Hot Pepper Sauce (+ Finns?)

[ROX]

Maybe some of our Finn brothers on this board can help me.  I see in a number of photos and utube videos that the Finns seem to enjoy hot peppers and hot sauce.  Many of the sauces here in the States that are supposed to be HOT HOT, really aren't all that hot.  Chipotle is pretty hot, and straight habenero is pretty hot...but most of the red sauces are not all that hot.

I make my own habenero sauce (I'll post the recipe if anyone wants it) and then mix it 50%-50% with Louisiana Hot Sauce and it's pretty good!

Are your hot sauces imported from the US and Mexico?  Or are they grown and made in Finnland?

I would think that with such a short growing season there, maybe the peppers are grown in hot-houses (glasshouses/greenhouse)?

My 7 year old habenero tree is doing well and still puts out about 5 lbs of peppers a year.

This year:  Jalepeno, Habenero, big reds, Tabasco, and mild bananas.  Plus, Jalapeno Sweet mean green sauce and Habenero Red Sauce with Garlic and onion.

Who else besides me grows and makes (produces) their own line of hot sauces?

And am I wrong, or do the Finns have a nice appreciation for hot peppers and pepper sauce?

Anyone else?




ROX

[TracerX]

I work for a Mexican Restaurant that makes what I think is the best Salsa I have ever had.  It is not so hot, but all of the peppers, cilantro, onions and tomatos are in just the right proportions, it makes my mouth water just thinking of it.  I am not into really hot hot sauces, and the sweetened down fru fru sauces with pineapple and mango fruit do not turn me on either.  If you are looking for really hot sauces, you would have to be using the hottest peppers which are Habenero's.  Jalapeno's are a little more mild, and Serrano peppers are number 3 on the hotness scale if I remember right.  Depending on when the peppers are harvested, and aged, some will be hotter than others, but on average Habenero's will be the hottest.  Now, flavor is a different thing.  All peppers do not tase the same, so the right pepper will not be entirely dependant on how hot it is.  Flavor is a more important part of the sauce mix than just the hotness.

[Lye-El]

All peppers do not tase the same, so the right pepper will not be entirely dependant on how hot it is.  Flavor is a more important part of the sauce mix than just the hotness.

Quite true. When I read the label if it says extract I put it back. Dave's Insanity sauce, Endorphins Rush and such. Super hot, no flavor.

[Treize69]

Unless its changed since I last had it about ten years ago, this stuff will strip paint off a car.

http://www.hotsauceworld.com/hsw1353.html

[Tec]

For those of you who grow peppers are you familiar with a plant that produces both red and green peppers at the same time? 

[Rich46yo]

Ive been fortunate enough to work in ethnic enclaves that have thrown a lot of first rate "hot' my way. I mean the kind that makes you run out of the room screaming. But to me the hotter peppers are also plain tastier.

I just cant see the Finns going for that kinda stuff. Maybe I'm wrong but I picture them snacking on pickled herring or whatnot.

I'll say this. Homegrown peppers are a lot better then store bought. Most of all Jalapeño. Ive known a few growers, the last one was the family of a buddy who would go home to Dominican every year and bring me back all kinds of home grown peppers cause he knew I liked em so much.

And not just hot but tasty. Different story home grown.

[ROX]

For those of you who grow peppers are you familiar with a plant that produces both red and green peppers at the same time? 

You's have to provide a photo of not only the peppers but the leaves as well.  There are over 50 varieties that could fit into the criteria you mention.

I have tobascos that put out 1) light green  then turn to 2) dark green, then, a yellowish orange, then 3) an orange Red, then 4 HOT red.  You can see all colors in between on the same plant as they ripen.  You can pull them off at any time after they turn light green--but the hottest are aged red.

There is also a ornamental/edible pepper variety from India/Pakistan and the subcontinent that even has (just like the above) but some of the little peppers turn purple as well.

Tobascos are about an inch long and conical in shape.

Many (and I mean MANY) varieties, including Sweet Bell peppers are green but will turn red if left on the plant to ripen later in the Fall.  So it would be very difficult to pinpoint the variety you mention without photos.

I'll be happy to help in anyway I can.    


ROX

[ROX]

(Image removed from quote.)

Unless its changed since I last had it about ten years ago, this stuff will strip paint off a car.

http://www.hotsauceworld.com/hsw1353.html

Sadly, if you do some research, there are literally THOUSANDS of different brands of hot sauce.  Let me let you in on a trade secret...

It's a piece of cake to go to any hot sauce company, negotiate a legal contractual agreement to buy (by the truckload, bottled and/or unbottled) their sauce--truck it to a local bottler and slap their own label on it.  It's a shame, really.  But thousands of small companies do it none the less.

There are a handfull of honest companies that buy their own peppers from local sources (if not their own contracted growers) and go to the effort to make their own sauce--but they are few and far between.  It's expensive, and unless you have deep pockets and invest the time, going the "seconds" route is what these guys do.  "Arizona Gunslinger" is one of those few.  It's available via the internet, and they are the real deal.

Most folks here in ranch country grow their own peppers and make their own sauce and pickled peppers based on long held family recipies as well as their own experimentation.  Store bought hot sauce is ok (Louisiana Hot Sauce, Frank's Tobasco Sauce, etc), but store bought is kind of like eating "Mexican Food" at Taco Bell...it's meant to be mainstream to feed a mainstream consumer market.  Most folks I know think Taco Bell's "Hot" sauce is TOO hot.  SheeshLouise!  I laugh at Taco Bell's "Fire" sauce!

I wish that just anyone couldn't get seconds from the "big's" and pass it off as their own, but they do.  Fact of life.

A decent hot sauce costs about a dollar for a 10 oz bottle.  You can make a far better sauce, to your exact tastes, for about 40 cents a 10 oz bottle at home.

BTW:  rinse out and save every hot sauce bottle (with a plastic pour restrictor at the top) you can.  You can reuse them after sterilizing them later.

The only pepper sauce that will "strip the paint off a car" will be either chipotle, habenero, or habenero red savina based.  Habenero Red Savinas will burn you twice--one going in and once going out!   I only grow them once every few years as the sauce I make with them is so hot that I only need a few drops at a time.  My daughter accidently put some on a homemade casedilla and nearly choked to death--no joke--so be carefull!




ROX

[ROX]

I just cant see the Finns going for that kinda stuff. Maybe I'm wrong but I picture them snacking on pickled herring or whatnot.

I'll say this. Homegrown peppers are a lot better then store bought. Most of all Jalapeño. Ive known a few growers, the last one was the family of a buddy who would go home to Dominican every year and bring me back all kinds of home grown peppers cause he knew I liked em so much.

And not just hot but tasty. Different story home grown.

Yup--I've seen a bunch of videos where young (18-28) Finns taping their own agony eating habeneros whole--and trying to ease their suffering with buttermilk...it's pretty hilarious, so I know the Finns dig hot peppers.  I'm just wondering where they get them from.   

As for people bringing home peppers from other countries through customs...good luck.  Smuggling in seeds or vegatables is illegal.  Otherwise, I'd send seeds to some of the folks in other countries who have asked for them--I can't   

My wife can't stand hot peppers, (she did hate all peppers, including sweet Bells) but has grown to like a local variety of smaller sweet peppers.  I am also growing Dutch Yellow Peppers this year just or her.  All the pepper taste--but no heat!   



ROX

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Easy - we get them from the grocery store. Some nutty ones grow their own.

This movie attests we love pepper - I would've put the version where they put some on his eye on the other end but I'd probably be banned..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNCX9KzkBHY

[ROX]

Easy - we get them from the grocery store. Some nutty ones grow their own.

On the package--where are they grown or imported from? 


Oh--and thank you for calling me nutty.  That's probably the nicest thing I have been called on this board!   



ROX

[MrRiplEy[H]]

On the package--where are they grown or imported from? 


Oh--and thank you for calling me nutty.  That's probably the nicest thing I have been called on this board!   



ROX

Some are imported from Spain but they're low quality as is everything Spanish in general.

I bought a batch from Costa Rica once and it proved to be a real killer. My wife made the mistake to chop them in pieces without wearing gloves and her hands burned non stop for two weeks after that. We had a newborn and she couldn't hold him in fear of transfering the burn.

The real afficionados import them all around the world and cultivate them with piety. The selection in the local centralized shops are very poor when it comes to chili.

[ROX]

Some are imported from Spain but they're low quality as is everything Spanish in general.

I bought a batch from Costa Rica once and it proved to be a real killer. My wife made the mistake to chop them in pieces without wearing gloves and her hands burned non stop for two weeks after that. We had a newborn and she couldn't hold him in fear of transferring the burn.

The real aficionados import them all around the world and cultivate them with piety. The selection in the local centralized shops are very poor when it comes to chili.

Sorry to hear about the quality problem.

We get excellent quality peppers that are USA grown.  And yes, I grow my own.

As for the habenero heat horror stories:

Once I was de-seeding habs for sauce and aftergetting them in the pot had to go to the bathroom...(I hadn't washed my hands thoroughly first......)
As I walked back to the kitchen, the immense pain started slowly and then.....

                             AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

It was just like having your "area" feel like someone threw gas on your "area" and lit a match!!

I ran (faster than an Olympic athlete) back to the bathroom---took off my clothes and jumped in the shower with a bar of soap.


BTW:  It was hard to hear my own screaming over my wife's laughter            




Yeah....she loves me.




ROX 

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I ran (faster than an Olympic athlete) back to the bathroom---took off my clothes and jumped in the shower with a bar of soap.

LOL! You know soap usually makes it just worse. You should have poured fatty milk on your member.

Reminds me of the old joke:

Boy gets a rash on his member and goes to the doctor. Doctor takes a look at the problem and instructs the boy to avoid playing with it for 2 weeks and dipping it to milk once every night.

So the boy does like instructed, he goes into the barn and when he thinks he's safe he dips the tool in the fresh milked cow milk.

In comes the young maid blushed with large eyes: 'I didn't know you have to load them like that'.. 

[ROX]

PS...maybe you can get ahold of some good quality seeds and grow your own.  Same goes for Cow's Horn Red, cayenne, tobasco, and jalepeno.  It's not that hard.

Right now, we can get plants that were sewn weeks ago that are ready to plant.  Most pleople plant them in the ground and when winter comes--their dead.  What I do (and many others around here) is to plant them in 5 gallon jugs with small holes near the bottom for drainage.



This plant is now 7 years old.  I get about 5 US pounds a year just off this small habenero "tree".  I just bring it inside in the Fall and keep it in good sunlight and water it occasionally and it does fine.  You can do this with any kind of pepper plant and also tomato plants as well.

Sometimes it even blooms out at Christmas time and puts out more peppers!  Wierd!

It's blooming right now, and it's almost time to put it outside again.

Even with your high latitude and shorter growing season you should still be able to pull this off in Finland  


Miitaa Kuuluu!!  (Finn Power!)


ROX