August Hot Sauce Lineup

I started another batch of 8 sauces fermenting before leaving for my summer break, and am happy to two months later finally have them in bottles and labeled.

I've been loving creating my hot sauces around a theme of Chile Cryptids as a way to amuse myself (and hopefully some of you).

If you get all of the jokes and references in the names, from pop culture (violent Beaureghast) to food science (Tyrant of Tartarus), you're my kind of people.

Notes as follows:

Cacahuate Creeper – Peanut & Chile – This one came in a little milder and less peanuty than I hoped for, but still tasty. I planned to finish this with some roasted peanut powder to reassert that nutty nose but it was already very thick and I didn't want to lose everything else.

Violent Beaureghast – Blueberry Lantern Pepper – She's hot, and didn't have enough blueberries. This one is actually going back in for a bit more time and then I'll finish it with some freeze dried blueberry powder to really amp up the color, thicken it up, and try to give enough fruit flavor to combat the heat.

Lemon Lech – Lemon Pepper – I love the concept for this one and I will definitely play with it more. I think more preserved lemon next time and I'll add more black pepper in the initial ferment, or throw some very fine black pepper into the bottles after straining. The taste is great here but the right balance was hard to find. Probably also better if I tone the heat down to around a 3.

Tyrant of Tartarus – Tamarind and Thai Chili – I like this one a lot. It's very unique. I'd probably bump the heat a bit next time, but I didn't anticipate that this batch of habanero was the mildest I've ever had.

Chupacabra of Chihuahua – Mexican chile & garlic – I usually make such weird sauces that I wanted to try form something normal here. This ended up a bit too Esther-y and without enough unique character. Next time I'll add more fresh garlic before bottling, a bit more lime juice, and a bit of a fruity hot pepper for the nose and bite.

Perfumed Pishachi – Curry leaf & turmeric – I really like this one. It is super interesting with all the medicinal tastes of fenugreek, green cardamom, and the main ingredients. I'm not sure how approachable it will be to normies, and it's definitely more of a 'sauce to go with curry ' than a daily driver.

Serpent of Siam – Thai Green Curry – I've made a few variants of this one before and I'm always happy with it. This time I tried to go lighter on lime leaf and heavier on holy basil. It's really hard to get that holy basil to come through in a sauce like this I think I have to buy more fresh to add at the end. Still very yummy.

Javitiri Jumbie – Peach, Pear, & spiced Habanero – I love this one, although it has almost no spice to it (seriously what is with this batch of habanero…). The huge amount of mace and allspice in this is so nice. This is one I will definitely make again kick the spice to a 2 or a 3 out of 5. It will be like Satan's peach cobbler and it will be perfect.