How should a hot sauce base taste?!


Question: How should a hot sauce base taste?
I'm making my own hot sauce, and what I mean by "base" is the sauce without any spice added to it yet. I used tomato paste, lemon juice concentrate, some orange juice concentrate, garlic powder, small chops of onions, salt, and water. I tasted it, and it really tastes very tomato-ey and you can taste the lemon as well. The lemon and orange were added in for flavor, but should it taste like this? Just tomato-ey? I'm going to load it up with habaneros to make it extra hot, of course.

Bonus question, how many habaneros should I add? Should it be like half base, half peppers, or should there be more peppers than base? Thanks.

Answers:

Most people add some form of sweetener, so my first thought would be that it should probably be sweeter. The Orange juice is a good start, but OJ can often be more tart than sweet. You're probably missing at least one of the following ingredients, which adds a lot of flavor...

Pick one or more...

1) Sugar
2) Honey
3) Molasses
4) Caramelized onion
5) Caramelized baked garlic

Habaneros are super hot, so I would suggest using only 1, or even just 1/2 of one depending upon the amount of sauce you're making. The amount of habanero can be adjusted to suit your personal taste.

In my opinion, it should definitely be more base than peppers. Half of a single pepper is more than enough to spice up a whole 4-quart pot of chili, and even that will still be extremely hot!

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To Give your sauce a flavour less tomatoey and lemony, add honey or brown sugar maybe about 2 tbsp to start.. Just to take away that tomato edge. then add your habaneros a couple at a time. I would say about 1/2 base and 1/2 hot peppers, My family does not like hot, so I am not sure, to me less hot is better., you can always add more . its much harder to take that hot away.It depends how hot you all like your food.



you shouldn't judge the taste until you add the peppers. start with a small amount and you can always add more. i woule blend and strain it once you have achieved the taste you want.

ipersonally, i would omit the fruits. would have used vinegar instead.



it should taste like that and bq it depends on how you want it to taste but just put little then taste then more than taste again like that so you don't over do it




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