending my thanks. But I wanted to ask anyone on this thread, who may have been around in the Boston area "back in the day", if they recall another variation of Chris's sauce, in a similarly designed bottle, called "Sweet Papaya Mustard". I loved it, and I was mentioning it to Todd, hoping me might be able to make that one as well, but he didn't know about it. And I can find exactly zero mention of it when I do Google searches. I know it existed. And I know it was really good, not nearly as hot as Inner Beauty, but very delicious. A bar in Cambridge my friends and I used to spend way too much time at called the Miracle of Science used to have bottles of both sauces on all the tables. Was I hallucinating, or did such a sauce really exist? Any tips, thoughts or leads would be greatly appreciated. But in the meantime, I've just excited to have Inner Beauty Hot Sauce back in my life.

  Thanks! - Steve

 

Hi Steve and welcome to eGullet!

 

You might try this version on the Serious Eats site.

[innerbooty]

Hi,

  Thanks for the link. I'd actually stumbled across that in my travels. But I think that's the original recipe for the Inner Beauty Hot Sauce, which I had thought about undertaking in the past. But Todd's new version means now I don't have to. What I am really curious about is if anyone can shed any light on the Sweet Papaya Mustard mystery. Todd seemed to think there had been two versions of Inner Beauty, one less hot than the other. I don't recall that. And this "other" sauce had it's own name. But maybe the Sweet Papaya Mustard was in fact just the hot sauce with way less scotch bonnet peppers, and a new name? Again, thanks for any info anyone might have...!

 

 

[LPShanet]

5 hours ago, innerbooty said:

Hi,

  Thanks for the link. I'd actually stumbled across that in my travels. But I think that's the original recipe for the Inner Beauty Hot Sauce, which I had thought about undertaking in the past. But Todd's new version means now I don't have to. What I am really curious about is if anyone can shed any light on the Sweet Papaya Mustard mystery. Todd seemed to think there had been two versions of Inner Beauty, one less hot than the other. I don't recall that. And this "other" sauce had it's own name. But maybe the Sweet Papaya Mustard was in fact just the hot sauce with way less scotch bonnet peppers, and a new name? Again, thanks for any info anyone might have...!

 

 

I don't remember the Sweet Papaya Mustard personally, but I mostly purchased original Inner Beauty outside the Boston area at various gourmet shops that carried it. But a thorough Google search does show that Sweet Papaya Mustard existed in the early 90s. Maybe it was only distributed in a smaller area. There were, in fact, two versions of the hot sauce as well. One was called Inner Beauty Hot Sauce, and the other was called Inner Beauty Real Hot Sauce. The names are deceptively similar, but the sauces were definitely different. The regular Hot Sauce was much more mustardy, and basically tasted like it had a hot papaya mustard base, as it happens. But the Real Hot Sauce was not only hotter, but had a different flavor profile, with less acid/mustard and sugar flavor, and more actual Scotch Bonnet/habanero flavor. I preferred the Real Hot Sauce personally, even though the heat level was a bit high for use on some foods. I still have a bottle of the original regular Hot Sauce in my fridge and can confirm that it has a definite mustard and papaya flavor to it. 

Edited June 7, 2017 by LPShanet
Corrections (log)