Making hot sauce can be done with only a few simple ingredients of hot peppers, vinegar, and salt. If you are not using processes like fermentation or smoking, a few ingredients may not make a sauce with varying flavors. Choosing other ingredients to be added will require a general knowledge of flavor profiles and how they interact with other ingredients in a hot sauce.
Adding layers of flavoring utilizing more than one of the five main flavor profiles will allow other ingredients to be tasted throughout the sauce. This will negate any blandness, compliment other added flavors, and bring other flavors besides heat out in a hot sauce.
Layering flavors in a hot sauce
In the culinary world, there are five different tastes, also called flavor profiles, that provide the base of flavoring for all recipes. They are sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami. Spicey is not universally recognized by many as a flavor profile but it is obviously a prominent feature in hot sauce and is often also included by many. Recently “cool” has been added to depict the other end of the spectrum of taste but it too is not universally recognized as a flavor.
Many of these tastes can be found in hot sauces and layered, but not hidden, so they can be independently noticeable with each mouthful. Some foods may only have one or two of these flavors that stand out. Some such as salty, sour and sweet work well within a hot sauce and others like bitter may not be desired so is not used a s often. Although sour may also not be the desired flavor there are ways to balance it within a hot sauce.
Making a gourmet hot sauce
In recent years many hot sauce varieties have used exotic ingredients and are packed with a variety of non-traditional additives like fruits and vegetables. These adventures in expanding on a traditional hot sauce recipe have spawned the term “gourmet” to be attached to a hot sauce. This can create many layers of flavors within the hot sauce to provide a unique tasting alternative instead of just heat.
The heat of a hot sauce can be strong and overpower a sauce, but hot peppers work well with many other flavors if they are used right. The trick with making a great gourmet hot sauce that includes these other flavors is the balance of flavors and not letting any single flavor dominate…but the heat usually will. Taste-testing a hot sauce as you are making it will ensure that any single flavor may not stand out more than others.
Heat or spice is not widely recognized as a flavor profile
Although spicey is not recognized by everyone as being a “flavor” it is dominant in a hot sauce. The heat of a hot pepper will cut through almost any hot sauce regardless of the other ingredients, but hot peppers have a flavor to them aside from the heat. Habanero is considered to be fruity; serrano has a bitter flavor and jalapeno have a fresh essence to them. This would be the first layer of flavor in a hot sauce although it can often be the finish.
Sour flavors can be balanced with sweet
Many foods have a natural sour flavoring to them but there are only a few that are commonly used in a hot sauce. Vinegar is the most used ingredient that will produce a sour and pungent flavor in a hot sauce. Citrus is a common sour flavor used in a hot sauce that can work as a flavoring and preservative but used together with vinegar can force the sourness to be prominent.
Some processes for making hot sauce such as fermentation can also give a sour flavoring to the sauce. Other processes like roasting can intensify the sweetness of some fruits that may be added to hot sauces such as pineapples, peaches, or mangos.
Bitter flavors are not desired in a hot sauce
Some hot pepper varieties can have a bitter or astringent taste them depending on the variety or when they are harvested. Using fresh peppers with limited ingredients can cause a hot sauce to have a bitter edge to it. An unwanted bitter flavor can linger on the tongue along with the burning sensation of the peppers.
Among some commonly known bitter foods such as coffee, citrus peel, rashes, dandelion greens, and lettuce only cranberries are used in a hot sauce. To ensure a bitter essence does not dominate a hot sauce these flavors can be balanced with the sweetness of fruit juices and sugar.
Sweet favors work well in a hot sauce
Sweet flavoring in a hot sauce will usually hit the taste buds before other flavors or any concentrations of heat, especially if used in the form of sweet fruit. There are many ways to introduce sweetness into a hot sauce but sugar, granulated white sugar, and brown sugar are the most common.
Sugar comes in many forms
Sugar in many forms is commonly used to sweeten a sauce and offset the sour and spicy ingredients in a hot sauce. There are over 50 different names for sugar, but many forms are not used as commonly as others. Sugar adds a great balance to citrus, hot peppers, vinegar, salts, as well as bitter fruits and vegetables.
Aside from sugar, other ingredients such as fruit can contribute to sweet flavors in a hot sauce. Peaches, apricots, pineapples, mangos, and strawberries can all contribute to adding sweetness as well as their unique flavors and this can be intensified with a process such as roasting.
Although thought to be sweet, Chocolate, or 100% cocoa chocolate does not have any sugar in it and isn’t typically found in a hot sauce. Spicy chocolate is gaining popularity so a hot sauce using milk chocolate may have some appeal if marketed correctly.
Salt and salty flavors work well in a hot sauce
Salt is almost necessary for any hot sauce and is used regularly but common problems with a salty flavor in a hot sauce are that it can be too overwhelming and ruin a sauce. Once this happens it could be difficult to reduce it or balance it with other flavors. Salt comes in many forms but is not always used to add a “salty” flavor to a sauce.
It is more often used to enhance flavors or be used to balance other flavors such as reducing bitterness or increasing sweet, sour, and umami flavors. Salt can be used during the process of making hot sauce or it can be used at the end, to finish flavoring.
Umami is found in hot sauce too
Umami also referred to as savory or meaty is a flavor that has been recently classified in 2002 as one of the flavor profiles. Meats, fish, and seafood will have strong Unami flavors to them but are not commonly found in hot sauce. Other ingredients more commonly used in hot sauce with umami flavors are mushrooms, tomatoes, and soy sauce.
Umami has a longer taste and stays on the tongue longer than many other ingredients, much like a hot pepper. Umami flavors can be balanced in a hot sauce by using less of them or adding sweet and sour ingredients. If you have a powerful mushroom flavor to your hot sauce…maybe it is not a hot sauce after all.
Cool flavors are rare in a hot sauce
Cool or hot are not commonly referred to as the classification of flavors but they are prominent in many foods. Mint is one spice that will give a “cool” flavor as well as being classified as bitter. Mint or peppermint can be found in some hot sauce recipes and can have a certain amount of spice to them, especially if they are consumed in large doses.
Adding additional flavors beyond a hot pepper and vinegar combination will depend on your personal preference for foods, or the type of sauce you are trying to make. Taste test your sauce as you are making it and make adjustments as you are going along.
