Aging Chilis for Hot Sauce

[scott123]

Over the past few months I have morphed into a buffalo wings fanatic. I've been playing around with bunch of different hot sauces - no matter which I work with, by the time I get the intensity of flavor/heat that I'm looking for, the salt content is through the roof. So I'm going to take a shot at making my own sauce.

Does anyone know anything about the process Tabasco/Franks/Texas Pete's uses to age peppers?

Also, I'm not sure I can get Tabasco peppers in my area - will other peppers produce a similar sauce? I can picture anaheims, jalapenos, serranos and habaneros at my supermarket, but neither fresh tabasco or cayenne peppers ring a bell.

[Jason Perlow]

The McIlhenny Tabasco process is highly time intensive -- McIlhenny packs "Tabasco" (which are different than Cayennes) peppers -- which grow on Avery Island, LA, into oak barrels (that used to contain Jack Daniels) mashed up in heavy rock salt that comes from the massive salt dome on the island and lets them cure and ferment for 3 years. Then after 3 years they remove the pepper mash from the barrels and then cook them with vinegar and then strain the sauce. Its a unique process that no other hot sauce manufacturer goes thru.

eG Tabasco Thread

Other types of peppers will produce other kinds of hot sauces but they will definitely taste different. There are other producers of hot sauce in Louisiana, such as Crystal -- but that is a hot sauce that is made in a single day, its just cayennes, vinegar and salt that is cooked together, blended and strained.

[jayt90]

If you find a recipe that can use concentrated chile oil, then it may be worthwhile to use a traditional Chinese method to make a very hot oil:

Heat a wok over a high gas flame and add peanut oil ( or other oils with a high smoke point, such as grapeseed, mustard, or walnut). When it gets close to the smoke point, add dried chopped peppers, a few at a time, and cook for a few minutes, until the pepper heat is extracted into the oil. There will be a certain amount of light, peppery smoke in the kitchen, and you should avoid breathing it, or getting it in your eyes. When cooled, strain the oil and reserve in a jar.

[andiesenji]

I suggest that you try some of the pepper mash from this place

Jim has done the primary work for you and the product is excellent.

I do warn you that it will become addictive. I know others on the Chile-Heads list who have gone deep into making many, many hot sauces.

[TongoRad]

scott- have you considered adding powdered or crushed chiles to your sauce? Depending on what you use it can pack quite a whollop. The hottest wings I ever had used this technique, particularly with a combination of piquin and habanero, though cayenne will do in a pinch.

[jsolomon]

Tabasco is certainly unique, and a good product. However, I would urge you to try different peppers and things such as fruit and vegetable juices (think mangoes, lemons, limes, carrots). The product you'll come up with will certainly be flavorful and unique, but also much less time intensive than trying to make what Tabasco makes on Avery Island.

The other benefits are being able to do things like tweak the vinegars for other flavors, added mustard, more garlic, etc. I think you might enjoy branching out to things further away from the Tabasco end of the spectrum.

[DTBarton]

I make my own hot sauce and it works out great. Many, many recipes available through online search. I like a nice shot of cilantro in mine.

Don't know if you have a place to do it, but I grow my own peppers. They are easy to grow, requires some patience. Here in Maryland, I put them in the first week of May, and you really don't harvest much until August, with September and October being the best times.

I get my plants from this place in New Jersey, lots to choose from, including several varieties of cayenne and tabasco.

http://www.chileplants.com/default.asp

[NulloModo]

Scott - one thing that I have found that helps in buffalo wings if you are wanting extra burn without extra salt from lots more sauce, just add a capful or so of Dave's Total Insanity or Blair's After Death, it adds some good flavor, and a lot of heat for just a small about to a large batch of stuff.

[DTBarton]

Another way to cut the salt a little is to dilute your hot sauce some, you can use vinegar or chicken broth. Also, make sure you use unsalted butter.

[scott123]

scott- have you considered adding powdered or crushed chiles to your sauce? Depending on what you use it can pack quite a whollop. The hottest wings I ever had used this technique, particularly with a combination of piquin and habanero, though cayenne will do in a pinch.

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Tongo, I have considered it, but to be honest, I think dried chilis and fresh chilis are little like dried and fresh ginger - completely different animals. Although for some dishes, dried chilis are wonderful, for buffalo wings, I really prefer the flavor of the brined chili.

[scott123]

Thanks everyone, those are all great ideas. I've had friends with very non-green thumbs grow chilis in my area. That sounds like a plan. I think chilis could be one of the few plants the deers in my yard won't violate ;)

[Mjx]

Just started aging some chili mash, with the 104.5 g of possibly-chilies-de-arbol I harvested this morning, following the procedure outlined on the Leeners site. Slight variation: I used an immersion blender, since the meat grinder I could have used would have required about an hour to scrape off the dodgy bits sticking to it, here and there.

 

ETA Thanks to Andie, for the pointer, upthread, which led me to the instructions for the mash.