Press - The hot sauce cookbook: the book of fiery salsa and hot sauce recipes

Copyright 2014 by Rockridge Press, Berkeley, California

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ISBN Print 978-1-62315-365-6 | eBook 978-1-62315-366-3

Photo credits: Maja Smend/Stockfood, p.ii; Andrew Scrivani/Stockfood, p.vi; HannLeonPhoto/ Thinkstock, p.2; Laurange/StockFood, p.7; Bronze Photography/Stockfood, p.8; Natasha Breen/Shutterstock, p.18; Kai Schwabe/Stockfood, p.28; Natasha Breen/Shutterstock, p.58; Joop Hoek/Shutterstock, p.84; Corey McKenna/Thinkstock, p.106; AGfoto/Shutterstock, p.128; Michael Meisen/Stockfood, p.140.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

W hen it comes to chiles, the joke is on Mother Nature. These bright and attractive fruits were naturally engineered with a defense mechanism meant to cause pain and repel hungry mammals. But if their spicy hot flavor is unpleasant and irritating, why have humans sought chiles out for thousands of years? Because as soon as we feel the hot sting from a chile, our bodies release pain-killing endorphins that are stronger than morphine and just as addictive.

Hot sauce is the best way to get that chile rush. Today there are many hot sauce varieties available at most supermarkets, but it wasnt always this way. Few folks cared about chiles until the 1980s, when the popularity of Southwestern cuisine piqued interest in spicy chiles. Then in the 1990s, people discovered an array of hot sauces beyond the ubiquitous Tabasco brand. Producing and eating really hot sauce was still considered an eccentric fad, but today chile conventions, festivals, and institutes are dedicated to exploring everything about these spicy plants. Farmers, both professional and amateur, hybridize chiles to constantly produce new varieties, some specifically seeking the title of hottest chile in the world.

As noted by Dr. Paul Bosland, professor of horticulture at New Mexico State University (popularly known as the Chileman), the number of chile varieties is staggering, and there is an equally staggering amount of information about them yet to be discovered. In Austin, Texas, Dr. Jean Andrews (also known as The Pepper Lady) took interest in organizing the world of chiles and published two books on the subject: Peppers, the Domesticated Capsicums in 1984 and The Pepper Trail: History and Recipes from Around the World in 1999. Both remain the definitive sources for chile history and ethnobotany. The first chile-centric periodical, Chile Pepper magazine, was founded by Dave DeWitt and published in 1987. Since then, countless books and websites have been published and dedicated solely to chiles and hot sauces.

Public interest in chiles has been growing, but these plants have a long history in cuisine, dating back seven thousand years. There is a lot of confusion about the difference between chiles and peppersif there is any difference at all. untangles the mystery of chile nomenclature and introduces some of the most popular and recognizable hot sauces made and sold around the world today.

Depending on where you are in the country, most grocery stores carry at least a few chiles or hot sauces with familiar flavors. You can always count on fresh bell peppers, pickled jalapeos, Tabasco sauce, red pepper flakes, and ground cayenne pepper, but there are hundreds more to try. explores a small cross section of chiles and their heat levels, from warm to scorching.

covers the basic ingredients, equipment, and cooking methods needed to make a great hot sauce. Be sure to carefully read how to properly handle chiles and how to safely store the sauce once its made. Dont miss the ten tips for how to make great hot sauce.

Chapters have over seventy-five hot sauce recipes and dishes in which to enjoy them. Start with hot sauces from Central America, the Southwest, and Louisiana, and then move on to blazing hot sauces from the West Indies and the Caribbean. Try some easy Asian hot sauces, including Thai, Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Turkish recipes. Then explore hot sauces from Hawaii, South America, Spain, Mozambique, and Tunisia. And of course you can try out your own flavor combinations.

How Much Fire?

Rating the heat in a dish is tricky business. Commercially, pepper sauces are most often labeled mild, medium, and hot, three words that just barely cover the experience of the genus Capsicum. The heat in peppers varies from type to type and within each type as well. Thats part of the fun of working with hot peppers: the unknown.

The heat in any given pepper is caused by (a) its DNA and (b) its environment. Soil, water, and most importantly, sun, all affect the heat you are about to eat. The is the gold standard for assessing the heat of peppers, and even that venerable system has to give a range of heat units to compensate for all the variables.