Ingredients: Healdsburg, CA grown habanero, carrot, onion, Preston’s olive oil, and white vinegar
This is the second sauce that I’ve tried from Sonoma County private and catering chef Mateo Granados. After developing his skills in a number of restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as the California Wine Country chef Granados decided to start his own business. His “El Yuca” line of sauces are based on the flavors of the Yucatan Peninsula from where he draws his heritage. After greatly enjoying the previous sauce I tried from him I was excited to give this one a go.
Mateo Granados sources his peppers and other ingredients in his sauces from Sonoma County, CA. The same climate that’s world-famous for growing some of the best wine grapes in the world also turns out to be the perfect climate for growing peppers. The habaneros for this sauce are picked by hand and combined with locally-grown carrots and onions that he buys from local farmer’s markets. The olive oil used in this sauce from Preston Farm and Winery comes from a small family-run farm with 45 years of history in Healdsburg, CA. This sauce is an ahumado, which is a smoked hot sauce. Mateo Granados uses oak for smoking the peppers in this sauce which he states is the traditional way its done in the Yucatan. I’ve tried another Ahumado sauce previously with Joe’s Dos Veces Ahumado and very much enjoyed it, though that sauce uses mesquite wood, one of my personal favorites. With only five ingredients plus smoke (and salt) in this sauce each ingredient has to be of the highest quality so the choice to source everything locally from artisanal producers is something I applaud. El Yuca Ahumado Sauce is smooth in texture and medium in consistency. There is a hint of smoke in the aroma as well as the scent of the habaneros and vinegar coming through.
The bottle describes this sauce almost like a wine. It mentions flavors of mango and tamarind that can come through in this sauce. On my first taste I noticed the habaneros used do have a nice kick to them and that this sauce has a pleasant gentle sweetness from the carrots. The habaneros are obviously of high quality as they don’t have the harsh astringent flavor that cheaply-grown factory farmed habaneros can have, instead having a robust flavor with plenty of fruit and a subtle vegetal background. I have been cooking a lot of Thai food lately so I’m familiar with the flavor of tamarind and I do pick up notes of that in this sauce. I also pick up hints of dried fruits like raisins and prunes and maybe just a hint of the mango the label suggests, though this doesn’t have the characteristic almost fizzy funk that mangoes have. I believe the smoke is what’s giving me the dried fruits sensation, and while you can taste the smoke in this sauce it’s gentle and very well balanced, similar to what Butterfly Bakery of Vermont does in their maple wood smoked sauces. The olive oil increases the richness and decadence of this sauce and while not giving it an emulsified texture, it does give the sauce more body and helps bring out the fat soluble flavors of the peppers and other ingredients. This is near the middle in terms of heat for habanero sauces that I’ve tried. There’s a quick sting of heat and a little linger but this won’t pose a challenge to anyone with a bit of tolerance.
The bottle suggests grilled meats and wild game, and while I don’t have access to wild game, I did have a nice ribeye steak which I grilled to try with this sauce. The gentle smokiness and sweetness does pair very well with steak, as do the dark and rich flavors of tamarind and fruit which made this almost approximate a steak sauce just spicier and less sweet. I tried it next with some pizza and liked it there as well, though perhaps I’d prefer something a bit brighter in that pairing. On a sandwich this has enough acidity to work well though I found it better paired with cold cuts than hot sandwiches, something about this sauce just seems to really align well with cold meats. Going off of the other bottle suggestion of cool cheeses I had a pack of prosciutto and mozzarella roll-ups from Costco and I found that dipping them in this sauce improved the flavor of both, helping relieve a bit of the funk of the prosciutto and adding a great richness and sweetness that paired well with the salty meat and cheese.
Like his Amarillo Rostizado Habanero Sauce, the previous one I tried, Mateo Granados “El Yuca” Ahumado Sauce gets me top-tier recommendation. This is an amazing sauce that showcases how just a few simple ingredients selected for the highest quality and treated with care can produce amazing depths of flavor and nuances greater than you’d expect. I have his other two sauces waiting for review as well as based on the two I’ve tried I’m sure they’ll also be amazing. This sauce is all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
2 Comments
Bitter: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Heat: ⭐⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Rich, dried fruits, tamarind, smoke
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Medium and smooth
Ingredients: Healdsburg, CA grown habanero, carrot, onion, Preston’s olive oil, and white vinegar
This is the second sauce that I’ve tried from Sonoma County private and catering chef Mateo Granados. After developing his skills in a number of restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as the California Wine Country chef Granados decided to start his own business. His “El Yuca” line of sauces are based on the flavors of the Yucatan Peninsula from where he draws his heritage. After greatly enjoying the previous sauce I tried from him I was excited to give this one a go.
Mateo Granados sources his peppers and other ingredients in his sauces from Sonoma County, CA. The same climate that’s world-famous for growing some of the best wine grapes in the world also turns out to be the perfect climate for growing peppers. The habaneros for this sauce are picked by hand and combined with locally-grown carrots and onions that he buys from local farmer’s markets. The olive oil used in this sauce from Preston Farm and Winery comes from a small family-run farm with 45 years of history in Healdsburg, CA. This sauce is an ahumado, which is a smoked hot sauce. Mateo Granados uses oak for smoking the peppers in this sauce which he states is the traditional way its done in the Yucatan. I’ve tried another Ahumado sauce previously with Joe’s Dos Veces Ahumado and very much enjoyed it, though that sauce uses mesquite wood, one of my personal favorites. With only five ingredients plus smoke (and salt) in this sauce each ingredient has to be of the highest quality so the choice to source everything locally from artisanal producers is something I applaud. El Yuca Ahumado Sauce is smooth in texture and medium in consistency. There is a hint of smoke in the aroma as well as the scent of the habaneros and vinegar coming through.
The bottle describes this sauce almost like a wine. It mentions flavors of mango and tamarind that can come through in this sauce. On my first taste I noticed the habaneros used do have a nice kick to them and that this sauce has a pleasant gentle sweetness from the carrots. The habaneros are obviously of high quality as they don’t have the harsh astringent flavor that cheaply-grown factory farmed habaneros can have, instead having a robust flavor with plenty of fruit and a subtle vegetal background. I have been cooking a lot of Thai food lately so I’m familiar with the flavor of tamarind and I do pick up notes of that in this sauce. I also pick up hints of dried fruits like raisins and prunes and maybe just a hint of the mango the label suggests, though this doesn’t have the characteristic almost fizzy funk that mangoes have. I believe the smoke is what’s giving me the dried fruits sensation, and while you can taste the smoke in this sauce it’s gentle and very well balanced, similar to what Butterfly Bakery of Vermont does in their maple wood smoked sauces. The olive oil increases the richness and decadence of this sauce and while not giving it an emulsified texture, it does give the sauce more body and helps bring out the fat soluble flavors of the peppers and other ingredients. This is near the middle in terms of heat for habanero sauces that I’ve tried. There’s a quick sting of heat and a little linger but this won’t pose a challenge to anyone with a bit of tolerance.
The bottle suggests grilled meats and wild game, and while I don’t have access to wild game, I did have a nice ribeye steak which I grilled to try with this sauce. The gentle smokiness and sweetness does pair very well with steak, as do the dark and rich flavors of tamarind and fruit which made this almost approximate a steak sauce just spicier and less sweet. I tried it next with some pizza and liked it there as well, though perhaps I’d prefer something a bit brighter in that pairing. On a sandwich this has enough acidity to work well though I found it better paired with cold cuts than hot sandwiches, something about this sauce just seems to really align well with cold meats. Going off of the other bottle suggestion of cool cheeses I had a pack of prosciutto and mozzarella roll-ups from Costco and I found that dipping them in this sauce improved the flavor of both, helping relieve a bit of the funk of the prosciutto and adding a great richness and sweetness that paired well with the salty meat and cheese.
Like his Amarillo Rostizado Habanero Sauce, the previous one I tried, Mateo Granados “El Yuca” Ahumado Sauce gets me top-tier recommendation. This is an amazing sauce that showcases how just a few simple ingredients selected for the highest quality and treated with care can produce amazing depths of flavor and nuances greater than you’d expect. I have his other two sauces waiting for review as well as based on the two I’ve tried I’m sure they’ll also be amazing. This sauce is all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
Looks simple, yet delicious