My ginger carrot hot sauce is missing something, but I can't tell what
Ever since I learned how easy homemade hot sauce is, I try to experiment with a new batch or recipe from time to time. My most recent batch highlights carrot and Ginger, with mild jalapeno heat.
It tastes good, and the ginger is very apparent, but my SO and I feel it's missing something. Of course you can't taste it through the internet, but based on the recipe, can you provide any suggestions for what can help round it out or take it from good to great?
Ingredients:
- 3 carrots, 4 oz
- 1 knob of ginger, peeled, 2.5 oz
- 4 jalapeños, 8 oz
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/4 of a red onion, didn't weigh
- 1/2c apple cider vinegar
- 1/2c water
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 bunch of cilantro, maybe a couple of tsp after chopping
Method:
- Thinly sliced carrots, ginger, peppers, onion, and garlic
- Sautee until brown around the edges (carrots and ginger took longer, garlic was just for a minute to avoid burning)
- Blend with salt, water, vinegar, and cilantro.
- Strain solids
Any ideas on what it's missing? Some kind of tomato product? Something earthy like cumin? More garlic or onion? Something else entirely?
EDIT: Thanks for all the great feedback! I poured a few small samples to test various additions based on your suggestions, and I ended up adding another 1/2 tsp of salt (for a total of 1 tsp), 1/2 tsp MSG, the juice of half a small lime, 1 squeeze of honey (estimated just shy of 1 tsp) and then thickened with 1/8 tsp of xanthan gum since it was really thin.
Next time, I definitely want to try roasting the peppers and veggies, and I'll try a blend of peppers. I'm curious about other ginger preparation methods, too, such as raw, roasted, or powder. But for a mildly hot ginger sauce, I'm calling this experiment a success!
Looks pretty good to me, maybe just salt? Sriracha and the bottle of Melinda's I have with me both have around 1.6% sodium by weight (80 mg sodium for a 5g serving). With roughly 25oz of stuff in your recipe and half a tsp salt (0.1oz salt = 0.04oz sodium), you have only 0.16% sodium, so 1/10 the salt of other hot sauces.
Maybe you could shred the carrots, add a bit of salt, then press out some of the water with a towel so you don't dilute the sauce as much.
Edit: edited to adjust for the fact that sodium is only ~40% of the weight of table salt.
Thanks for the suggestion! Increasing the sky definitely helped.
my first guess as to what it's missing would be umami - try adding fish sauce, soy sauce, or something similar? a dash of straight MSG would work too.
you could also try roasting half of the carrots under a broiler, that will put them through the Maillard reaction and the browned bits will contribute some umami. sauteeing the carrots does that as well, though the dry heat of the roaster is a little more conducive to it than the wet heat of the saute pan. I think doing half-and-half and then combining them could give you a nice flavor profile. roasting some or all of the garlic may help as well.
I was thinking the same thought. Missing an umami profile.
I was thinking a splash of fish sauce, or even Worcestershire sauce (which is fish sauce).
I really like the idea of roasting the carrots over sauteed too.
Thank you! I didn't have fish sauce on hand, but MSG definitely made a difference. And I'll definitely try roasting next time.
I don't make hotsauce, but do make sauces a lot for BBQ. Sometimes is just a matter of adding more salt. I'd consider giving that a large extra pinch. If you're not shy about MSG, that's also not a bad option. Fish sauce also can offer some nice depth.
Sometimes flavors mature after a few hours. I'd set aside some to compare/contrast later.
In absence of being able to try, I'd try earthy or some sweet. Cinnamon or Nutmeg might make for a nice twist.
A little sugar or honey might help elevate as well.
I also like to layer multiple types of chili powders in sauces to have a front and back burn. If they're available, a few poblano peppers might add some extra flavor depth without too much heat. I'd consider a small bit of habenaro, but I also am a glutton for punishment sometimes.
Future recipie I'd consider roasting the garlic first rather than trying in the pan. I'm the kind that would just eat roasted garlic though.
Oh, one last thought...Make sure to salt when roasting or sauteeing, it'll be a lot more effective there than later.
Great suggestions! I've roasted my peppers and veggies in the past and I think you're right about it being preferable. I'll do that next time.
And upping the salt and adding MSG and a dash of honey made a huge difference.
You're also right about time. It's amazing how the flavors develop after a day or 2.
Thank you!
I would say add more salt (don't be shy), a little sugar or honey, and a second kind of acid. Lemon or lime juice would work well. Maybe try adding a hotter pepper like serrano or habanero (doesn't have to be much). You might find inspiration in this recipe or this one.
The second recipe suggests grinding the ginger in a mortar and pestle. You might get more punch out of it that way. Alternatively, chop it fine. Mincing the garlic will also make it less mild than when you slice it.
Roasting your vegetables is going to make them sweeter and milder, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend that if you're looking to add pep. But it could work if your chiles are hot enough and you have a good salt/acid level.
Was thinking lime would be good in this. Glad somebody else mentioned an acid!
Great suggestions I included an edit in the original post with the modifications I made. Thank you!
I saw your edit and I'm very interested in making this! What did you think was the best addition? Or do you think doing all of the additions would be best?
Are you particularly looking for ginger-forward sauces? Because while I had fun making this one, if you're looking at getting started with hot sauces, I've got some less experimental recipes and notes.
Here are my thoughts on this batch:
Definitely will do next time:
Roast peppers and veggies instead of sauté: deeper flavor, soften texture for easier blending, natural sweetness
Increase salt: next time I'll start with a full tsp, and go up from there until it tastes right
Helpful, but not necessary:
MSG: after tasting both in different samples, I preferred msg over Worcestershire sauce. Glutamate or umami are definitely good, but I normally just get that from the food I put the hot sauce on, rather than relying on the sauce to deliver that component.
Lime juice or some other second acid: normally I like lots of vinegar in my hot sauce, using all vinegar and almost no water, but I think the ginger gives plenty of punch, so I didn't feel the need to overdo it with straight vinegar. The lime juice was good, but I don't think it was necessary.
Blend of peppers: I used straight jalapeño because they're cheap at the store and a great "baseline" pepper, but I might try something more fruity or floral next time.
More herbs: I've never thought "hmm, too much cilantro." I've got a great lemon basil plant this season, so I'm going to try that in a future batch.
I wouldn't bother next time:
Honey or sugar: especially if you roast your peppers and veg, you'll have plenty of sweetness already, and I don't want to mask the peppers and veg.
Didn't try this time:
Nuts or fat: I didn't have any on hand, but I'll have to look at some recipes to see how they're used.
Carrots are pretty sweet, and the oligosaccharides in the onion will probably augment that, so you probably don't need any more sugar. 1/2 cup of vinegar seems plenty, and if not, the lack of tartness would probably pretty easy for you to assess. My suspicion is that you don't have enough salt - even after cooking it down, those veggies have plenty of water, and 1/2 tsp is quite a small amount.
A lot of people saying it could lack umami, but plenty of perfectly balanced hot sauces have basically no glutamate in them. If anything, hot sauce as a condiment is meant to compliment the savory, umami, and starchy flavors of regular food. Come to think of it, how are you testing your hot sauce? It might make sense to try it with a range of different foods - bread, meat, corn, eggs, etc. - and see whether it's a better match for some of these specifically.
Thanks for your input. I really wanted to be careful about adding too much sugar since the onions and carrots already brought some of those flavors. I ended up adding just a dash of honey, but not enough to make the sauce seem sweet.
Great point about the tasting, by the way. I was using crackers and corn chips, although admittedly that's not something I would actually use this sauce on, so I should probably consider different applications in the future.
At first I was hesitant about using MSG or Worcestershire sauce because I've never had to use it on my other sauces. But after testing a small sample with a Sprinkle of msg, it really did make a difference. But I'm certainly not going to add that as a staple in my future hot sauces.
Thanks again for your great insight!
Try walnuts for fat and umami. One other thing that can randomly transform a hot sauce: cloves.
Second for fats.
That Japanese restaurant default salad dressing is carrot ginger oil, basically emulsified together. (Plus tiny bits of salt and vinegar optional)
You need some kind of fats to really carry the umami. You can load up umami all day but if there's nothing to help "bind them to your taste buds" you're wasting your time and budget. (Please note the previous statement is not a scientific statement; I am a home chef and agree experimentally, while skimming articles like this. Eli5 help welcome on how taste buds receptors actually work. )
Try rendered animal fats for max flavour. Nuts are cool too. Plain canola oil or rape seed oil for the cleanest taste.
3rd for fats! There's a reason a chef titled their book Salt Fat Acid Heat. If a dish feels like it's just missing something but you can't pinpoint what, it's probably one of these four components.
Yeah, 4th for Fats. I was going to recommend a little melted (or maybe clarified) butter, and a little hit of cayenne pepper.
If you're feeling like experimenting, I've really enjoyed adding some cinammon to things intended to be somewhat spicy.
Thanks for the suggestion! I had never considered using fats or nuts in my hot sauces before. I'll have to look for some recipes that use them to get an idea on how that works.
Perhaps a small amount of xanthan gum to change the viscosity of the sauce? "Mouth feel" can change the flavor quite a bit.
Great idea! I definitely wanted to thicken it, and it really improved the overall experience.
I'd think about lemongrass, basil, lime leaf, and/or mint, as well as fish sauce to give it a Thai flavor profile. For a shelf-stable sauce, you probably don't want to add too much green stuff though - the cilantro flavor may not be holding up very well.
One dirty chef trick I learned was to use a mix of ground peppers. Cayenne, black pepper, white pepper (you can also sub in ground Szechuan peppercorn or green peppercorns after cooking - those spices are heat sensitive). The theory is that each variety of pepper stimulates taste buds on different areas of the tongue. This pepper mix works with everything including sweets, and we commonly kept pre-peppered salt mix around the kitchen for seasoning.
Those Thai herbs sound great! I'll have to keep them in mind as I get more exotic with my creations. And I didn't know that about the various types of pepper. That's a good thing to know!
Try some sesame oil. For anything ginger-y I find it rounds out the taste in a nice way
That's a great idea! I'll have to give that a try.
Probably late, but since you already brought up cardamom, whenever I want carrots to taste fuller and more savory I add a pinch of Ras el Hanout. Just be careful with that, though, it easily overpowers dishes if you use too much; unless I want that "North Africa" note I usually try to stay below the line of consciously noticeable.
That's good to know! I use carrots in most of my red sauces, so having a trick to up that flavor is a good thing to keep in the back of my mind.
sugar! the umami suggestion was good too
Great suggestion! My original thought was that the onions and carrot would give enough sweetness on their own, but I don't think I cook them long enough to really develop those sweet notes. Adding a dash of Honey really helped to bring some fullness to the sauce.
My favorite addition to carrot-based hot sauce is habanero. You can dial back the heat considerably by removing pith and seeds, and it doesn't take much. (I like to char them them first, then peel the charred skin off too.)
I'm building up the courage to try habanero. This sauce was intentionally milder since I wanted to focus on the ginger, and I normally include Serrano in my green sauce or arbol in my red sauce, but I've never taken the leap to habanero. I want to because I've had so much about their fruity and floral flavor.